Los violentos del Magnum 38

Although this film starts out with a lengthy credits sequence involving cop Marc Porel firing guns at things at a shooting range, the film itself spends very little time with Porel, as it's concerned more with all the other characters, including the bad guys, some drug addicts, and Porel's wife.

The main crux of the story revolves around old gangster Raymond Pelligren, who decides to retire from his business and split the organisation between his three underlings. This triggers a series of giallo-style killings where one of the three (Gabrielle Ferzetti) decides to off the other two and Pelligren himself, who gets a bullet between the eyes from a black-gloved killer, and underling Luciano Pigozzi, who gets garroted.

The third underling Giancarlo Sisti proves a little harder to kill. They try while he's carrying out a drug deal, but he escapes with the cash. There's a slight problem in that his girlfriend is also Ferzetti's girlfriend, and he's also a smack head, which ties in with the sub plot of a young heroin addict chick trying to score while Porel kind of lingers around trying to solve the case.

To be honest, Porel just sort of beats loads of perps up for the first two thirds of the film, as his investigations take him into the seedy world of heroin addiction and smelly looking junkies. He does get to do some action at the end of the film, but I'm being serious her when I say most of the supporting cast have more action than him.

Still, it's not a bad film at all. It's pretty grim even for a Eurocrime film, and there's plenty of nudity if naked dead junky women is your thing.

Uncompromising title and indeed although low budget and not one of the best films ever made a very decent and equally uncompromising effort. Drug dealing and prostitution, drug taking and sleaze, this has the usual ingredients but personally, I had difficulty for the first half hour working out who was who and on whose side they were on. Dramatic tension is absent until the last third and before that we get lots of fist fights, most overlong and unconvincing.

The scenes of drug taking, especially by desperate naked ladies, is however and as the killings build up a generally grubby feel is clearly established. The final section is worth the wait and although we have seen glimpses of good cinematography along the way, the final denouement is very well done. So, difficult start, bumpy middle and decent end with much nudity and far more drug injection than is usual.