Directed by Damiano Damiani (The Mafia, The Witch and The Devil is a Woman), A Man on His Knees is a 1979 crime thriller starring Giuliano Gemma (Tenebre, A Pistol for Ringo and The Leopard), Eleonora Giorgi (Inferno, Black Belly of the Tarantula and Story of A Cloistered Nun), Michele Placido (The Pyjama Girl Case, Plot of Fear and La Piovra) and Tano Cimarosa (Cinema Paradiso, The Witches and Delirium). 

Nino Peralta (Gemma) is a reformed car thief who now makes a living selling coffee and soft drinks from a small kiosk in Palermo. However, his life is thrown into disarray when he learns that he is being targeted by a renowned mafia hitman, Antonio Platamonte (Placido). Nino confronts Platamonte and asks him why he has been targeted, however, while Platamonte agrees to help him get to the bottom of the situation, he manages to drag Nino further into a war between rival mafia gangs. Nino finds that he needs to identify who is behind the recent spate of gang murders before it’s his turn to wind up dead.

A Man on His Knees is another classy Italian crime drama from Damiano Damiani who made his name in the 1970s by directing realistic and gritty mafia movies. Damiani is probably one of the most underrated directors of his kind, a specialist in crime thrillers who always brings an air of realism to the proceedings. The cast are superb, particularly Gemma as the former car thief, Nino, Tano Cimarosa as his best friend, Colicchia and Eleonora Giorgi as Nino’s long-suffering wife, Lucia. Damiani is believed to have wanted to create something akin to the American style thrillers of the time with naturalistic performances from the cast. These sorts of performances were very unusual in Italian cinema and set Damiani aside from other Italian directors of the time. 

This new limited edition Blu-ray release from Radiance is a thing of beauty, featuring a brand new 4k restoration of the movie straight from the original negatives, archival interviews with the movie’s stars Gemma, Cimarosa and assistant director Mino Giarda as well as a new interview with writer Alberto Pezzotta, and the ubiquitous trailer. This limited edition release of 3000 copies also comes with a rather splendid reversible cover and a lovely booklet that features assorted colour stills from the movie as well as a really interesting essay from Roberto Curti on Damiani’s mafia films, which pays particular attention to A Man on His Knees. 

Overall, this is another excellent release from Radiance Films who continue to smash it out of the park with these underappreciated cinematic gems. The film looks better than it ever has on this new release and coupled with some solid bonus materials and fantastic packaging, it makes for a really impressive set. Damiano Damiani may well be Italy’s most underrated director but with this release and the other titles already released by Radiance, including Day of the Owl, How to Kill A Judge and The Case is Closed: Forget It, Radiance are making the case for his work to be re-evaluated and discussed by a new generation of cinema fans.