Released at the height of the Euro crime craze, this extremely violent Spanish-Italian co-production managed to drift around in theaters and then on home video for years under a baffling array of titles. Initially produced under the title Rico which was then bastardized as Ricco and then christened on U.S. DVD and Blu-ray as Ricco: The Mean Machine, this one initially came out in Italy with the ridiculous title Un tipo con una faccia strana ti cerca per ucciderti (or "A Guy with a Strange Face Is Looking for You to Kill You"). Among its many aliases are the unforgettable Cauldron of Death (where it caught the eye of early The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film readers), Gangland, Heavy Dues, and The Dirty Mob. In the process it was also heavily censored at times with many versions coming in well short of the original 93-minute running time (usually around 89 or so, almost all diluting or removing the infamous gory castration scene). The film was also a high point for actor and Robert Mitchum offspring Christopher Mitchum, part of a '70s wave of movie star kids headlining movies themselves, who was having a crazy run of projects in Europe including The Summertime Killer and Murder in a Blue World long before he became a legend starring in Arizal movies.

Here Mitchum stars as Rico, who's fresh out of prison and tangled up with mobsters so mean they blow a guy's skull open in close-up before the titles even roll. Said mobsters led by Arthur Kennedy with a very questionable hairstyle choice are responsible for killing Rico's dad and have absconded with his girlfriend, Rosa (Salon Kitty's Longo), so he's out for revenge. That isn't his only focus though as he also hooks up with the beautiful confidence artist Scilla (giallo queen Bouchet), while the gangsters stay busy executing people and dumping them in a big vat of acid from their front soap factory.

One of the goriest films of its kind until Lucio Fulci upped the stakes with Contraband, Ricco is set in the mean streets of Turin (albeit with Madrid standing in for a lot of the interior and exterior shooting) and would play well with any Italian cop film from the era. Mitchum is his usual inexpressive self but does fine during the action scenes, while Bouchet and Longo steal every scene they're in while providing the requisite bare skin to draw in the grindhouse crowd. There's absolutely nothing here that even attempts a social statement about the ills of society; it's just action junk food and quite enjoyable on that level.

Released on tape in the U.S. by Monterery and sporadically available in various formats since, Ricco first popped up on DVD from Dark Sky in 2008 featuring an uncut widescreen transfer with the English-language version featuring Mitchum and Kennedy's voices (but pretty much everyone else dubbed to cover their accents). It looked fine for the time with extras including a trailer and a video interview with Mitchum (18m15s) about his move into acting after studying literature in college, his breakthroughs in films like Chisum, and his memories of doing action films in Europe.

In 2025, Cauldron Films bowed the film on Blu-ray with a fresh HD scan from the original negative bearing the title Ricco, and it's quite an improvement with a lot more image info and significant correction to some visible vertical squeezing on the earlier transfer. (See below for comparisons.) The English and Italian tracks are included here (DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono) and sound solid, with optional English SDH or English-translated subtitles provided. The Mitchum interview is ported over here plus an HD English-language trailer (with the Italian title), plus three substantial new featurettes. In "Malisa of the Mob" (17m4s), Longo chats about her young days around Europe during the hippie era, her modeling and socializing that put her on the scene in Milan, and some of her key roles including this one (whose Spanish title she hates). In "An Hombre and a Cult" (18m26s), frequent Jess Franco actor Antonio Mayans (who pops up in this film as a crime-connected bartender) discusses the international market targeted with the film, his pleasant memories of the director, and his experiences doing other Spanish-Italian co-productions around the time. Finally "Cauldron of Ricos" (9m40s) is video essay by Eugenio Ercolani covering the film's title change when it crossed the Atlantic, the background of the Argentine director, and the prurient aspects that have made it an object of fascination for decades. It's a fine and informative piece, apart from the dissing of Yeti and Cry of a Prostitute! A 3m9s gallery is also included, and Easter egg hunters will also find an alternate 94m9s clothed version of the film, pulled from a timecoded SD source that still looks fine and makes for an interesting, watered-down point of comparison. The limited edition comes with reversible cover art, a slipcover, and an insert booklet featuring a fun essay by Mike Malloy full of praise for this film and Summertime Killer while also laying out the baffling number of titles and distributors -- plus a cautionary tale about inviting relatives to stop by when you're presenting a film like this to the public.

Cauldron (Blu-ray)

Dark Sky (DVD)

Reviewed on September 4, 2025