Tony Musante is CIA operative John Dannahay and has been tasked with working to overthrow an African government while also trying to track down a mole on his team. John Steiner is the double-crossing Agent Grayson who has been working against him. Before Dannahay can confront him, Grayson seeimingly flips out and snipes some folks then takes the lovely Claudia Cardinale and a very naked guy in a cowboy hat hostage in the Hilton Hotel across the street. From here, it’s a tense hostage stand-off between Dannahay and Grayson with a few twists and turns along the way.

Goodbye & Amen is poliziotteschi maestro Damiano Damiani firing on all cylinders. While the film starts off like it’s going to be a complicated political spy movie with all this talk of overthrowing a foreign government, before long though it turns into full-on hostage thriller, and Musante is great here as the cold, calculating agent handling the situation. While the film does stumble a few times with some thin supporting characters and a few lame attempts at comedy (although when Grayson first confronts the adulterous couple in the hotel room and Claudia Cardinale’s lover opens the door wearing absolutely nothing except a cowboy hat, it did get a laugh out of me even though it did diffuse the mounting suspense a bit), Damiani keeps the tension simmering at a slow boil before it all goes bubbling over in the very cool, stylishly executed climax. Also the way the earlier political spy threads come weaving back into the plot in places works quite well without distracting from the tense hostage scenario. And of course, I can’t go without mentioning the excellent throbbing score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis. It perfectly captures the driving suspense of the film, putting my mind in the mood to see steely-eyed cops dealing with the scum of the earth.

Radiance has once again come through with an excellent package for an unjustly forgotten thriller from the golden age of Italian genre cinema. The disc includes a great new 2023 restoration from the original camera negative for the first time on video (with a few inserts taken from a 16mm reversal element), and it looks excellent largely, especially the night scenes like the climax. The film’s primary audio track is presented in Italian mono and comes across nice and clear. Also included as an admitted curio is the rare English language track taken from dubious and deteriorated sources. At times it sounds pretty rough but Radiance is up front about it. On the extras, first up we have a nice, informative commentary by “Eurocrime Experts” Nathaniel Thompson and Howard S. Berger. The track is full of useful info on the cast and crew in the film, the poliziotteschi genre in general and Damiani’s career as a whole. Lots of good stuff. The disc also includes a couple of very informative interviews with editor Antonio Siciliano who collaborated with Damiani many times as well as actor Wolfango Soldati. Both are well worth checking out if you want to know more about the film and Damiani. Finally Radiance has also included a physical booket featuring an essay on the film by Dr. Lucia Rinaldi, associate professor of Italian and Film Studies at University College London with an emphasis on crime cinema. So you know, she knows her stuff. And it’s a very nicely done even-handed essay that points out both the film’s flaws but also why it’s a hidden gem deserving of more exposure.

All in all, Damiani has delivered another crackling, slow-burn thriller worthy of digging into, especially if you are already a fan of eurocrime films, and Radiance has delivered another great release of another deserving film.