We Still Kill the Old Way (1967) An Enigmatic Tale of Crime and Corruption (Review)

Released on Blu-ray by Radiance is yet another slice of classic crime drama from Italian cinema – Elio Petri’s 1967 movie We Still Kill the Old Way, starring Gian Maria Volonté and Irene Papas. The film is an adaptation by Ugo Pirro of the 1966 novel To Each His Own by renowned Italian author Leonardo Sciascia, whose 1961 novel The Day of the Owl was subsequently adapted by Damiano Damiani in 1968. We Still Kill the Old Way follows Volonté in the role of a far-left academic who attempts to uncover a web of local corruption in his Sicilian hometown following the murder of two of his friends.

Small town chemist Arturo Manno (Luigi Pistelli), has been the victim of a series of anonymous poison pen letter death threats for several months, to the surprise of no one in his circle as he has been conducting several illicit affairs around the town, most notably with Rosina (Luciana Scalise), a fifteen-year-old maid who is the daughter of an impoverished farm labourer. Manno seems unconcerned by the threats, reasoning that if anyone really wanted him dead, they’d have done it months ago, but while out hunting one morning with his friend and local doctor Antonio Roscio (Franco Tranchina), an assassin finally makes good on his promise, killing not only Manno, but also the innocent Roscio.

The murders are naturally the talk of the town and many theories are posited as to the murderer’s identity, some even saying that it’s the work of a cuckolded husband who could no longer take the shame, so the police move swiftly in arresting Rosina’s father and her two brothers. Paulo Laurana (Gian Maria Volonté), a somewhat shy professor who teaches in Palermo and has a background in far left politics, remains unconvinced as he saw the letters that Manno recieved. He believes that they couldn’t possibly be the work of illiterate farm hands as the clippings were made from the Vatican newspaper, The Roman Observer – which has only two subscribers in the village.

Taking it upon himself to investigate the deaths, Laurana secures the assistance of his lawyer friend Rosello (Gabriele Ferzetti), to represent the accused men, and finds himself obsessively drawn to Roscio’s widow, Luisa (Irene Papas), who’s also Rosello’s cousin. The subsequent discovery of her late husband’s diary implies that he perhaps wasn’t the innocent bystander that everyone had presumed, and reveals that he was collecting evidenceabout corruption in the town. Convinced that Manno’s death threats were a decoy and the real target was Roscio, Laurana sets out to expose the prominent local citizen he believes is behind the murders.

This was the first film that Gian Maria Volonté made with Elio Petri, and the pair would go on to make Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion in 1970, The Working Class Goes to Heaven in 1971, and One Way or Another in 1976, as well as the 1970 investigative documentary on the death in custody of Italian anarchist Guiseppe Pinelli. Theirs was an incredibly symbiotic partnership, with Petri often getting the best out of his star’s chameleon abilities while never losing sight of their mutual political outlook. In We Still Kill the Old Way, the usually imposing figure of Volonté is often seen to be seemingly shrinking inside himself – his shoulders perpetually hunched and his head bowed. It’s a performance that’s a world away from the more braggadocious roles of the corrupt police inspector in Citizen or the factory worker in Working Class, capturing instead the physicality of a naturally timid man who spends his days poring over a wealth of text books.

Laurana may become obsessed by Luisa, but this isn’t a film where the hero gets the girl as his sexual advances are repeatedly rebuked by the widow. Nor is it a film in which the hero proves himself physically against the antagonists as Laurana is an academic through and through, and by his own admission the character is also “anti-social”. He lives at home with his mother and commutes daily by train to Palermo where he works as a teacher – the film’s title deriving from a sequence in Palermo where he and a friend witness a car bombing in the square. It’s indicative of the nation’s infamous “Years of Lead”, and witnessing this event Laurana remarks “In my hometown, we still kill the old way”. He spends his spare time locked away in a study so cluttered and airless that, when the police arrive to question him about Manno and Roscio’s deaths, he has to liberally spray aerosol around the room. Given his introverted character and his busy lifestyle it’s actually a bit of a stretch to accept that Laurana actually moves in the same circles as Rosello, Manno and Roscio, let alone counts them as friends that he enjoys spending time with.

There’s one visual sequence that Petri employs that arguably illustrates something the filmmaker wants to say about Laurana, and that I personally find intriguing. It’s a scene in which both Laurana and Luisa are exploring her late husband’s files and correspondence as they search for clues. Petri’s camera follows them as they depart the dead man’s study, drifting upwards to the lintel as the pair step through the doorway and out of the scene, and for a brief second it’s almost impossible to make out what Petri is directing our attention to, but then it becomes clear – it’s a moth. The insect is very interesting as a metaphor as it can be a symbol of transformation, and it’s possible that in drawing our attention to it, Petri is acknowledging the metamorphosis within Laurana’s character, from an anti-social introvert to someone actively engaging within the community for what he believes will be its betterment.

Moths can also be seen as bad omens or symbolise death in many cultures, so did Petri decide to focus on it because his tale is one of death, or did he intend it as a portent that his intellectually proud hero would do well to consider? If Laurana would only stop to consider things for a moment, would he deduce that he’s being drawn to Luisa like a moth to a flame? The insect, which is nocturnal and can find its way around in the dark, is also said to represent instinct, and so it could be that Petri intended to highlight that Laurana should trust his gut while investigating the death of his friends – something he arguably does well in some cases, yet resolutely fails to do in others. I’d further argue that We Still Kill the Old Way is a film intentionally rich in such symbolism, especially given its propensity for a horned hand gesture that is said to be made when seeking protection in harmful or risky situations (Laurana does it when trailing the hitman he believes is responsible for the deaths of his friends). This gesture is also known as the cuckold’s horns and implies that someone has been unfaithful (which is, of course, a key theme in the film), and it can be seen directed at Rosina’s father and brothers as the police escort them to the station.

We Still Kill The Old Way is an enigmatic film that isn’t afraid to consider the tangled web of political, criminal and religious powers. It employs a deterministic approach regarding Laurana’s decisions and actions, and its mordant nature is perhaps best served by Luis Bacalov’s Euro-calypso score which is cheerily rhythmic, even when the cancerous nature of the central plot is revealed in tragic proportions.

Radiance’s limited edition release includes an archival documentary; new interviews with Petri’s biographer – Roberto Curti, make-up artist Pierantonio Mecacci, and Fabrizio Catalono – the grandson of Leonardo Sciascia; plus a trailer. The limited edition also has a booklet (which was unavailable at the time of review), featuring new writing from David Wingrove.

Mark’s Archive – We Still Kill the Old Way (1967)