Climbing the Greasy Pole

This weeks movie is an Italian crime drama called:

The Climber (1975).

Originally titled L'ambizioso and directed by Pasquale Squitieri, who also co-wrote it with Carlo Rivolta. It stars Joe Dallesandro as Aldo, the climber and Stefania Casini who also starred in The Bloodstained Shadow and Suspiria.

Minor Spoilers ahead.

The movie opens with Aldo, a low level American thug, living in Naples selling smuggled cigarettes on behalf of a gangster crew. They are however tired of Aldo's loud and reckless ways and so they beat him and throw him out of town. Brusied and broke, he begs a ride from Luciana (Casini) who drives him to Rome and lets him stay with her. They start a relationship as Aldo starts to climb the ranks. He forms a crew, moves back to Naples and gets down to business.

The Climber is a bit of a mixed bag for me. The cinematography is fine, the actors are better than usual for a movie like this, and the music is mostly off-brand 70's rock and thus fairly good. So far so good, but it is the story and how it is told that leaves me scratching my head.

The story of a young ambitious criminal rising through the underworld only to discover that the top isn't what he thought it would be, is not new. There are in fact many who claim that The Climber was an inspiration for De Palma's Scarface (1983) but I can't find any official sources for that. I did come to the same conclusion myself though, as the two movies have a lot in common. But where Scarface is over the top, The Climber is much more muted, probably due to budget differences. I don't know how big The Climber's budget was, but it wasn't $25 million, I can tell you that.

The beginning of Aldo's rise is actually pretty damn good. He has nothing but brains and balls, but he makes a go of it with a couple of friends and Luciana at his side. The problem is that Aldo's ultimate takeover is pretty underwhelming. He gathers his crew and just sort of wins. I guess it is either the budget again, or then the director didn't know how to show the takeover, so it kind of just flops over and is there. I wouldn't call it bad, not by a long shot, but with a little extra care and effort, The Climber could have been stellar.

So, do I recommend The Climber? It is a solid middle of the road affair. Too good to be bad, and too weak to be really good. Like so often, I can recommend it to fans but perhaps not to most viewers. I did like it, but if I sat you down and explained it, I doubt most of you would care to look it up.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!