Enzo G. Castellari was yet another Italian director who moved from Spaghetti
Westerns in the 1960s into Poliziottesch in the 70s' (though he still had
room for Keoma in 1976). This is his fourth in that genre. Following this
he directed Inglorious Bastards, a war film and the inspiration for Tarantino's
similarly titled film. You can almost split this film in two in terms of
style and mood. The first half is a slow boil that delves into the world
of heroin dealers and users. And much of it feels like an absurd overdone
anti-drug message. The dealers are all nasty punks who beat the hell out
of their customers if they can't come up with the money while the users are
pathetic cringing creatures begging for one more fix. One girl is enticed
to take a heroin shot and by the next day she is in bed begging her mother
to go buy some. The 1970's was the crime decade not only in the USA when
crack and smack hit the streets but also in Italy. And films in both countries
reflected this. Audiences liked seeing criminals harshly dealt with. This
gets a bit tedious but then the second half kicks in and it becomes a high
octave action film in which the cops are either chasing the bad guys or the
bad guys are chasing the cops and it is suspenseful, well-done and never
slows down.
The film begins with a confusing mélange of scenes from all over the
world - Hong Kong, Cartagena, New York, Amsterdam - all drug related
and all coming to Italy to then be shipped to America. David Hemmings from
Interpol is trying to break it up and he brings in his best man undercover
who gets caught at the airport with three keys of dope. This is the long-legged,
high booted string bean Fabio Testi - one of the big action stars at the
time. They use that golden oldie ploy - put him in jail with a druggie and
allow them to escape together. The druggie introduces him around - but not
before we get to be voyeurs to a nude lesbian scene - that has no point other
than being a nude lesbian scene. Fabio worms his way in and when they say
the city is dry of heroin - he tells them except for one place. With the
cops.
And so begins the second half of the film in which they raid the police drug
storage office, hand over the drugs with a tracker hidden inside and chase
after them for the next 40 minutes with various shootouts along the way.
There are two excellent set pieces - one in a building under construction
and then a subway under construction. Cars, feet, motorcycles and finally
planes are all used in the chase. Fabio is pretty cool. In the subway he
slides down the center part of the 100 foot escalator and shoots the guy
below, From what I have read this film is considered the worst of Castellari's
four crime films - the others being High Crime, Street Law and The Big Racket.
Since I thought this was quite good once it got going, I need to see those.
