Tough Poliziottesco with Antonio Sabato and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart
This Italian crime film by Sergio Grieco and Mmassimo Felisatti (who also wrote the original for "Calling All Police Cars" with Antonio Sabato) was released in Italian cinemas on August 12, 1976. Unfortunately he didn't make it to Germany at the time. In the English-speaking world the film is also known as "Terror in Rome", the more accurate translation of the original title would be something like "The violent snots from the Roman upper class". The director Sergio Grieco is best known for his EuroSpy films (from the 1960s) with the smart Ken Clark, the action thriller "One Man Against The Organization" (1975) with the muscle-bound Howard Ross and of course for his classic "Der Tollwütige / The Rabid" (1977) with a seemingly unleashed GOLDEN GLOBE nominee Helmut Berger. This sensational pearl was created between the latter two.
Rome has been terrorized for some time by an unscrupulous gang of youths on motorcycles. Under the leadership of Stefano Donini (Pierre Marfurt), a student from an outwardly well-ordered background, the rich snots act so brutally and licentiously that the population is terrified. Robberies, brutal rapes, drug trafficking, violent blackmail and even murder are part of the program of these degenerate bullies who try to transfigure their misdeeds with Nietzsche quotes. The responsible inspector De Gregori (Antonio Sabato) is fuming because the slightest questioning of Donini's influential dad (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) sends a lawyer after him. When the young Elena (Gloria Piedimonte) is raped extremely brutally by the gang (her face is severely disfigured by barbed wire), the limit is reached. The over-motivated inspector increases his training program in the sports hall in order to master the overwhelming gang. He is supported by his beautiful wife (Giuliana Melis), who repeatedly visits him in the hall - still in her coat - to watch reverently as her extremely strong husband puts his training partners on the mat in rows. There is also an attack on the inspector, who manages to kill the four hired rascals with his naked torso. One of these villains is the well-known stuntman Claudio Ruffini, whose facial features are thoroughly polished by Sabato in the film. A year later, the great Ruffini was supposed to make an appearance as "Fettbacke / Fatbacke" in "Charleston" (1977), in which he received a few good slaps from Bud Spencer.
The youth gang also includes young Marco (Gianluca Farnese), who as a working-class kid doesn't really fit in with the snots and just wants to belong. The devilish Stefano takes full advantage of this and gets a tip from Marco about a robbery in the factory where his father (Raffaele Di Mario) works. A lot goes wrong during this robbery. A little later, Marco's sister (the enchanting Franca Gonella), who is somewhat in love with Stefano, and her friend go with the two main perpetrators, who then reveal their true and terrible faces. It's time for the powerful inspector to intervene...
This Poliziottesco offers the entire spectrum of a typical Italian crime film, and yes, sometimes it exaggerates a bit. But in this exaggeration you also understand what made the Italian police and gangster film so popular in the 1970s. Highly entertaining, always to the tune of twelve and very close to the people and problems of his time. Very contemporary cinema that doesn't shy away from publicity!
You can watch the great Antonio Sabato (1943-2021) beat the soul out of one of the bad rascals with undisguised joy, before the father, who so absolutely unbelievably spoiled his depraved son, can intervene again with legal help .
You can really see how much fun it is for Antonio Sabato (similar to the brawling bully in "Zwei Schlitzohren in der gelben Hölle / Two Rascals in the Yellow Hell", 1974) to be staged as a virile "super bull" who also shows off his mega muscles and the voluptuousness can present his hairy hero's chest.
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (1925-1994), who is known from "Aeneas - Hero of Troy" with Steve Reeves, "Catherine of Russia" with Hildegard Knef and the Mario Bava classic "The Dead Eyes of Doctor Dracula", is convincing as an unscrupulous father who puts up with corpses to protect his wayward son.
The enchanting Franca Gonella (born 1952) also makes an appearance worth seeing in "Zwei Teufelskerle auf dem Weg nach Istanbul / Two devils on the way to Istanbul", where she has a hearty fight with Gülsen Bubikoglu in the swimming pool.
The acts of violence shown in this film are absolutely terrible and aimed at... politically incorrect. With these outbursts of violence, however, the Italian Poliziottesci are taking up a mood that was prevalent in many European countries in the 1970s. Just think of the violence of the terrorism at the time, the consequences of drug use, but also the social upheavals in general, which had an impact on everyday life that many people did not feel able to cope with. Such films, which function as a seismographic device for social developments, are unfortunately missing today. That's why it's so much fun to rediscover the films of the wild seventies. This has now rightly become politically incorrect. With these outbursts of violence, however, the Italian Poliziottesci are taking up a mood that was prevalent in many European countries in the 1970s.
