Il trucido e lo sbirro

Starting with a mildly amusing postmodern joke – the movie opening as a western which is actually screened in a penitentiary –, Umberto Lenzi's fourth Eurocrime collaboration with jack of all trades Tomás Milián is already running out of ideas, verve and steam after the credits. While Lenzi's previous efforts (Roma a mano armata, and especially the completely depraved Almost Human) show him on top of the poliziotteschi game, outsmarting each and every other Italian director of the genre with his stunningly fiendish combinations of cynicism, merciless action and ultra-tolchocks, Il trucido e lo sbirro falls victim not only to its half-price production, but also to the stodgy run-of-the-mill story-line – cop & thugs cooperate to rescue a kidnapped kiddie girl – that wouldn't even be accepted by Kanal Ukrayina nowadays, the subprime soundtrack by a certain Bruno Canfora, and foremost the exceptionally unfunny "comic relief" spirit that began to wrecking-ball Italian crime cinema the same year concurrently with the first installment of the dumb-and-dumber Nico Giraldi cop series, also with Milián in the lead. If you want to know why US guest star Henry Silva's screen time lasts only about two-and-a-half minutes, take another look at Milián's beauty treatment. Those sixteen tons of eyeliner certainly did cost a whole lotta dough.

Umberto Lenzi, for my money, is the king of the Polizi films and while Free Hand for a Tough Cop might not be the best known of his genre films, or as good as the likes of The Cynic, The Rat and the Fist or Almost Human, is still a damn fine piece of cinema and is sure to please anyone with a mind to see it. This film is different from the other Polizi films I've seen from Lenzi as the urban landscape that usually makes up the setting for this sort of film has been thrown out in favour of a more rural one. This sets the film apart from most of the rest genre, and it also gives it a feel that borders on Spaghetti western, which is nice. The plot is well worked and features a police officer who teams up with a dirty criminal known to friends and otherwise as 'Garbage Can'. They've been put together to find a girl being held for ransom by vicious gangster Brescianelli. They face a race against time as the girl has kidney problems, and there's also a secondary objective, which takes the form of taking down the gangster who is hoping to gain ransom from holding her.

Free Hand for a Tough Cop benefits from a great musical score, which is amazingly catchy and also provides a nice backdrop for the movie. The film features all the shootouts and car chases that you would expect from this sort of film, and there's also a fair share of humour, which actually bodes quite well with the characters and plot line. Lenzi's direction is solid as always, and he pulls great performances out of his esteemed cast. The lead role, as you would expect, goes to Thomas Milian, who delivers a different sort of performance to the ones seen in most of Lenzi's crime films. He gets great backup from Claudio Cassinelli and Henry Silva, as well as a number of other memorable Italian crime flick faces. The characters are actually very well designed considering what you would expect from this sort of film, and that is another aspect that makes Free Hand for a Tough Cop better than your average Polizi flick. The conclusion to the story isn't difficult to guess, but Lenzi provides a nice bit of humour at the end that leaves the audience with a nice taste in their mouth.

Giallo godfather Umberto Lenzi energetically pulls out all the cops to deliriously deliver one of his most bullet-blazingly iconic, street tough, gallopingly great, genre-inspiring poliziotteschi classics with his bravura B-Movie bonanza 'Free Hand for a Tough Cop'. The J&B-fuelled action is relentless, with screeching hordes of pell-mell, tarmac-melting Fiat's rarely slipping into neutral, and visually astute action maestro Lenzi excitingly makes the most of the film's lean and mean kidnapping plot, brusquely taking the dazed poliziotteschi fan onto a rollicking roller-coaster ride deep into the seamy underbelly of a grisly Italianate 70s crime spree, and it's amusing to see the iconic 'Almost Human' roles reversed, with stern, stone-faced Henry Silva playing sinister, bullet-mean killer Brescialli, and luminously charismatic, scene-stealing star Tomas Milian unleashing the entirely loveable big-haired rapscallion 'Monezza' on an appreciative audience! I have always admired Claudio Cassinelli acting, and the witheringly handsome, cucumber cool Cassinelli is on utterly sublime form as maverick, Thug-trashing Inspector Sarti, desperate to rescue the terminally ailing kidnapped girl from the nefarious clutches of Brescialli's mercenary hoods, he must riskily resort to a controversial methodology that almost pushes him to breaking point! The blazingly entertaining 'Free Hand for a Tough Cop' is a consistently thrilling, full-throttle'd Euro-crime action masterclass and the recent HD remaster only increases the landmark film's fascination! Lenzi Lives!!!

This is definitely one of the best crime movies ever made, if not THE best... Cassinelli stars as a cop who teams up with a drug dealer (Tomas Milian) and three scummy thieves to save a kidnapped girl from slimey villain Henry Silva and his gang... well actually it's more about finally killing Silva.

There's plenty of great action scenes, walk-on cameos by a large number of the Italian "regulars" like Luciano Rossi, Tom Felleghy, Giovanni Cianfriglia, and Riccardo Petrazzi... the same bunch who show up regularly in EVERY crime movie. What's best about this one is that while it has a good share of random crimes and killings (Italy had to be the least-safe place to live in the 70's), they all actually blend together into the greater story. The ending is one of the best in the genre and certainly surprising. What really gets me coming back to watch this one again and again is the abundance of really great, quotable, almost Tarantino-eque dialog. The best such quotes come from an understandably annoyed Silva as he tries to run a fairly incompetent kidnap syndicate, containing their fair share of expletives. Tomas Milian also has quite a few good lines as essentially the comic relief, but in the end he ends up being a pretty likable character even as he steals the good guy's wallet and jumps on a train.

Topping that, this film has unusually bright and nicely-framed photography from Argento veteran cinematographer Luigi Kuveiller, as well as some very hummable music by the relatively unknown Bruno Canfora. The casting decisions are uniformally excellent; Cassinelli is wooden but convincing as the hard-nose cop, Biagio Pelligra, Roberto Undari, and Giuseppe Castellano are great as the trio of thugs unknowingly aiding the good guys, and Tomas Milian shines as "Garbage Can" Monezza.

Unfortunately, this is one of the hardest of Lenzi's crime films to find, especially here in the states. Luckily it was released in Holland in English, though not in the full 'scope. Let's pray that DVD companies start picking these crime films up, and moreover... that this is one of them.

It was shown in 2004 on Canal + TV channel in beautiful 2.35 CinemaScope and original Italian language with French subtitles. You can met not only Henry Silva (good as usual) and Thomas Milian (amazing part !) but also Claudio Cassinneli as Police inspector Sarti (cf. : LA POLIZIA A LE MANI LEGATE) and Nicoletta Machiavelli who stars "capo" of the abductor's girlfriend. Charming Nicoletta was directely linked with the Renaissance political philosopher Nicola Machiavelli ("The Prince", "Studies on Titus Livius", etc.) and was at a time herself thought to have been adbucted after having diseappeared for more than week from her San Lazzaro Castle near Bolognia where she lived near her father Nicolo Machiavelli. As usual, the great Dardano Sachetti has written a script full of violence with a evident touch of political and social concern : painting of the underworld is sharp, without any concession to good taste, full of dark humor and full of ultra-violence. Director of photography Luigi Kuveiller is allright as usual and the car chases are, as always with the good "poliziotti" movies - and it is the case, here ! - quite impressive ones. As usual also, great realism in the choice of guns as a reflect of the sociology of guns in Italy in 1976 among both police and thugs : reglementary submachine-gun Beretta M12 chambered in 9mm Parabellum, Semi-auto pistol Walther P-38 chambered in 9mm Parabellum, Semi-auto pistol Beretta M1951 chambered in 9mm Parabellum, etc. To be pointed out : the titles themselves at the beginning of the movie make the viewer thinks that he is looking at the wrong movie : you see a western (probably an italian one !) but camera zooms back to reveal that we are in a screening room of... a prison ! French exploitation title at the time of release in French Theaters : "LE TRUAND SORT DE SA PLANQUE".