Una Magnum Special per Tony Saitta AKA Blazing Magnums, Strange Shadows in an Empty Room, .44 Special, A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta, Tough Tony Saitta (1976)

Directed by: Alberto De Martino
Starring: Stuart Whitman, John Saxon, Martin Landau, Gayle Hunnicutt

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Porn Store Owner: I run a respectable business. My reputation is beyond reproach.
Tony Saitta: Cram your reputation. I want the facts. I'm looking for a transvestite. Or a group of transvestites. Who can give me some information?

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Made in Canada by Italian filmmakers, Blazing Magnums is an interesting blend of the Italian Polizia and Giallo genres. You've got the tough cops and the car chases of the Polizia movies, but you've also got a tight little who-done-it mystery, complete with multiple murder suspects, a blind girl, and killer's point-of-view shots traditionally found in Giallo films. The result? An amazingly well done film where Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman) comes to town to track down his sister's murderer. Saitta's a singleminded cop who doesn't let the little things like due process or personal rights come in the way of his search (do they even have personal rights in Canada?). Of course, before he's done he'll have to face a wall of silence from his sister's hippie friends, a horde of angry transvestites, and a car chase to end all car chases.

A Canadian-Italian-Polizia-Giallo? Sounds good to me.

The "Find-My-Family-Member's-Killer" concept is a pretty standard plot, but what propels this movie to must-watch status is the huge cast of possible killers and the string of outrageous sequences. Saitta's first suspect is George Tracer (Martin Landau), a married doctor who had been having an affair with Saitta's sister, Louise. This hidden sexual liaison becomes a running theme, as Saitta discovers that Louise's group of friends all seems to be sleeping with each other... of course this greatly increases the list of people with motive to see Louise dead.

As the investigation continues, local cops discover the mutilated body of a transvestive - who just happens to be clutching a picture of Louise wearing a valuable necklace. This leads Saitta to a local transvestite hangout, where he finds a not-so-warm welcome. And hot damn - remind me never to get into a fight with a transvestite. Saitta eventually wins, but not before he gets karate chopped, slashed with straight razor, thrown through a plate glass window, and tossed off the edge of a 12 story balcony! It's an incredible sequence, with the three transvestites swarming the good Inspector Saitta. Luckily, Saitta holds on, gets back inside, and dishes out some sweet retibution, including a hot curling iron up the ass of one trannny.

They're tough. Who knew?

After the transvestite showdown the bizzarity continues as Saitta and Saxon hit up a midget named Dutch at a football game who gives them the names of various fences around town who might deal such a necklace. I kept thinking they would give this guy a backstory, but no dice. A small scene for a small guy.

That's... strange.

I've read a couple of reviews in which people complain that Saitta isn't a likeable character, which I think is kinda odd. Sure, Siatta roughs up a lot of people duirng the course of the movie, but his sister has been killed, and all he wants to do is find out who did it. And its not like any of the people he messes with were innocent bystanders (except maybe the transvestites... but even they attacked first). Hell, he's not that different than Michael Caine's character in Get Carter, and no one complains that Carter was too rough. The only arguable flaw that I see is that he treats each and every link in the chain of evidence as if they were the killer - his sister's lover is less than forthcoming? Lock him up. A dealer in stolen goods won't answer his questions? Drown him in a public bathroom sink. Another fence won't give him the time of day? Chase his ass down in a cross-town car chase.

Ah... the car chase. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Blazing Magnums has one of cinema's all-time great car chases... one that can hold its own with Bullitt or Grand Prix. I don't know anything about cars, so I can't tell you what they were driving, but neither was too fancy. But man... can those cars run! Through crowded streets, down impossibly steep enbankments, across construction site gravel pits... they even jump a moving train! It's the kind of sequence where the cars are airborne for half the shots, and the other half they're crashing wildly into buildings, other cars, and each other. I don't know how the director got the time or money to film this sequence, but they must have destroyed a good 20-30 cars during the chase. By the time it's over, both cars are utterly demolished and flipped over... and we find that Siatta doesn't even have the right fence!

Incredible.

As you can tell, Siatta seems to make a lot of 'little mistakes' like this. Luckily for him, he's got John Saxon around. Saxon's the police chief, but his sole purpose in this movie seems to be to justify whatever Saitta does. He constantly and nonchalantly assures Saitta that he's in the right, even when he clearly isn't. This leads to golden lines like "Hey, don't worry about it... I've locked up the wrong person plenty of times!" At one point Siatta realizes that his sister may have been involved in some shady stuff, and almost seems resigned to giving up his hunt for the killer. Luckily for us, Saxon's there to chime in, suggesting an absolutely ludicrous scenario to ease Saitta's conscience, and keep the film rolling along.

As if the rest of the movie wasn't cool enough, the film climaxes with an absolutely sleazoid ending where the killer holds a blind girl hostage at knifepoint - then ditches her in favor of a newborn infant. That's just... wrong. Don't miss Blazing Magnums, or Tony Saitta will track your ass down.

Wow. Now that's a bad guy.
- Micah