This is a pretty tough hitting Poliziotteschi with all the necessary ingredients.
A rough cop who hates playing by the rules, lots of action, crimes everywhere,
plenty of riffraff, gambling parlors, killings, car chases, misogyny by the
creeps, machine guns blazing and a psychopathic hunchback killer. A little
bit of personal business but this stays wonderfully focused on crime even
though it tends to be all over the place. Purse snatchers, rapists,
drug dealers and gangs are all in the volatile mix and the target of Inspector
Tanzi (Maurizio Merli). This falls into that police category - why do we
have to follow the rules when the bad guys don't with the street cops pissed
and their superiors pissed off at them for breaking those rules and usually
a few faces. Tanzi smacks the hell out of everybody he doesn't like. Most
of them deserve it but still it feels a little overboard. Torture usually
does but he is the hero of this film. An Italian Dirty Harry. Hard to say
who is the most psychotic - Tanzi or the Hunchback. In the 1970s these type
of films were being churned out regularly and audiences ate it up. Or were
outraged by the cops behavior. The bad guys finally get what is coming to
them if only in the movies.
Tanzi is ahead of the Anti-Gang squad but as one cops says "You seem to attract
crimes like a magnet". Everywhere he goes some crime seems to be committed
and no matter how big or small he goes after them, catches then and beats
them up. It begins with breaking up a few small time fancy gambling casinos,
then bank robberies, a few rich kids raping a girl (puts the main kid's face
through glass), two guys on a motor cycle snatching purses, another mugging
a woman and Tanzi just happens to be nearby. He tries putting them in jail
and the system lets them out - one in the system being his softhearted girlfriend
(Maria Rosaria Omaggio) who he really needs to get rid of. His boss is played
by Arthur Kennedy who dubs his own voice. I wonder how many extra tickets
they sold because his name was in the cast?
But the main bad guy is Moretto. A hunchback with a big chip on his shoulder
and who is into everything dirty in Rome. Kidnapping, murder and bad manners.
He literally shits bullets and gives a play by play of it. He is played with
glee by Tomas Milian who is usually on the other side of the law. He is generally
killing the bad guys but he does crazy pretty well here and when Moretto
and his machine gun go to work he looks like a man in clover. Enjoyable for
what it is - subtlety or character development are not in their vocabulary
but action, fast cars and murder is. This was picked up for distribution
by an American company back in the 70s and made a mess of according to some.
But it was later released onto video uncut. Not exactly sure what version
I saw - came in at 90 minutes. Directed by Umberto Lenzi in fine style. We
get a lot of Rome in this - usually at high speeds.
