A Spanish and English co-production, with a predominantly Espanyol feel to it. On the whole, it has a bit of an unnatural feel, because the dialog has been dubbed, in the post production. It must have been quite confusing at the time of filming, as most of the Actors were obviously speaking Spanish, but the central couple are speaking their lines in English. I bet there were some crossed wires along the way, which could account for some of the scripts jarring moments.

Who the hell chose Dandy, as the name to strike fear into the hearts of the Barcelona underground. Slasher, or "The Guy with No Name", but not Dandy. It just isn't scare worthy. Mind you he probably wouldn't have been that crash hot, what ever moniker he had. This is the guy who's idea of a disguise consisted of tying his hair back (OK, so I've chosen to ignore the part where he puts on the priests costume, but even that wasn't a great get away out fit. Since when did priest carry gun shaped cases).

There seems to have been an excess of shop dummy's available in Barcelona at the time of filming. I say this because we see many fall from buildings, or get thrown down stars. The 'camp snitcher' (who should have been called Dandy) plays one side off against the other, once too many, and becomes a substitute for one of these shop dummy's. This is after his head has become very intimate with a hard wall. There are actually quite a few nasty moments in the film. At the start Dandy gets revenge on one of his ex-lovers, by stabbing her rather graphically. Later he gets his buddies to smash up a rival Brothel, while he slashes the Madame's face. Maybe he's being extra nasty to compensate for the crap name. I think it's a recognised Psychological condition.

On the whole it doesn't really hold it's self together. Which is mainly the fault of the dubbing. You can never really get the whole feeling across, when the voice has been added later. There are some very comical (but obviously not meant to be) zoom shots, into a characters face. I assume to add tension to the screen, but they just reminded me of the final 'cliffhanger' shot, you get in bad soap's. Anyway the lack of slickness was a plus point as well. The film at least had a gritty feel to the proceedings, and brought some visually interesting arid shots of Spain to the screen. So despite any faults I still enjoyed watching it, and I fancy giving it another view again soon.

aka: Redada, La
... aka Razzia

Directed: Jose Antonio De La Loma

Linda Hayden Content:
Even though Linda and her screen boyfriend get top billing, they don't get the script content they deserve. That goes to the Detective Mendoza, and the Bad Guy's. Half way through the film I thought the crew had forgotten about Linda, but luckily she made a hefty reappearance come the home straight. The voice re-dubing does detract from her performance, but you do get used to it, and some of the faces she pulls would keep me entertained for the whole film. There is also a wedding dress fitting with a difference. The difference being she tries on her wedding outfit minus the actual wedding dress. She also gets to do a fair bit of driving, which gives her a chance to show off some great wheel spins. Some of the car chase's look un-nearving like they were filmed on busy Barcelona roads. At one point there is even an collision between two vehicles, that doesn't look very planned.

Linda is a big help to the inept Spanish Police, all the way through the film. Her help is rewarded by Mendoza sending what looks like, half the counties law enforcement, to bust her out of the clutches of The evil Dandy (see it still doesn't sound scary). Her character comes out of the hostage ordeal in remarkably good shape. No sooner has Dandy been shot to pieces in front of her, by bullets that narrowly miss her, then Linda is giving Miguel a quick hug, and is off to retrieve her camera. Maybe the trauma kicks in later, on her wedding day perhaps.

Front Page