Sergio Martino's Eurocrime movies are much more on the side of fun popcorn style entertainment than Castellari's more sociopolitical and Umberto Lenzi's more vigilante and exploitative Eurocrime movies. Those guys let their freak flag fly more while Martino was more content with making crime movies that worked well from a dramatic perspective. At the same time his action isn't as well filmed as Castellari's or Lenzi's. The best parts of this film are the scenes where Luc Merenda's cop character is undercover as he doesn't quite have the same believable aggression as a Maurizio Merli. Where Merenda is competent is his suave cockiness and athleticism during fights, something he shows off better in Gambling City.
Synopsis: With or without help from law enforcement officers, a lone individual decides to crack down on a crime syndicate.
The beginning of this film does have the a similar violent streak to some of Lenzi and Castellari's movies as Antonio Casale leads two other prisoners to escape from a train. This features a scene of him excusing himself to the bathroom and asks the guard to look away as he takes out a knife he had hidden somewhere and kills him. They proceed to kill several other guards with Beretta submachine guns. One of the prisoners is called and Casale and the other one hijack a car with a father and a little girl. These movies, especially those of the directors I just mentioned are more comfortable with killing children in these movies as a form of exploitation. Martino does it here, though the child's death isn't shown. Giorgio (Merenda) flanks around the two prisoners in the woods while they negotiate with police and kills them when they start to raise their weapons. We learn in the movie he previously had made a mistake at some point letting suspects raise their weapons too quickly so he is much more quick to pull the trigger now.
His boss played by the always effective Silvano Tranquili (Black Belly of the Tarantula) reprimands him for killing the criminals. Again a form of exploitation making us go against the law as an audience because of what the criminals did. This sequence features scenes of Giorgio slamming the law and not letting cops do their job as most of these movies. While Michael Forest is the right english dubbed voice for this role, Merenda isn't. He's better as antihero or a mysterious character than a tough cop. He's better with the dramatic scenes as well. That is why the middle of this film where he is undercover as a petty criminal and a getaway driver is better to me. His boss, who was investigating a crime syndicate is eventually assassinated in broad daylight, prompting him to go undercover.
These sequences are very good, though story wise I'm not sure how they all connect. Is the fisherman he meets with some kind of informant or someone turned an informant? Does the prostitute he meets and pimp he beats up have a big connection to the syndicate. Either way I do enjoy the scenes of him picking up a prostitute and beating up her pimp. Merenda shows some of his fighting athleticism in those scenes. I enjoy the scene of him meeting the mob boss, Barzini himself Richard Conte. In that sequence he beats up a bunch of people at a pool hall. At the same time he meets a doomed hippie drug addict played by Martine Brochard. She is eventually going to inform on the syndicate but this killed. In the film's best car chase Giorgio acts as the getaway driver and one of the robbers kills a cop. Giorgio does a fun thing and drives them straight to the police station. The surviving robber will not inform on Padulo (Conte).
In a very Castellari like move, Giorgio learns that the commissioner (Bay of Blood's own Chris Avram) has been protecting Padulo and was behind the assassination of his boss. They have a car chase to the end and the commissioner is killed in a crash. The parts after his cover is blown aren't as great. The last car chase isn't as good as the robbery chase. There aren't too many memorable scenes but the opening and middle are great entertainment. The Guido and Maurizio De Angelis score makes great use of piano and woodwind for a great theme. While this isn't the best Eurocrime movie, and certainly not Martino's best it is fun at times and well paced. I love the line dubbed by Michael Forest when Giorgio threatens Padulo. "I'll bust you up so bad, you'll wish mirrors weren't invented."
English Dubbing Cast:
- Michael Forest dubs Luc Merenda as Giorgio
Rating: 7.5/10
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