The Seven-Ups **** (1973, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Victor Arnold, Jerry Leon, Ken Kercheval) – Classic Movie Review 9,988

The 1973 The Seven-Ups is an edge-of-seat cop thriller, with NYPD Detective Buddy Manucci (Roy Scheider) getting his mobster buddy Vito Lucia (Tony Lo Bianco) to help him catch the meanest bad guys.

Producer-director Philip D’Antoni’s 1973 The Seven-Ups is an edge-of-seat exciting, realist-style New York police action thriller, with undercover cop NYPD Detective Buddy Manucci (Roy Scheider) getting his lifetime buddy, mobster Vito Lucia (Tony Lo Bianco), to help him to catch the meanest bad guys (those who in his view deserve more than seven years’ imprisonment, hence the title).

The devious Vito Lucia (Lo Bianco) is two-timing Buddy (Scheider) by using police files to kidnap gangsters.

The Seven-Ups is tense and taut throughout, but the highlight is a thrilling The French Connection-style car chase through Manhattan.

Stand-out acting from Scheider and Lo Bianco, imaginative use of locations and a fine score by by Don Ellis all give it a lift way above the ordinary. The director produced The French Connection and Bullitt, both also with a notable car chase, of course.

Roy Scheider, Victor Arnold, Jerry Leon and Ken Kercheval play head of the team Buddy, Barilli, Mingo and Ansel, detectives with the NYPD, who comprise the secret investigative unit called the Seven-Ups, targeting high prison sentence felony convictions.

Also in the cast are Richard Lynch, Larry Haines, Bill Hickman, Lou Polan, Matt Russo, Joe Spinell, Robert Burr, Rex Everhart, David Wilson and Ed Jordan.

The Seven-Ups is directed by Philip D’Antoni, runs 103 minutes, is made by Philip D’Antoni Productions and Twentieth Century Fox, released by 20th Century Fox (1973) (US) and Fox-Rank (1974) (UK), is written by Albert Ruben and Alexander Jacobs, based on a story by Sonny Grosso, is shot by Urs Furrer, is produced by Philip D’Antoni and is scored by Don Ellis.

Tony Lo Bianco stars in The Honeymoon Killers (1970), The French Connection (1971), The Seven-Ups (1973), God Told Me To (1976), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Bloodbrothers, City Heat, City of Hope, Boiling Point (1993), Nixon, The Juror and Somewhere in Queens (2022), his final film role.

Tony Lo Bianco [Anthony LoBianco] (October 19, 1936 – June 11, 2024) is best remembered for starring in the crime films The Honeymoon Killers (1970), The French Connection (1971), and The Seven-Ups (1973).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,988

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Tony Lo Bianco (born Anthony LoBianco; October 19, 1936).