My personal favorite of overlooked director Mario Caiano's films, this movie is pretty much THE formula for an extremely successful 70's Italian crime movie. First off, it's got the exotic Neopolitan locations down pat and does a good job showing how brutal the streets can be with plenty of random bank-robbery and purse-snatching going on. Secondly, it's got a wonderful cast headed up by Henry Silva as a slimy underworld boss who gets a little too ambitious for his own good, robbing a money train and a refinery in broad daylight. Of course one shouldn't overlook Leonard Mann, Adolfo Lastretti, Benito Pacifico, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua and the rest of the regular euro-crime gang that pops by. Thirdly, this film has tons of action, violence, and random explosions to not only keep the casual viewer awake, but highly entertained!

Mario Caiano certainly nursed some deep inner antisocial and cruel streak as this film often goes out of its way into pure sadism. An example is where a car gets knocked out of the way by a big rig during a chase scene. The script probably simply said just that, but instead Caiano focuses on the poor family inside the car getting knocked around as it tumbles down an embankment and smashing into a gully. Is it good enough to show they're dead? No, just in case you had any doubt they'd be okay, the car then bursts into a massive explosion far in excess of whatever fuel was in the tank. It's almost comical in its cruelty.

This is probably one of the most violent of the 70's Italian crime films with lots of shootouts, protracted car crashes, people on fire, mutilated faces, a Gino De Rossi-patented decapitation, and such. Additionally, a very memorable musical score by Francesco De Masi, possibly one of his best and most widely copied of all his scores.

This film has many tie-ins with Umberto Lenzi's NAPOLI VIOLENTA (which starred Maurizio Merli and John Saxon),since it has a reappearance of the Gennaro kid that got crippled in that movie, here he's back and turned to a life of petty crime. The musical cues that follow little Gennaro in particular are very memorable, as they vary on the same theme depending on the situation, creating a very good effect towards the tragic ending.

For a crude, down-n-dirty excursion into the mean streets of 70's Naples, I can't recommend this movie enough. It's too bad NAPOLI SPARA is just so hard to find. It's not as slick as any of Umberto Lenzi's films from around the same time but delivers on most of the rest of the goods.

-UPDATE AT OF 2020- Back in 2012 I ran into Leonard Mann by complete coincidence walking by me on Las Palmas Ave. in Hollywood, California while he was on his phone. Not bothered by a random fan in the least, he actually hung up on his call immediately after I said, "hey Leonard!". I asked him about this movie and he laughed, saying that we were probably the only two people in a thousand mile radius who had ever heard of WEAPONS OF DEATH (which he referred to by its English title). He's a really nice and relatable regular guy who said he loved working on Italian films but couldn't parlay his career too well into American cinema. He ended up going to the psychiatrist so many times due to his frustration that he ended up becoming one himself, now only dipping his toe into creative work here and there by penning the occasional play.

It's a mean, lean, Italian crime machine starring the skinny Leonard Mann as a cop out to get violent robber/mob boss Henry Silva, who is giving crime a bad name with his proactive approach to robbery (he shoots everyone, basically). Weirdest of all, you know that kid who got crippled in Violent Naples...this is somehow a sequel to that too!

Mann the man is in Naples and he knows that Santoro (Silva) is the jerk robber, but seeing as how Silva is willing to finish off any of his own men that are wounded during these robberies, it's gonna be a hard slog for Mann. He's got to fight his way through many bad guys to get to Silva, but luckily he's got an undercover squad of cops and a crippled kid with a taste for petty crime to help him out.

To be fair Silva has the highest mob boss in Naples watching his back so he does okay too, and we all know what's going to happen, but then again it's all about how we get there, right? This one has many car chases, explosions, robberies, bag snatching, a mob attacking a Jimmy Saville guy who then gets his knackers cut off in prison, and best of all, Massimo Vanni turns up as an undercover cop who gets decapitated for his troubles (and that's not the last time Massimo loses his head in one of these films).

This one ticks all the boxes and rarely puts a foot wrong. Mario Caiano is a solid director, which makes you wonder why he made that abysmal Deported Woman of the SS Special Section.

Weapons of Death is not the most original Polizi flick you're ever likely to see, but that's not too much of a problem since the genre tends to borrow from itself often anyway. This film includes pretty much all the staples that you would expect from an Italian crime flick, and it has to be said that prolific director Mario Caiano has pretty much hit the nail on the head as Weapons of Death features no shortage of car chases, shootouts and cool characters. The plot is just your basic Polizi stuff, and focuses on a city where crime is taking over - with organised robberies becoming the norm. Naturally, the police don't take too kindly to this and it's not long before Captain Beady decides to do something about it and soon identifies gangster Santoro as one of the causes of the problem. However, getting something to pin on Santoro is not all that easy as despite plenty of criminal acts pointing to him - the man always has an alibi. This plot is run parallel with a less interesting tale revolving around a young kid, himself getting into crime.

The fact that the film isn't very original doesn't really affect the enjoyment level of it much as the director keeps things going with a constant stream of action. The film features a strong cast which features Henry Silva as the lead villain; and despite being horribly dubbed, he cuts a menacing figure. His opposite number is Leonard Mann who fits into the role as the hard-bitten copper much better than I thought he would considering his 'pretty boy' looks. The film also features an all too brief performance from the beautiful Evelyn Stewart. I would not rate this film as one of the more violent Polizi flicks, but it certainly has its moments - a castration springs to mind instantly. The way the plot works helps to keep things interesting too; there are a number of things going on in the film, sometimes certain parts of it feel irrelevant, but it's usually brought together by the end. The plot line revolving around the young kid is slightly irritating (particularly the music) and it's always obvious that it's going to lead into a ham-fisted moral lesson; but that's by the by and in spite of it, Weapons of Death is still an excellent Italian crime flick!