Camorra (1972)

Naples. Tonino Russo is released from Poggioreale prison after serving a two-year sentence. When he gets home, he is confronted by a neighborhood thug who had been the cause of his imprisonment. The thug challenges him to a knife fight, and Tonino wins, but spares his life, forcing him to apologize in front of everyone. Tonino’s “feat” catches the attention of Don Mario Capece, a Camorra boss who, impressed by his determination, offers him a job driving a truck distributing meat, an operation controlled by the Camorra. Together with his old friend Cafiero, better known as Sciancato, Tonino quickly makes an impression on Don Capece through his hard work and, above all, his fearlessness. As it happens, however, Tonino crosses paths with a loan shark, Don Ciccillo Cotrufo, who has his sick, elderly father in his clutches over a large debt. Tonino confronts the loan shark, beats him up, and humiliates him in front of the whole neighborhood, unaware that the usurer is a friend of Don Capece. The latter does not hesitate to punish him severely: to pay off his debt and compensate for the damage quickly, Tonino must take on more dangerous jobs, and also regain the Camorristi’s trust. After working as an enforcer for a while, he is put in charge of an illegal gambling den, and begins to enjoy the rewards of his new business: a powerful sports car, a Lamborghini Miura, and a new home in an elegant part of the city. But to clear his debt entirely, he is forced to become a hitman and kill a smuggler, Rosario Pietravalle, who has committed an offense against the organization. Tonino completes the job, but is wounded in the abdomen by a bullet during the ensuing shootout. After recovering, he returns to running the gambling den, of which he has become the owner, earning considerable respect in the underworld to the point that Don Capece even begins to fear for his own leadership. Despite this, Capece orders Tonino to kill the head of all the clans, Don Domenico De Ritis; in return, he will be given a prominent position at the top of the Camorra. Tonino agrees, but when he arrives, he immediately realizes that his target is a former cellmate whose life he had saved, and who had repaid him with a large sum of money out of gratitude—all without Tonino knowing who he really was. Remembering this, Tonino abandons his plan, but De Ritis’s men capture him. Pleased that Tonino has “defected,” De Ritis tells him that Capece had set a trap for him: after killing De Ritis, Tonino would himself have been killed by one of Capece’s men, who had been following him, to prevent him from possibly rising to the top. Capece loses no time in carrying out his revenge: he kidnaps Tonino’s younger brother, still a boy, and gives him a cruel ultimatum. To save the boy, Tonino must surrender to the boss. He immediately sets out after Capece, and, after a shootout with one of his henchmen, comes face to face with him on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Tonino manages to save his brother, but Sciancato, who steps in front of him to shield him, is killed by a bullet fired by the boss, who is then out of ammunition. Furious, Tonino kills Capece, then immediately surrenders to the police, who have arrived at the scene along with his father. It is his father who persuades Tonino to give himself up rather than be killed in one final shootout with the police, as Tonino had intended. His father asks Tonino—and succeeds in persuading him—to surrender for the sake of his brother, so that, if Tonino were killed by the police, he would not become a kind of hero to his brother, and thus a bad example to follow.