VIOLENT ROME

Aka Roma Violenta (I), Verdammte, heilige Stadt (WG)
1975
Italy
Flaminia Prod.ni Cin.che
Director : Franco Martinelli [Marino Girolami]
Story : Vincenzo Mannino
Script : Vincenzo Mannino
Music : Guido and Maurizio de Angelis (Prima)
Cinematography : Fausto Zuccoli {Eastmancolor- Telecolor}
Editor : Vincenzo Tomassi
Art director : Antonio Visone
Original running time : 90 mins
Italian takings : n/a
Shot in De Paolis - Incer
Cast: Maurizio Merli (Bettini), Richard Conte (Sartori), Silvano Tranquilli (Chief inspector), Ray Lovelock (Biondi), John Steiner (Spadoni), Daniela Giordano (Erika), Attilo Duse, Giuliano Esperati [Giuliano Esperanti], Marcello Monti, Consalvo Dell'Arti, Mimmo Palmara, Attilio Dottesio, Luciano Rossi, Pippo Pollaci, Marco Stefanelli, Brunello Chiodetti, Ruggero Diella, Mario Novelli (Zuchelli), Massimo Vanni, Francesco D'Adda, Ezio Busso, Rina Mascetti, Maria Rosaria Riuzzi
Uncredited: Salvatore Baccaro

The Italian crime film comes in many forms and shades. If you were to pick one, however, that encapsulated the mid-70s vintage at it's finest, this would be it. A shit-kicking, unadulteratedly right-wing, paranoid epic of sleazeballs in afghans, random violence and deliberate polemicising. This is the type of relentlessly heady brew that could only appeal to people called Dwight, who live in a hole with a large gun collection in Wyoming - or those of us with an unabridged fondness for the politically incorrect and the cinematically relentless. It's by no means my favourite of the genre, but it is the ultimate of it's type, and as such was a blueprint for many of it's followers, both from a narrative and a thematic sense.

'Criminal violence is increasing', says Inspector Bettini (Maurizio Merli), 'because (of a) weak legislation and unscrupulous lawyers'. Well, he seems to have a point, because everywhere you look in this film there's some geek raping, shooting or robbing the innocent people of Rome. I can't imagine that this would have done anything for tourism at the time, because it doesn't paint the most appetising portrait of life in the beautiful city. However, on the other hand 'criminal violence is (also probably) increasing' because 95% of it is due to the aforementioned Inspector's rather heavy-handed approach to law enforcement.

'The old methods are no use anymore… they're antiquated, we need new ways'. Well yes, namely beating the crap out of anyone you think may be a suspect and walking around in a large raincoat. It seems to work, though. When a bunch of lowlifes hold up a bus and shoot a young lad (whose fiancee just happens to be waiting at the next stop - feel those heartstrings twang), it doesn't take Bettini too long to figure out that it's all down to 'The Chink', who is promptly captured and locked up behind bars.

However, before he can rest on his laurels he finds himself dealing with another bunch of slime. This lot have held up a hypermart and killed a hostage or two. Using information from his undercover friends he finds out that the leader of these goons in an Englishman called Spedoni (John Steiner, with an outrageous mockney accent and impressive wing-collars). Now this guy is so nasty that when he's being chased after robbing a bank he shoots down a group of kiddies waiting at an ice-cream stand! Just to slow the cops down! Oh well, rest assured that he's soon dancing to the tune of Bettini's bullets, and we're only forty-five minutes into the running time…

With a slight shift of scripting gears, our Inspector is so disgusted at being threatened with a charge of manslaughter that he decides to quit the force. Well, what's a natural born cop supposed to do when the police won't have him? Luckily he bumps into possibly the only person in Europe with even more fascistic tendencies that himself, Sartori (Richard Conte), a lawyer who spends his spare time running a vigilante squad. Before you can say 'innocent until proven guilty' he's back to his old habits; whacking, thwacking or smacking anything that doesn't look like an upstanding citizen. However, some of his old foes still have a bone to pick with him…

It's hard to dislike a film populated by so many horrible people, especially when it's spattered with scenes of quite outrageous violence. However my big problem with Violent Rome lies in the fact that it doesn't seem to have a narrative vertebrae. Whilst it rattles along like one of the rusty old police cars so prevalent within it - at a great pace but without much in the way of control - it seems to be a series of vignettes that follow one after the other rather than a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. This is not helped much by the fact that the main villain doesn't last until much more than halfway through the film. This means that Bettini doesn't really seem to have a suitable foil, and is more kicking against the (rather hopeless) mass of the underworld as opposed to someone who can actually make him sweat.

On a more positive note, it is effectively directed by Marino Girolami (Enzo Castellari's dad), who makes up in technical proficiency what he may lack in insight or vision. The soundtrack is surprisingly mellow (with the exception of one particularly annoying tune that was also, I believe, used in High Crime (La Polizia incrimina la legge assolve, 73). There is an endless parade of freaks and finks, and rather than balaclavas the robbers all seem to wear bobble hats, which is a bonus.

Maurizio Merli was so good in the role that he went on to reprise it in about twenty other films before disappearing from view when the genre died out. Ray Lovelock is also particularly effective as the undercover agent Biondi, who ends up in a wheelchair and seems to act as Bettini's 'conscience'. It all ends very strangely, and I probably need to watch it about five more times (and whilst consuming about five less beers) to work out what it's getting at. Don't let my reservations put you off, this is an essential piece of cinema that you should show to any available children at the earliest opportunity!

Reviewed by Matt Blake