ROMA VIOLENTA 1975- aka VIOLENT ROME
Maurizio Merli, Richard Conte, Ray Lovelock, John Steiner
I understand very little Italian so this synopsis is from what I could make out as this DVD had no english track nor subtitles.
Commissioner Betti (Merli) transfers to Rome to help quell the abundant crime and violence in the city. His methods prove to be as destructive as the criminals themselves. He is relieved of duty and is ultimately hired out by a rich business man (Conte) to lead a private group of vigilantes to eliminate as much scum as possible.
Maurizio Merli's first euro crime actioner is one mean mother and an outstanding start that would produce close to a dozen more violent Italo crime pictures. Merli commands your attention in every scene he is in and only needs to give an intimidating scowl to let you know somebody is about to get hurt. Merli, the king of the bitch slap gets to dole out mucho punishment here and director Marino Girolami (father to Enzo Castellari) gives him ample opportunity to do so.
The fight scenes are very good for a change and aren't as telegraphed as they are in so many Italian action films especially their westerns. Some of them are quite brutal such as the one where two men (including polizio regular Luciano Rossi) are caught after brutally raping Conte's daughter. Merli and his group viciously beat the two men with chains, baseball bats and crowbars. The beating Merli dishes out on a bus is also memorable.
The one scene that stands out most of all involves Merli chasing some crooks who have robbed a grocery store and murdered a woman and gunned down Betti's friend (Lovelock) in the process. Merli relentlessly chases the two men all over Rome. When they fail to lose him, they machine gun some women and children on the street in an attempt to get Betti to stop and see to the civilian casualties. Amazingly, Betti continues with the chase which ends up on the Freeway where the two villains attempt to lose Betti in the traffic. Needless to say, things end badly for the bad guys in what appears to be a modernized take on the famous gun duel seen in so many westerns.
Conte isn't in the film until 53 minutes in but his presence is welcome as he had become a regular face in these movies usually playing Mafia types similar to his portrayal in Coppola's GODFATHER.
Lovelock plays a character called 'The Blonde'(?) He takes a great deal of punishment throughout the movie for helping Betti nail the bad guys. The ending is a bit strange as Betti leaves Lovelock in the rest home and he foresees Betti gunned down in the street. As Betti turns the corner, we see a car approaching from behind him as the screen freezes before the credits roll.
An excellent Merli movie that desperately needs a US DVD release or at least a subtitled release from somewhere. There is an interview with Ray Lovelock here as well as a 7 minute doc on Italian crime movies by Daniele Magni and Silvio Giobbio who have apparently written a book on the subject bearing the title of Lenzi's THE CYNIC, THE RAT & THE FIST also starring Merli. The doc is specifically about Merli and shows shots from HIGH CRIME probably in lieu of the producers wanting a Nero look-alike for similar movies. Sadly, like the movie, none of these features have english subtitles.
There is a poster in the crime doc for a Merli movie entitled ITALIA A MANO ARMATA from 1976 with John Saxon that was made before Lenzi's ROMA A MANO ARMATA. Haven't heard of the former. Some other Merli movies which are listed on this DVD which I may know under a different name are POLIZIOTTO SENZA PAURA (1977), POLIZIOTTO SPRINT (1977 this may be the Merli movie where he is a motorbike racer), UN POLIZIOTTO SCOMODO (1978) SBIRRO, LA TUA LEGGE E LENTA...LA MIA NO! (1979) and POLIZIOTTO SOLITUDINE E RABBIA (1980). Any information on these others would be greatly appreciated.
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Topic: Violent Rome / Roma violenta (Marino Girolami as Franco Martinelli 1975) (Read 44289 times)