Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Year: 1977
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: La via della droga; Drug Street
Genre: Action (Politziotteschi)
Plot:
Despite a series of international raids, a hotshot Interpol agent is determined to prove to his superiors that a major heroin racket is nowhere close to being cracked. While trying to stay on top of the activity, he keeps running into the same undercover cop also trying to bust the same gang which puts him in jeopardy when he can’t reveal the cops’ identity or purpose. Realizing that the only way to stop them is to out themselves and their mission, they race to stop them from smuggling a massive shipment into the country.
Review:
Overall, there’s quite a lot to like with this one. Among the brighter spots here is the fantastic setup that provides this one with the excuse to stay on the smugglers’ trail. Going into detail about how the organization takes their security functions to overwhelm the police with the clandestine meetings, back-up offers and the general sense of professionalism that brings them to be able to carry out the multi-national setup that takes place here works rather nicely. That goes along with the means of their enforcing the trade around the community by knocking off anyone that tries to interfere or disrupt their plans on getting everyone they can hooked on their supply, it all goes a long way towards making for a fun time here with the main group coming off as impressive as they are.
If the film does have an issue, it’s that this one focuses somewhat more on the duplicity angle and detective reasoning than some of the other efforts in the genre. Rather than be an intense, high-energy affair with plenty of stunt-work and shootouts that are usually found here, the main focus is on how to keep his identity a secret while being undercover in the community and hanging out with the rest of the members of the gang. This keeps the main action until quite late into the running time which might not be as enjoyable as those that prefer a much heavier emphasis on thrills and stunts than this one, even though the final half does pick up the intensity offering several fun shootouts, chases and gunfights to end this on a high note compared to what came before. It’s fun for what it is but does have that issue hanging over it.
Overview: ***/5
While not nearly as action-packed as it could’ve been, this one still features enough to like with it’s other areas before getting to the action that manage to hold it up until that point. Give this a shot if you’re curious about this one or are a fan of the creative crew, while most others should seek out others in the genre first before attempting this one.
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