KILLER COP

Aka La Polizia ha le mani legate (I), Les dossiers rouges de la mondaine (Fr)
1974
Italy
Albert Pugliese and Luciano Ercoli for P.A.C.
Director : Luciano Ercoli
Story : Mario Bregni
Script : Gianfranco Callgarich
Music : Stelvio Cipriani (Bixio)
Cinematography : Marcello Gatti {Technicolor - Techniscope}
Editor : Angelo Curi
Art director : Giorgio Luppi
Original running time : 100 mins
Italian takings : n/a
Exteriors shot in Milan
Cast : Claudio Cassinelli (Commissioner Matteo Rolandi), Arthur Kennedy (Attorney General Armando di Federico), Franco Fabrizi (Agent Luigi Balsamo), Sara Sperati (Papaya Girotti), Bruno Zanin (Franco Ludovisi, an assassin), Francesco D'Adda (Assistant Attorney Bondi), Paolo Peirot, Valeria D'Obici (Ludovisi's sister), Giuliana Rivera (Rolandi's friend, an optician), Franco Marletta, Adelio Jotti, Enzo Fisichella (Colonel Francalancia), Walter Valdi, Giovanni Cianfriglia (a killer), Fausto Tommei (Dr Regazzoni, an optician), Giuseppina Pentimalli, Livia Cerini, Guido Spadea, Sergio Tardioli, Giancarlo Busi, Ugo Bologna (a policeman), Vittorio Pinelli

A couple of observations before I embark on the meat of the review. Firstly, it is often said that what most dates a film are the fashions contained within. This is, of course, true. You watch a seventies crime thriller and it'll be jam-packed full of flare trousers, wing collars, Afro haircuts and pimp hats. However, there can also be a pretty good case made for the argument that what really, really fixes a movie into a particular time frame are the sports that characters are seen watching.

I've mentioned elsewhere on this site the idiosyncratic activity of 'drag racing'. But what on earth the people are playing in this instance is totally beyond me - if anyone can even name this peccadillo, please let me know and I'll add it into my 'relics of a crap era' folder. Let me describe it: basically a participant attaches a strange contraption (rather like a giant fingernail) to their hand and flings a ball from it at a wall, so that it can bounce back and another player - also wearing the aforementioned contraption - catches it and repeats the process. The only thing I can possibly compare it to is a game of squash played by refugees from John Carpenter's fabulous The Thing (82).

Secondly, is there an Italian film from the period which doesn't feature a bottle of J&B whisky at some point during it's running time? It crops up even more often than the mysterious Carla Mancina (whatever the hell she looks like) does. And I always thought product placement was something new…

Anyway, now that's out of my system - on with the synopsis. Commissioner Rolandi (Claudio Cassinelli) is a cop with a beat up Mercedes and an obsession with Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick'. Whilst carrying out routine surveillance on a suspected Algerian drug runner, he is the witness to a bomb exploding in the midst of an important international conference. Several people are killed and, as some of them are foreign VIPs, the solving of the crime assumes extra political implications. Armando Di Federico (Arthur Kennedy), a brusque procurator, is appointed investigative judge.

Unfortunately, they only really have one clue. The shortsighted killer, Franco (Bruno Zanin), manages to lose his spectacles whilst struggling to get away. Rolandi informs all of the local opticians to be on the lookout and to inform him if anyone suspicious contacts them. Unfortunately his plan is scuppered when someone leaks this valuable information to the press. However, he does manage to discover that his quarry is a heroin addict, and sets about finding out the name of his pusher.

Meanwhile, a nasty looking assassin (Giovanni Cianfriglia) is bumping off anyone who knows anything about the case - and he seems to be receiving instructions from the upper echelons of power.

Luciano Ercoli was an interesting director who is mainly known for his trilogy of effective giallos; Death Walks at Midnight (La Morte accarezza a mezzanotte, 73), Death Walks on High Heels (La Morte cammina con i tacchi alti, 72) and Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (Le Foto proibite di una signora per bene, 70). Like these, this is a slow paced, rather sombre affair that belies its negligible plot by throwing in an assortment of confusing narrative twists. It also has extremely good production values, with some superb cinematography and an absolutely kicking Stelvio Cipriani soundtrack that can easily be counted as one of his best.

Featuring some nice performances (even from Arthur Kennedy, who can normally be relied upon to ham it up shamelessly), this is the type of thing that could easily appeal to a more 'arty' film audience. Or would do if the distributors hadn't decided to land it with the entirely inappropriate Killer Cop moniker.

Reviewed by Matt Blake