The first Za la Mort serial contains many of the stereotypes of the saga, revisiting some themes of earlier films, but it also marks an interesting evolution for Za la Mort the apache. He has still some debts to justice, and remains in the wrong in the eyes of the police, finally in need of redemption (a veritable story within the story). But this serial opens the way to the executioner (in essence honest) ex-criminal, who has much in common with Eugène-Frangois Vidocq and the ambiguity necessary to infiltrate himself between the gangsters and collaborate with some heretical detective for what concerns penal procedure. Many narrative ideas are taken up again in Zalamort – Der Traum der Zalavie, the film made in Germany seven years later, in which we can recognise the character of Carmencita in Perla Cristal (Fern Andra). Moreover there is still place in Il triangolo giallo for the erotic aspect of Za la Mort, who can make even the most hardened women gangsters fall in love with him, a characteristic less relevant in the darker and familial I Topi Grigi.

Denis Liotti