Cipriani, the deputy warden of Milan’s prison, is blackmailed by his wife’s kidnappers. Forced to help a French thug, Milo Ruiz, escape, he soon realizes they are both just pawns in a vast conspiracy involving politics, the police, and a plot to assassinate an oil tycoon.

Fleeced against bitter cold and the depravity of Italy’s Years of Lead, Oliver Reed brings salt and grit to this twisty poliziottesco. Featured years later in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, the romantic strains of Ennio Morricone’s score soar over snowcapped Alps into Haussmannian Paris.