Day of the Cobra

Day of the Cobra is a 1980 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Enzo G. Castellari.

Production

Director Enzo G. Castellari initially approached Vasile with a script written by Vasile's son. The boxing film project was shelved and Vasile offered Castellari to direct Day of the Cobra. Day of the Cobra was written by Aldo Lado who was initially going to direct the film. Lado's story was initially set right after World War II in Trieste. Castellari's film is set in the present day and he imagined the film a "homage to Chandler.
Castellari cast many actors who he had previously worked with, including Franco Nero and Massimo Vanni. He also cast some of his family members such as his brother Enio Girolami and daughter Stefania.
Day of the Cobra was shot on location in San Francisco, Genoa and at Incir-de Paolis in Rome.

Cast

Franco Nero as Larry Stanzani
Sybil Danning as Brenda
William Berger as Godschmidt
Mario Maranzana as Cases
Licinia Lentini as Lola Alberti
Enio Girolami as Mastino
Massimo Vanni as Beltrame
Carlo Gabriel Sparanero as Tim
Romano Puppo as Silvestri

Release

Day of the Cobra was released on August 12, 1980. The film grossed a total of 489,000,000 Italian lira on its domestic release. The score of the film was by Paolo Vasile which was released by Cinevox.

Reception

According to the German book Der Terror führt Regie: "Day of the Cobra is technically pure cinema. The film suffers a bit in its pandering to American viewing habits." Online film database AllMovie gave the film two stars out of five, stating that a "key flaw is the maddening story line, which manages to be over-complicated and half-baked all at once." and that "elements of the story simply rehash other, better thrillers, like The French Connection." The review noted that the film contains "a few worthwhile action set pieces. The rooftop chase that opens the film is quite exciting and there is also a memorably tongue-in-cheek scene where Nero dukes it out with a transvestite in an empty disco. However, the viewer must wade through a lot of clichés and dull passages to get to these moments"