While not the shiniest star in the euro-crime lineup, this film features lots of tense thrills and the most impressive car stunts you'll see this side of William Friedkin.
Marcel Bozzuffi makes for an interesting hero, not having the classic good looks of, say, Franco Nero, Fabio Testi, or Maurizio Merli. He DOES however know how to carry an emotional performance, playing the role perfectly of a motivated police inspector pushed even further to the edge by the cold-blooded murder of his wife.
Bozzuffi imposes a pretty heavy carbon footprint with his 4-man squad of hotshot stuntman policemen on noxious motorcycles. One of them in particular gets to play dashing playboy and involve himself with TWO women of interest who just happen to have a connection to an ex-con (Antonio Marsina) they're trying to catch before he and Ivan Rassimov succeed in blowing up the city with non-nuclear suitcase bombs. Was this hotshot hero aware of these girls' proximity to villains or just fell into relationships with them as part of a heavily unlikely coincidence? The film doesn't really ever tell you, covering up its many plot holes and contrivances with stylish chase scenes, fist fights, a couple gun battles, explosions, and a surprise gore scene for when a poor criminal tries (unsuccessfully) to grab onto an escape car.
While genre fans may be disappointed to see so few of the regular stock of Euro-henchmen get whacked this time around, we do find solace in having Ivan Rassimov take up so much screen-time in his most demented role yet as a psychopathic anarchist out to collect a heavy ransom at all costs with no qualms about murdering anyone and everyone in his way or on his own side. He becomes so tied to his detonator murder- mobile (complete with ominous and catchy Stelvio Cipriani theme) that you'll never look at a French Citroen the same way again. Between him, Marsina, and a particularly icky-looking Franco Garofalo, the villains of this film all come off as particularly loathsome, giving the audience plenty to celebrate should they be bumped off.
Fans of motorcycle exhaust, dangerous crashes, colt .38 shooting, and hand-held shots of public bomb explosion aftermath will get a kick out of this movie. Dallamano took this genre seriously and thankfully avoids most of the idiocy inherent among other films of the Italian Motorcycle Cop subgenre. Also be sure to check out the spiritual successor to this film, STUNT SQUAD, which came the next year for more of the same. Unfortunately Dallamano didn't return to direct it... 'cuz he died.
Most notable for its very prescient casting of a pre-famous Grace Jones as a nightclub singer (singing a Stelvio Cipriani song no less, only to later pop up in NIGHTMARE CITY) and far worse dubbing than usual from the regular gang of English language voice actors you'll hear in Italian movies. I suppose it was more difficult to read and match actor lip-movements while they're behind reflective glass via projector in a 1970's Roman soundbooth than it is on an HD television in 2017, so Ted Rusoff and the gang get a bit of a pass from me on this one. His stellar voice performance for Bozzuffi on the English track more than makes up for it.
