Very few Eurocrime movies are great at balancing action, crime, and thriller. This is one of the few where I'm invested in what is going to happen next as well as the great action scenes. I think that has to do with the direction of Sergio Martino. He does a good job with providing a mystery to invest in and characters to route for. The first half is political giallo and the second half is full action as the conspiracy in the story starts to unravel. I always say that Martino above any other Italian director makes movies that aren't boring. This features the best car chase in any of his crime movies, mainly because it is a three way chase adding more perspectives and tension. This is the most believable Luc Merenda is as a cop. This also features performances by Delia Boccardo and Paola Tedesco as two of the strongest women characters in Eurocrime movies.
Synopsis: A chain of suicides sparks a police investigation that has ties to leaders in the Italian government.
The movie starts with three murders that are published in the newspapers as either accidents or possible suicides. One of them is a gory head getting splattered by being run over by a train. Meanwhile Inspector Solmi (Luc Merenda) investigates the death of an electrician named Chiarotti. The groundskeeper at his house points Solmi in the direction of a prostitute who frequented Chiarotti's place. There are some fun dubbing lines in this part, as there are throughout the movie. The madam running the brothel out of her house says "I have some very influential friends!" Solmi says back, "And I have an uncle who's a cardinal!" For immunity she points them in the direction of where the prostitute lives. When they get there they find out the prostitute, Giuliana (Paola Tedesco) has attempted suicide. They save her and take her in. She admits to killing Chiarotti.
Spoiler Section
Meanwhile Solmi's two cop friends Luigi Caprara (Michele Gammino) and De Luca (Gianfranco Barra) are watching Chiarotti's house when Ortolani (genre great Carlo Alighero) breaks in and tries to steal tape recordings. They have a brief fight before arresting Ortolani. Meanwhile Giuliana admits to seeing the real killer and in a flashback we great henchman actor Antonio Casale bludgeon Chiarotti to death as Giuliana runs away. Captain Sperli (Tomas Milian) of the secret service and Solmi interrogate Ortolani who is confirmed to be a secret service agent. The tapes confirm General Stocchi, one of the beginning victims was invited into a conspiracy by a lawyer named Rienzi and the General refused so he was killed. Meanwhile Casale and his other goon kill two guards with some awesome gunshot blood squibs to capture Giuliana. When the tapes go to the DA and Solmi's boss (Mel Ferrer) they are erased.
Tomas Milian in one of his more subdued roles as Captain Sperli
Solmi goes to visit an oil baron named Martinelli and his wife. His wife was intending to run off with Chiarotti and had tapes to blackmail him which Martinelli bought.
In one of the best scenes of the movie, Giuliana manages to seduce the other goon and kill him and temporarily escape. I love how the look in her eyes changes just slightly and you know she is trying to seduce him but it shows the power of a woman's sexuality and how people in her profession would know how to do that. She also goes through with the threat of shooting him once she has the gun. Once she escapes she uses a payphone to call Solmi and tells who her captors are, revealing Casale's name to be Masseu. Unforunately Masseu kills her by strangulation before Solmi can rescue her.
Antonio Casale had a rough complexion and was great at playing henchman
Paola Tedesco who played Giuliana
Meanwhile in a typical soft on crime moment for these movies, the DA releases Ortolani. When the cops get him again a person disguised as a motorcycle officer drives up and kills Ortolani. The three cops pursue and are joined by another car trying to protect the guy on the motorcycle. This chase goes through courtyards and tunnels actually ends with cop car getting flipped over. This starts to show that the conspirators mean business and will kill any loose ends before they talk. Solmi and his team find Masseu a the boxing club and he runs and kills one of the cops. Once cornered Masseu and Solmi have a Busey-Gibson moment in Lethal Weapon and Merenda uses some dodging moves to duck his punches and counter him back. I pumping my fist the whole time.
In the film's last act De Luca is killed when he Solmi gives him the keys to his car in a hit meant for Solmi. Masseu is killed in a prison riot before being interrogated. The other strong female character in this, Solmi's journalist girlfriend Maria (Delia Boccardo) who gets pictures of Stochhi's and Masseu's killers together in Germany. Sperli reveals it to be a man named Franz Schmidt who Sperli and Solmi track. In a chase they corner him but Sperli kills him. Solmi finds coordinates and names of the conspirators in Schmidt's room and the coordinates are a military camp for the right wing terrorist group working with the government. This leads to shootout in a snowy woodland area where the cops drop grenades from helicopters and then get into shootouts on the ground. A rover leaves and they pursue the man through the woods. They shoot him and it is revealed to be Sperli, who is Rienzi. Sperli is offered a chance to escape by Caprara who is part of the conspiracy. Instead of letting him escape though, he shoots him to prevent him from talking. In a very effective ending Solmi is killed by a drive by shooting while Maria looks from a distance in terror.
I really like all of the action scenes in this movie but I love how much it feels like a world with no hope by the end. It's like Fincher's the Game where as the mystery keeps going it seems everything is going end badly for the main character and in the real world this movie is set it doesn't end well. There is a great mix of John Berry type action cues in the score and a great mix of low and high piano notes as the theme. Credit to Luciano Michellini for that. There aren't many Eurocrime movies with dismal endings like this and that makes it feel like a real drama as opposed to a crime movie.
Rating: 9/10
English dubbing cast:
- Frank Von Kuegelen dubs Luc Merenda as Solmi
- Ed Mannix dubs the chef in that one scene where Solmi and Maria go out to dinner
- Michael Forrest dubs Carlo Alighero as Ortolani
- Nick Alexander dubs Antonio Casale as Masseu
- Ted Rusoff dubs Masseu's other goon who gets seduced by Giuliana
- Robert Spafford dubs Arturo Dominici as the Chief of Police
- Carolyn De Fonseca dubs Mrs. Martinelli
Trivia: The car flipping over in the beginning where the first military official is killed is stock footage from Sergio Martino's earlier Eurocrime film, also starring Luc Merenda, the Violent Professionals.
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