| The success of Dirty Harry (1971) led to a spate of similar "angry asshole cop" movies in the 1970s. One of the biggest assholes of the lot was Detective Tony Saitta, as portrayed by veteran character actor Stuart Whitman in the Italian-Canadian co-production Strange Shadows in an Empty Room (a.k.a. Blazing Magnums, 1976).
The film has attracted a small but loyal cult following due to its outrageous action scenes (including what many fans consider to be the "greatest car chase of all time"), despite the fact that the protagonist is an utterly repellent jerk. Whether you love Strange Shadows in an Empty Room or hate it, a couple of scenes will certainly leave a lasting impression.
The premise is an easy one to get a handle on. Tough cop Tony Saitta is determined to find the killer who poisoned his sister. The bulk of the film consists of Tony chasing down and interrogating informants, and he’s in no mood to just ask politely for information. Most of the informants he pursues aren’t even directly connected to this case, but as soon as they catch sight of Tony they turn tail and run, prompting the "raging bully" into adding yet another memorable chase scene to the film’s repertoire. Once the terrified quarry is cornered, he usually gives out information gladly and without fuss, which he probably would have done anyway if asked nicely. The information he gathers always leads to another informant, and the chase-and-interrogate formula begins anew. Tony could probably have solved the case just by telephoning each of the informants, but then we wouldn’t have a movie. Plus, this guy really doesn’t seem to have the patience for casual chats. I can picture him watching an episode of Columbo, purple with rage, and screaming at the TV; "Why are you being so nice?! The suspect is right there! Stick his hand in a blender or something! C’mon, what the hell’s wrong with you?!"
All of this would be unbearable if it weren’t for the terrific supporting cast (John Saxon, Tisa Farrow, Martin Landau and Carole Laure) and, of course, a rich assortment of creatively berserk action scenes. One of these scenes is the aforementioned car chase, which really is spectacular, as these things go. It goes on and on, with Tony chasing his quarry all through downtown Montreal, into dead-ends, through tight alleyways, and even flying over a moving train! Both cars are battered constantly by collisions with walls, other vehicles and each other, to the point where they scarcely even look drivable any more. At the end of the chase, both vehicles are upside down in the middle of the freeway and Tony gets to haul his quarry out of the twisted wreckage by the scruff of his neck. It’s never mentioned how either Tony or the stoolie got home after both their cars were totalled. Did they hitchhike? Walk? I’d like to have seen a scene in which they ride back downtown on a bus, staring at each other and making awkward small talk.
The other of the film’s two legendary scenes involves a spirited fracas between Tony and three transvestites. As usual, Tony the asshole simply barges into somebody’s home looking for answers, but this time, the penthouse apartment he’s targeted is full of straight-razor-wielding drag queens who know karate. You’ll definitely be rooting for the drag queens, but this is Whitman’s movie, so naturally he comes out ahead and the innocent she-males meet with a particularly humiliating defeat. The transvestites don’t even have anything to do with the crime – Tony just needed information about a missing he/she and tracked down the first drag queens he could find, figuring that every cross-dresser in Montreal had each other on speed dial. Asshole!
If you can get past your antipathy for the main character (and I admit that takes some doing), Strange Shadows in an Empty Room actually has a lot going for it. In addition to the two "legendary" set-pieces described above, the movie has a slam-bang bank robbery opening, an outrageous on-foot chase through a subway station that’s every bit as memorable as the famous car chase, and a nail-biting climax set in a hospital. John Saxon gives a fine performance as an innocent doctor who gets falsely accused of the crime, and Tisa (Mia’s sister) has some wonderfully suspenseful scenes in which her blind music teacher character is stalked and menaced by the just-off-camera killer.
The film is currently only available on the long-out-of-print Vestron VHS cassette, and is quite rare. |
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