I Bastardi aka The Cats aka Sons of Satan (Duccio Tessari, 1968)
"You know you've become a man, Jason. It does you good to kill"
I Bastardi translates as The Bastard! But, to be honest, as this is essentially about two brothers and their rivalled struggle for money & power. Perhap it should be titled 'Those bloody bastards!' Which seems much more appropriate to me. The two bastards I speak of are handsome leading man Giuliano Gemma & the legendary nutcase Klaus Kinski. Both bastards are dubbed quite poorly by some other bastards.
One Bastard (Gemma) is a thief who's betrayed by his brother bastard, crime boss Adam (Kinski), and is left not quite for dead aftrer having the tendons in his right hand severed. Severely effed-up, Jason is found and nurtured back to health by Claudine Auger, one of the world's most beautiful women. She is not a bastard, she is… A lovely.
Anyway, Adam Bastard's next job is to steal a quarter of a million dollars, which Jason Bastard hopes to infiltrate before gaining the ultimate motive: REVENGE!
Add to this Rita Hayworth as the bastards' alcoholic mother, and also add foxy femme fatale Margaret Lee to make a stupendous cast for a very average crime caper flick. It is, however, entertaining, and nice to see on DVD after so many years gathering cobwebs in Warner's vaults. Michel Magne's soundtrack is fitfully groovy. Director Tessari & Gemma were most famous for the two Ringo Westerns, which are referenced in this bastard film by a simple glass of bastard milk.
I Bastardi aka The Cats is worth a watch if you're into this type of thing, but don't expect any decent quality from a technical point of view. Warner's region-free DVD is no frills, which means quite shite. But it's better than not seeing it at all, right? Right?! I'll get my bastard coat.
