Director: Massimo Dallamano
Year: 1976
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Quelli Delibro Calibre ‘38
Genre: Action (Politziotteschi)
Plot:
Following a hit on his crime ring, the boss of a deadly gang of criminals retaliates against the lead officer by murdering his wife in front of his son. Informed of the tragedy, the police commissioner assigns the widowed officer control of a special squad of policemen who will operate out of the bounds of normal authority in order to track down and stop the crime spree from continuing, but when news strikes of a deadly theft of dynamite charges they suspect the crime boss of the theft. After a while, a series of deadly explosions rock the city and a ransom is demanded or more explosions will go off, forcing him to put the pieces together and set out with the squad to stop the crimes from continuing.
Review:
This is a highly effective and enjoyable poliziotteschi. Among the most effective aspects here are the highly impressive and over-the-top action sequences that are littered throughout the film. That the film opens with a rousing gunfight in the raid on his headquarters is an important touch to get the film rolling, and the initial scenes showing the squad at work offering up the kind of exploits they’re supposed to demonstrate by riding around in the city performing daring tasks and stunts to curtail a fleeing carload of bank-robbers or other thugs roaming the streets is pretty high-energy action scenes with a lot to like about them. The escape attempt by the disguised officers and the resulting chase is pretty fun and brutal featuring the violent aftermath shown here. That goes along nicely with the series of bombings that are featured here involving the explosions taking place in crowded locations and the lingering shots of burnt and mangled bodies create some equally brutal and graphic imagery. With a rousing finale that offers up the kind of emotional catharsis usually featured here alongside some decent action as well, it works rather nicely in this regard.
As well, in the fine tradition of these films, there are some interesting politics to discuss throughout here. The fact that this one incident involving his wife being murdered is enough justification to order the approval of a long-delayed special task force that goes out apprehending criminals using rougher and more brutish policies is a bit strange even though it sets the film going. There doesn’t serve a generally fascinating motive to bring the squad into existence, especially once they seem to ineffectual in stopping the crim-spree lingering throughout the city as none of them perform any kind of police work to stop it from continuing and just stand around waiting for the next one to go off complaining about not having the resources to stop them. The rampant political implications with each of the attacks constantly being brought up as terrorist attacks on political means which rivals the actions undertaken by extremist groups at the time of release, adding even more to the film as a whole.
Whether or not the political machinations are to your liking, there’s no denying the fact that the true flaw featured here is the film’s underwhelming employ to play off its title squad in the middle of the film. Since they jump so quickly into action at first, there are large gaps in the film where it seems to consist solely of wandering around the city looking for clues to solve the crimes after they’ve already happened. Not only does this come off without much in the way of action beyond the bombings that take place but it takes away the impact and appeal of the squad since they’re largely ineffectual and unimpressive in a film designed to showcase how far above and beyond the laws of the police force they are. They seem fine on the first few instances of the criminal gang getting caught and apprehended but after that scene, we don’t get much in the way of their special abilities until the finale. Most of them even disappear from the film with the focus on the inspector talking to his superiors about the crimes and their significance, taking a lot more of their appeal out of the film altogether which makes for their main flaws.
Overview: ***.5/5
Filled with a lot of action and some interesting politics involving how the police unit operates in the city, there’s a lot to like here even though some obvious issues do crop up from time to time that holds this one back from the upper echelons of the genre. Enthusiasts for Eurocult cinema, the creative crew, or the genre, in general, will have the most fun here while those looking to introduce themselves to the style should start elsewhere before getting to this one eventually.
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