When Naples steps out of line: EuroCRIME with Luc MERENDA
This film by Michele Massimo TARANTINI is certainly not the strongest crime film from the Italian heyday of the genre.
Luc Merenda plays an inspector who comes to Naples and has to get used to some of the drudgery. Enzo Cannavale plays his assistant, who is completely different from the dashing inspector. But he can drive like hell; it's not for nothing that they call him "Nicola Lauda." The way the unlikely team pulls together and sets their sights on their common enemy Don Domenico (Claudio Gora) is one of the film's strengths. It is also interesting that three complex female characters are introduced: the not so "eternal" victim Rosa (Sonia Viviani), the cunning lady boss Carola (Marianne Comtell) and the smart girl Luisa (Francesca Guadagno). Beyond that, only dozens of items are offered from the assembly line. There are more worthy representatives of the genre.
The Italian audience seems to have liked it quite a bit, with 999 million ITL sales in the domestic box office being decent. The film did not make it into West German cinemas.
