ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES: There Goes the Judge!

ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES (Blu-ray)

1976 / 120 min

Radiance Films

Review by Mr. Paws😺

I’m gonna say the quiet part out loud…

The 1976 Italian thriller, Illustrious Corpses, is about powerful supreme court judges being bumped off by a mysterious killer. Considering the bang-up job our current U.S. Supreme Court is doing, it did cross my mind that an American remake could be a real crowd pleaser. If only!

Though I don’t think such an awful thought crossed director Frencesco Rosi’s mind, he does paint a fairly negative picture of these judges. What they have in common (besides being corrupt) is presiding over three cases where innocent men were found guilty. Feeling that being falsely imprisoned is a good motive for revenge, the lead investigator, Inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura), tracks down two of them. The third one is a recluse named Cres, who was apparently framed by his conniving wife. But since he’s now missing, he becomes Rogas’ number one suspect.

However, Rogas’ bullheaded police chief (Tino Carraro) refuses to believe that. Convinced the judges are being targeted by communist radicals during this time of political unrest, he’s constantly undermining Rogas, as is the Security Minister (Fernando Rey). In fact, his only ally seems to be Cusan (Luigi Pistilli), a childhood friend who works for a leftist newspaper. As judges keep dying (including Max von Sydow in a brief-but-memorable appearance), Rojas begins to suspect a conspiracy involving the very people he works for.

"Stop grilling that dog, Stubinski. His alibi checks out."

I’ve only seen a few movies starring Lino Ventura, but find him an interesting actor (nicely countering Richard Burton’s scenery chewing in The Medusa Touch). Rojas isn’t exactly a complex character, but Ventura brings an earnestness to the role that makes him engaging. While Illustrious Corpses is light on action, it’s mostly pretty interesting, even with a couple of meandering asides that might almost qualify as red herrings. The final act comes to a memorable climax that reminded me in some ways of The Parallax View.

The film may or may not have a political agenda, but sometimes it seems like there is. Whatever the case, that was 50 years ago and all that matters now is that Illustrious Corpses remains a solid detective story with a good performance by its star. Though fairly obscure on this side of the pond, it’s highly recommended for fans of ‘70s-era thrillers…or anyone afraid to say the quiet part out loud.

EXTRA KIBBLES

NOTE: Free Kittens Movie Guide was provided with a promo disc for review purposes. Physical supplemental material included with the final product (booklets, artwork, inserts, etc) were not available for review.

ARCHIVAL INTERVIEWS - Both are from 1976. One features director Francesco Rosi, the other features Roxi and actor Lino Ventura. 

NEW INTERVIEW - Rosi biographer Gaetana Marrone discusses the film.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By filmmaker Alex Cox, who made a good movie once (Repo Man).

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