DVD Review: Ricco the Mean Machine

By Jeff Swindoll Jan 30, 2008, 12:10 GMT

Christopher Mitchum was a victim of this association with John Wayne since the Vietnam era frowned upon the conservative actor and Mitchum’s association with Big Jake was costing him acting gigs.  So he traveled across the pond to Italy to secure parts and wound up in this Eurocrime thriller.  

Ricco (Christopher Mitchum) has just gotten out of jail.  He was put in jail after assaulting Don Vito (Arthur Kennedy with his hair dyed black and a pencil thin mustache to put you in mind of a less urbane Vincent Price).  Seems that Vito gunned down Ricco’s dear old dad to get his “Don” ship and even added insult to injury by shooting dad in the face and not allowing an open casket funeral.

Ricco’s kin, mum, sister, and brother-in-law, are hot that Ricco get down to the business of whacking the Don, but the mild-mannered parolee is more apt to just look up his old girlfriend Rosa (Malisa Longo).  When he finds out that she’s shacked up with Don Vito, he seems to take it lackadaisically and takes up with her cousin Scilla (Barbara Bouchet). 

Ricco is satisfied to give the Don a little financial trouble, but when the Don finds out that Rosa’s bodyguard is getting a little too close to her body, he disposes of both of them and sets out to make sure that Ricco’s family takes the dirt nap.  This spurs Ricco into action and there will be blood… and soap.    

Ricco the mild machine might’ve been a more truthful title since Mitchum spends most of the film in rather sedate form until the pissed off Don decides to teach him a lesson by taking out his entire family.  Mitchum is a likeable enough leading man, made even more so by the groovy interview contained in the special features, but the mean machine of the title his character ain’t. 

It takes him a while to get revved up, one imagines a meaner machine would’ve gone after Don Vito post haste, and by the time he does the film is over and it’s just the climactic showdown.  He even wusses out and doesn’t give Don Vito the coup de grace that he gave dear old dad.  What is more memorable is the amount of lovely female flesh that’s on display and the shocking castration scene late in the picture. 

Not to mention the House of Wax type vat of bubbling goo in Don Vito’s soap factory that he’s apt to dump his enemies in as he uses the bars to smuggle drugs.  I was nearly lulled to indifference when Rosa’s bodyguard, who guarded her body a little too closely, gets his wang-doodle chopped off in 1970’s Italian exploitation red paint blood style and gets the offending member shoved into his mouth before he’s dumped into the vat and on his way to being an Italian Spring bar. 

It’s a bit too fake by today’s standards, but I’m sure it was shocking in the ‘70s as it was cut out of prints that ran in some territories.  What’s even more amusing is that the film was re-titled “Cauldron of Death” and marketed as a horror film!  

Ricco the Mean Machine is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.77:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Special features include an amiable 18-minute chat with star Christopher Mitchum and the 3-minute theatrical trailer.  The interview with the friendly Mitchum is well worth the price of the disc alone.  A still gallery is promised on the back of the box but doesn’t show up on the disc.  

Christopher Mitchum turned lemons into Italian lemonade and had a decent littler career out of it.  Too bad this film isn’t a better example of a crime thriller, but it does offer some lovely views of Barbara Bouchet and Malisa Longo and a shocker that will have the gentlemen crossing their legs no matter how fake the effects look during it. 

The special features make the disc and one hopes to hear from the friendly Mitchum on other genre films of his.  

Ricco the Mean Machine is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.