bkoganbing
It's possible that Dean Martin might have taken the title role in Mr. Ricco because every player likes doing a courtroom drama and Mr. Ricco is a high priced San Francisco defense attorney. But other than the very beginning when Judge Harry Wingreen dismisses with prejudice the charge of murder against Dino's client Thalmus Rasulala we don't see a courtroom again.Right after that a rash of killings start breaking out and there is an attempt in fact a couple of attempts on Martin's life. Eyewitnesses identify the sniper with a rifle as Martin's own client. That doesn't make sense to Martin, why would the man he just got off be trying to kill him? But somebody is certainly using him for target practice.Dino looks pretty bored with the whole business, he's got an air of disinterestedness throughout the film. According to Nick Tosches's fine biography of Dean Martin, his co-star Thalmus Rasulala said he never was able to connect with him on any level during the production of Mr. Ricco. At the time Martin was going through a lot financial and romantic entanglements and the film was clearly one he did for the money.Geraldine Brooks plays a woman who Dean's friends try to fix up with and Cindy Williams plays a girl Friday assistant. Mr. Ricco has the look and feel of a television pilot and Dino had shown some spark might have been picked up as a series.As it is he saunters through the film like it was his nightclub act in Vegas.
Marco Trevisiol
In its opening scenes and setup, this film had several enjoyable and potentially interesting aspects to it. Dean Martin as Ricco had a pleasing understated realism in his performance, a million miles away from the plastic phoniness of his Matt Helm persona.Even the small roles were acted well - ranging from Geraldine Brooks as the woman Martin hooks up with Ricco to Ella Edwards as Sally (who informs Ricco that her son was a witness to the killing of the two cops) who gives such a nice performance that its a shame we don't see her character again later in the film.Also the plot, while nothing astonishing, has enough potential and variables in it to keep us interested to the end. In addition, the music added nicely to the atmosphere.So why does the film end up as nothing better then mediocre? Because it really loses its way in the second half. Not only because the plot takes some ludicrous turns (more on that later) but of Ricco resorting to fighting with admittedly disreputable characters on more then one occasion. It's bad not only because Martin is too old for the physical stuff but it seems so out of character for the intelligent and considered person Martin portrays Ricco to be earlier in the film. The almost comical fight Ricco has with Frankie Steele is the film's lowpoint and when it descends from a potentially top-quality crime film to a mediocre TV-standard crime drama lazily resorting to violence as a resolution to scenes.(SPOILER) But it's the plot and its resolution that really let down this film. Roger Ebert's review (available in the External reviews section) is spot on - who the killer actually is is so arbitrary (not to mention unbelievable) that it makes a large portion of the film redundant.The killer is actually the brother of the woman murdered by Frankie Steele that Ricco got off the murder rap on technical grounds at the start of the film. There's a scene with the killer in the film but his appearance is so brief that when his mask is taken off some might not even recall who he actually is.It's a watchable film but it could've been so much better.
Boba_Fett1138
I always enjoy watching '70's movies, even when it are bad ones. '70's movies always have a certain atmosphere and are made with a great style of movie-making, that is realistic, gritty and straightforward and also always makes uses of some experimental, non-formulaic techniques when it comes down to its storytelling and cinematography, among other things. "Mr. Ricco" might not the the best '70's movies around, it still is a good example of good old film-making from the golden '70's.The movie its story is quite messy and weak but still made look interesting at times, due to its style of film-making. It provided the movie with a couple of nice moments, including a typical '70's-like car chase trough the streets of San Fransico.San Fransico serves as a pretty good backdrop for the entire movie, as it always does in any movie.The storytelling makes sure that is hard to keep track on the movie, with as a result that all the movie its weaker points become less notable as well. The movie its story is actually quite unlikely and ridicules at points but due to the muddled way the entire story is told, it becomes less obvious and notable all. Lots of things don't really make sense in the movie once you start really thinking about them and to make it all the more confusing, the movie features many, unneeded, characters, that don't add enough to the movie and only provide the story with some needless and distracting subplots.Dean Martin of course already had his best years behind him but he still puts down a pretty good main character for the movie. The character is well developed and deepened out more thanks to Dean Martin's performance, who makes the character likable, by playing him mostly in a non-likable way.The movie on all accounts is a pretty average one. Nothing too exceptional, just another good enough movie from the golden '70's but you're just as good off watching a "Law & Order" episode, or something along those lines.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
Scarlight
*Possible Spoilers*"Mr. Ricco" tells the story of Joe Ricco, an attorney who is hired to try and clean a young man of murder. After the trial, Ricco faces an assassin who hunts him down wherever he goes. Even when the police arrest who they believe to be the assassin in 100%, he still manages to bother Ricco. Ricco must find out who the assassin is, before he hurts him or the people he cares about.This is a nice movie to kill some time when you're bored, but certainly not a masterpiece. Dean Martin's acting is OK, but the whole plot is confusing.Only watch this if there's nothing interesting on TV...
AD
