I love titles like that. It sounds awesome, and it makes no sense at all. What the hell is a "death rage?" It reminds me of an old story I heard about soundtrack music composer John Barry working on the theme song for Thunderball. Barry was told, after writing the theme song ("Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang") that he needed vocals and had to use the name of the movie in the song, to which Barry exclaimed, "Thunderball? What the hell is a thunderball?"

Anyway, Death Rage promised to be a pretty good kick-off for Mill Creek's Chilling Classics set, being a movie directed by Anthony Dawson -- aka Antonio Margheriti -- in which retired hitman Yul Brynner is called back in for one last job. Also, Barbara Bouchet was gonna show her boobs, so that fulfills most of the requirements I have for a good movie. In practice, Death Rage isn't as cool as the theory of Death Rage, but it's still not too bad, with some decent action, some good acting, and a fairly nice end. Yul Brynner's character has a name, but he's basically Yul Brynner, and although he doesn't want to be a hitman anymore, when a Mafia war breaks out, he's presented with the chance to gun down the man who gunned down Yul Brynner's brother. I can't say Yul flies into a death rage at this point. It's more like a slow death simmer, but I guess that's not as good a name. He also has some weird problem with his eyes, which just gives the movie an excuse to introduce the threat of acid-spiked Visine drops.

Being an Italian crime film from the 1970s, directed by Margheriti no less, you'd expect Death Rage to be a little more violent than it is. Not that it isn't violent, but it isn't as violent as some of the stuff from Enzo Castellari and Umberto Lenzi. Still, it's good in a more low key fashion, and it's always awesome to watch Yul Brynner wearing all black and striding around in the manliest fashion possible, punching chumps and shooting them in the head.

Labels: Set: Chilling Classics