Order of Death [Cop Killer] [l’assassino dei poliziotti] *** (1983, Harvey Keitel, John Lydon, Nicole Garcia, Leonard Mann, Sylvia Sidney) – Classic Movie Review 9086

Director Roberto Faenza’s fascinating 1983 Italian crime thriller Order of Death [Cop Killer] [l’assassino dei poliziotti] [Corrupt] is a tautly made and intriguingly written thriller based on Hugh Fleetwood’s 1977 psychological novel The Order of Death about a cat and mouse game between a corrupt NYPD narcotics cop, Lieutenant Fred O’Connor (Harvey Keitel) and a disturbed young man, Leo Smith (John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten), who convinces him that he is the notorious rampaging cop serial killer. Then O’Connor kidnaps Smith and keeps him in his uptown New York City apartment.

There is a very acceptable Patricia Highsmith-style yarn with a gay subtext and lots of strange mind games going on, and the movie is perfectly cast with two players who put all their considerable commitment and talent into it.

Unfairly, it bombed at the box-office, after negative reviews, including Barry Norman calling the movie ‘stupid’ and referring to Lydon’s voice as a ‘speak-your-weight machine’. But it has since become a minor cult classic, partly thanks to the presence of Keitel and Lydon, whose only starring role it is. It is seen as a precursor to Abel Ferrara’s similarly-themed Bad Lieutenant (1992), with Keitel’s portrayal of a corrupt cop a prototype of his self-blaming character there. It has fallen into the public domain.

The screenplay is written by Ennio de Concini, Roberto Faenza and Hugh Fleetwood. The film is scored by Ennio Morricone.

Also in the cast are Nicole Garcia, Leonard Mann, Sylvia Sidney, Mike Tremont and Carlo Romanelli.

It runs 117 minutes but the cut version runs 99 minutes.

It was premiered in Italy on 15 March 1983 and on 19 January 1984 in the US. Legitimate copies were released on a mid-1980s VHS by Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment as Corrupt. Scores of bad-quality copies are on the market. Some named Cop Killer or Copkiller are poorly made transfers. There has been no official DVD release. Most DVDs are badly edited and sourced from the 1980s VHS.

The film has titles, including Order of Death, The Order of Death, Corrupt, Cop Killer, Copkiller, Cop Killers, Bad Cop Chronicles #2: Corrupt and Corrupt Lieutenant.

The VHS release cover under alternative title Bad Cop Chronicles #2: Corrupt.

Order of Death [Cop Killer] [l’assassino dei poliziotti] is directed by Roberto Faenza, runs 117 minutes, is made by Cooperativa Jean Vigo, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, and Aura Film, is released by New Line Cinema (1983) (US) and Virgin Films (1983) (UK), is written by Ennio de Concini, Roberto Faenza and Hugh Fleetwood, is shot in Eastmancolor by Giuseppe Pinori, is produced by Elda Ferri and is scored by Ennio Morricone.

It was filmed in Cinecittà Studios, Rome, Italy, and on location in New York City in March and April 1982.

Lydon’s post-punk group Public Image Ltd (PiL) was supposed to score the soundtrack, and he worked on the material with his band mates Keith Levene and Martin Atkins.

British writer and painter Hugh Fleetwood (born 1944) won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1974 for his second novel, The Girl Who Passed for Normal, and has published 22 books.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9086

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