The vigilante saga “Death Wish” made Charles Bronson an icon of brutal revenge cinema. But even before that, Bronson was testing the limits of what the protection of minors would allow. A year before the first “Death Wish,” Bronson shot the brutal mob action thriller “A Man Walks Over Corpses,” which had to be cut in several countries. While only one scene fell victim to the scissors in Britain, around nine minutes were cut in German cinemas.
About four more minutes of video were censored, but the mafia ripper ended up on the index for 25 years. After being removed from the index, it was a few years before it was released uncut on DVD in Germany. And now a home theater upgrade followed: “A man walks over corpses” recently celebrated its German Blu-ray premiere – with FSK approval from 18 years and in full length.
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The responsible label, Pidax, took a rather unusual approach to its home theater releases of “A Man Walks Over Corpses”: in addition to the uncut version, the DVD and Blu-ray also included the German theatrical version. While this is fully dubbed, some scenes in the uncut version are only available in the original with subtitles.
Bronson fights the mob as a ruthless cop
Lou Torrey (Charles Bronson) is a nefarious cop who resorts to bloody methods in his fight against crime. When Lou’s actions become intolerable to his superiors, they transfer him from New York to Los Angeles outright – let the people of the Sun Coast handle him! Once there, it’s not long before Troublemaker Lou not only makes enemies in his own ranks, but also finds himself caught up in a mafia plot…
Directed by Michael Winner, who directed Bronson in numerous films, including the first three Death Wish installments. A Man Walks Over Corpses was mainly inspired by Dirty Harry – the classic starring Clint Eastwood that unleashed a tidal wave of thrillers about uncompromising cops.
But also “Brennpunkt Brooklyn” (now also better known in Germany under the original title “The French Connection”) is in the DNA of “Ein Mann wird über Toten” (A man walks over corpses): Towards the middle of the mad fight between Bronson and the mafia, an extensive chase breaks out. It rattles quite a bit and it becomes clear that it positions itself as a quick, mangy answer to the iconic sequence from “The French Connection”, realized with smaller means.