evanston_dad Yul Bryner plays a hit man out to avenge the death of his brother in this low-budget European thriller that also features Martin Balsam (of all people) as an Italian police chief! There's not much of note about this film except some exquisite but all-too-brief full frontal nudity provided by bombshell Barbara Bouchet. The film's not bad, exactly, but it's too rough around the edges and uninspired to be truly good. The malady that gives the film its title is a sort of mental migraine that afflicts Bryner whenever he's about to kill someone and has a flashback to the killing of his brother, and it's visually represented by a groovy smear of red that runs down the frame like blood. But though the filmmakers make such a definite point of introducing that particular plot point, it oddly plays no role in the film and nothing comes of it.Grade: C

Zeegrade When you think of Yul Brynner nine times out of ten it's his roles in either The Ten Commandments, Magnificent Seven or the King & I. Lucky for him that his mailed-in performances at the end of his career are so forgetful that they do little to mar his reputation. Death Rage is one of these movies.Yul Brynner plays former mob hit-man Peter Marciani that has flashbacks of the murder of his brother. The so-called "Death Rage" appears as an epileptic red montage of his brother's death superimposed over Peter's face whenever something reminds him of that fateful day. At one point in the movie it is proposed that Peter suffers from glaucoma as evidenced by his "eye medicine" however he is then told by an optometrist that nothing is wrong with his eyes and that perhaps the problem is mental. Whether this was deemed necessary to flesh out the story remains a mystery to me because it never factors into the movie. Obviously his sight is fine due to the fact that he's an amazingly accurate shot and the flashbacks do not in any way alter his demeanor. You might as well have named the movie Serious Bald Hit-man and been done with it.The cast also includes Massimo Ranieri as Angelo, Peter's eager beaver apprentice who tries very hard to impress him. One of Angelo's gifts to Peter is the introduction to Amy played by the gorgeous Barbara Bouchet. She instantly falls head over-heels in love with Peter and provides the few scenes worth viewing as she is topless in a strip club and fully nude in a following hotel scene. This, it appears to me, is the only reason this movie was given an R rating as the violence is the soft side. Martin Balsam rounds out the cast as, guess this, an Italian commissario! I'm sure Mr. Balsam cashed all of his checks thinking to himself if at some point he would still get paid for playing the same character.The reason I think so lowly of Death Rage is because it is boring and forgettable. Two sins that supersede production value, sound editing, or poor acting that plagued many seventies flicks. To top it all off, Dino DeLaurentis released basically the same movie three years before this called Frank & Tony starring Lee Van Cleef of spaghetti western fame as Mean Frank and his entertaining sidekick wannabe Tony LoBianco as Crazy Tony. Watch that one instead.

sb88 In "Death Rage," Peter Marciani is out to get the man who put a hit out on his brother. It's not the most original story by any means and there's no doubt it's been done other places better. Throw in a couple other very familiar plot plot elements and it brings even less to the table.Maybe that's a little unfair, though. Despite all the clichés, the movie still isn't bad. It's everything you come to expect, but that doesn't made it can't provide some cheap fun. There's gunfights, car chases, and some funny lines.Overall, it's fairly harmless. There's worse ways to spend 90 minutes, but there are also better ones. Since it's easily available (and probably for free online), it's not a bad idea to check it out and get some cheap thrills.

gavin6942 Yul Brynner stars as a retired mafia hit-man who is called out of retirement to avenge his brother's death. Packing up his fishing pole in New York, he returns to Italy where he confronts the man who killed his brother and his associates, while taking on an apprentice and picking up a lady.This film had two things working against it: most notably, horrible picture quality. If anything wasn't completely filling the screen, you couldn't always tell what it was supposed to be. This made it difficult to recognize characters, especially when we were looking at things fro ma distance. For the most part, I was able to adjust. But also, this film lacks blood. People get shot from guns with invisible bullets, to grab invisible wounds and fall as they bleed invisible blood. That's some cheap special effects! I guess the "R" rating was used for the nudity, which is nothing spectacular when the camera can't stay focused.The story itself was decent, and a time-honored tradition in mafia films. Revenge. Maybe that plot gets old for you, but I think it worked quite well here. And the characters were alright. Someone said they weren't surprised this was Brynner's last starring role... I liked him. His apprentice was also alright and the cop was a nice touch (more on this in a moment).One running theme I liked was the triangle between Brynner, the police and the mafia. The police knew Brynner was there to kill a man (and in fact kills several people) and in one scene the chief even has a lunch with him. The message he sends is "be careful" rather than "you're breaking the law". Now, I understand the point: mafia crime is cleaned up without the police being involved, and because Brynner's an American they can just say he escaped and not waste time on a manhunt. But I still find it hard to believe cops just let killers roam the streets.My judgment: not a bad film, if someone would provide the labor of love to clean it up. Maybe even a remake is in order, although with all the other mafia and revenge films out there, it's not really one that would stand out. If Brynner is still alive, maybe have him in a cameo role. But seriously, if you can tolerate poor filming and like this type of thing, not a bad picture.