La via della droga

This crime thriller tells the story of an undercover cop (Fabio Testi) who has to "play" a drug dealer so that the real dealers accept him as a member of their syndicate and he can come close to the big men at the top of the syndicate. As it is the problem with many genre films of its decade, the depiction of the drug dealers, their environments and the investigating methods of the undercover cop looks clichéd and hilariously out of date. Except for that, this is a highly entertaining, action packed film.

Fabio Testi never looks like a real drug dealer, but who cares, his acting is solid as ever. David Hemmings as the police inspector who knows about Testi's true identity brings English flair to the role with his sometimes almost exaggerated British accent. The supporting cast consists of many faces familiar from other Italian genre outings (e.g. the ruthless syndicate killer in Lucio Fulci's "Luca il Contrabbandiere" from 1981, also starring Testi in the lead role), and the score by the (at that time) Argento regulars "Goblin" just rocks. There are some quite original action sequences, especially the climax, in which director Enzo Girolami delivers a plane chase for once instead of a car chase (and this plane chase looks daring sometimes). Because the simple plot always pushes the action forward, the movie never becomes boring and delivers.

Certainly not Enzo Girolami's best film (his "La Polizia Incrimina, la Legge Assolve" is probably the best Italian crime film ever made), mainly because the story is never really convincing, but it's fast paced and will please every fan of Italian crime thrillers.

A splendid opening with shots of Hong Kong, Colombia, New York and Amsterdam of the drug journey but it ends on the streets of Rome and Fabio Testi the main man. He is in the film the whole time and I assume also his own stunts and he is great and David Hemmings is also fine, probably not doing his own stunts. The last twenty minutes are really wonderful, with planes as well although most of the time it is the drug and mafia crew on the streets. It is good but not anything like as good as Enzo G Castellari's first film of The Big Racket (1976) although it is nice to hear the music of Goblin.

This is just a fun movie. The acting is campy at parts but the action sequences are better than expected. We had a lot of fun watching this. There's a pointless out of the blue lesbian scene and "drug addict" acting of the caliber of an after school commercial.

I know it sounds like I'm taking digs at the film, but I'm not. Watch the trailer on the Blue Underground site... it might be on IMDb too... but the trailer was delicious enough to get me to rent it (just as the trailer for Street Law did that title). David Hemmings is great.

Basically... "fun" is the key point of this review. Fun.

8 out of 10

Let's get some of the issues out of the way first. The film really gets off on the wrong foot with a dizzying amount of globe-trotting with Fabio Testi the hero as well as many tangentially related characters wandering around Amsterdam, Hong Kong, New York, Rome, and Bangkok before the film seems to kinda "settle down" on its narrative, maybe 15 minutes in. Unless you're a huge fan of Goblin music, you'll likely have lost interest long before the story starts.

Once things get going, you'll find the the film is remarkably thinly plotted when compared to Castellari's other crimers like HIGH CRIME and THE BIG RACKET. It has a lot of action, violence, and ups the ante as far as stunt work for sure, but the emotional connection just isn't there. It's like a whole lot of frosting on a stale and flavorless cake.

That said, there are some things worth noting about this movie. It's very strange and unpredictable for the first hour before settling into an extended chase sequence. Also it's odd to see David Hemmings as the big international star but he aquits himself well in the chase scenes and even dubs himself for a change. There's no leading lady per-say, and the highest up woman in the credits Sherry Buchanan gets kinda brushed aside without any affect on the plot whatsoever. Her whole story of working as a prostitute to support her junky boyfriend felt like it would have had a lot more bearing on things, but neither of them do once they fulfill their purpose of getting Fabio to the chase scene.

It is rare though to find a Eurocrime movie that isn't an obvious clone of a more successful American one. It's a little bit more like a James Bond style adventure with Testi as an undercover cop with sort of a goofy denim costume, but he grows on you complete with Michael Forest's cocksure dubbing voice. Also, the Goblin music sort-of suits the film but gets a little distractingly over-the-top in a way that worked a lot better for DAWN OF THE DEAD or SUSPIRIA than this sort of film.

There are some preposterous situations and developments in LA VIA DELLA DROGA aka THE HEROIN BUSTERS but it still reeled me in and had me interested to the end.

Director Enzo Castellari is no household name, not even in his native country, Italy. To be frank, I had never heard of him. That said, the production looks far from shabby thanks to effective cinematography by Giovanni Bergamini and the convincing if unusual leading duo of Fabio Testi - undercover cop looking tall, fit and muscular despite wearing cowboy boots in his almost nonstop running - and Hemmings, the somewhat podgy Interpol inspector still able to climb walls. They exchange some cryptic, even funny lines, none more so than when Testi teaches Hemmings on how to use the pronoun "whom" instead of "who."

The film posts some well made car, bike and running chases - though I found the final one, aboard two light planes, downright risible. The top villain with his fake wig rather struck me as a clearly unintended comedian, especially when piloting the aircraft.

Despite those flaws, I found HEROIN BUSTERS and its level of violence credibly engrossing. 7/10.