Rabid Dogs is a movie directed by Mario Bava. Unlike the horror films he is most famous for such as Black Sunday and Black Sabbath, this is a gritty, grimy crime thriller with the plot concerning a trio of thugs who take a man and his ill child and a woman hostage and make them drive the gang to safety.
Bava died before the movie was finished. So his son Lamberto ended up shooting a few scenes and finished the movie for him. It is now regarded as one of the best thrillers with a Twist Ending to make M. Night blush.
Originally filmed in 1973, Rabid Dogs sat on The Shelf of Movie Languishment due to complicated rights issues stemming from the producer going bankrupt. The film didn't see the light of day until 1995, when a rough cut was screened at a festival in Milan, and an official release supervised by Bava's son Lamberto eventually followed in 1998.
The movie has the following tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: Thirty-Two and Blade both are completely nuts but Thirty-Two takes the cake.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Take a guess what the nickname Thirty-Two stands for.
- Decoy Protagonist: Ultimately, we find very little about Riccardo except that he is a kidnapper. He is just one of the primary villains of the movie. In fact, it could be argued that the real protagonist or atleast a positive character is Maria except the focus isn't on her for much of the movie. It could also be argued that Doc and his gang are the (villain) protagonists of the whole story.
- Downer Ending: The three robbers die but so does Maria. Riccardo and his ill child are safe, but it turns out that the boy isn't his son at all — Riccardo himself has kidnapped the child, and asks his mother for ransom at the end of the movie.
- Evil Versus Evil: Riccardo vs the kidnappers.
- The Ending Changes Everything: See Downer Ending for a truly jaw-dropping use of this trope.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Takes place over a few hours.
- Karma Houdini: Riccardo gets away with kidnapping.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Doc is calmer and more rational than Thirty-Two and Blade. Even more so than Riccardo.
- Mercy Kill: By Blade to a comatose Thirty-Two.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Doc, Blade and Thirty-Two.
- Re-Cut: Due to a
Troubled Production and Extremely Lengthy Creation, there are at least FIVE different cuts of the film:- The 1995 Semaforo rosso (English: "Red Traffic Light") cut, which was supervised by actress Lea Lander's company Spera Cinematografica. This version adds newly-shot inserts and cutaway footage to connect scenes, ends on a still frame of Riccardo with a police siren in the background. Lamberto Bava disowns this version.
- The 1998 cut released by Lucertola Media, which removes the inserts but adds a new prologue of the kidnapped boy's mother, and keeps the original ending of Riccardo driving away with the boy, without a siren.
- The 2001 cut released by Astro Media. This version does not contain the prologue with the mother, and has a slightly-extended ending.
- The "Leone" cut, which was created by producer Alfredo Leone. This version adds back some of the "Spera" insert footage, two new scenes near the end, and ends with a close-up of the kidnapped boy's mother.
- The Kidnapped cut, which is based on the "Leone" cut and was supervised by Lamberto Bava. This version adds stock footage of 1970s police cars and new scenes shot on 35mm. It also has an all-new soundtrack, with a new score by the original composer and re-recorded dubbing.
- Would Hurt a Child: Riccardo would kidnap one and keep him drugged.
