Execution Squad

The police say thank you: Italian crime classic with Mario Adorf and Jürgen Drews

With this film by Stefano "Steno" Vanzina (production: Roberto Infascelli) the great wave of Italian Poliziotteschi films of the 1970s really began. In Italy it grossed ITL 1.7 billion in the box office, but the film was not quite as successful in cinemas in West Germany.

Commissario Bertone (Enrico Maria Salerno) is a very sophisticated police officer who is increasingly despairing of politics and what he believes is a far too lax justice system. He has various arguments, especially with public prosecutor Ricciuti (Mario Adorf). The crime rate in Rome is rising and rising. The misery is made clear to the distinctive journalist Sandra (Mariangela Melato) in an almost sociological-scientific way. The head crook Bettarini (Franco Fabrizi) and the young Michele Settecamini (Jürgen Drews), who brutally holds a young woman (Laura Belli) hostage in order to cover up a robbery, act as a symbol of the fact that the criminals are increasingly capable of taking more risks takes. But then something unexpected happens! Apparently there is a syndicate on the streets of Rome whose mission is to murder criminals and other undesirable people who have been spared justice. Almost as a revival of the fascist past and the abolished death penalty, police officers who were fired because of excessive use of force seem to be behind it. Can that even be possible? What does the former police chief Stolfi (Cyril Cusack) know about it?

This is really tough stuff, which is presented here in an outstanding mixture of action spectacle and social psychological treatise. Exciting, direct, informative and so in tune with the times that it touched a nerve with the audience. A great moment in Italian genre cinema! Rousing, provocative, frightening!

The lead role was originally supposed to go to sex comedy star Lando Buzzanca, but luckily that fell through. Enrico Maria Salerno simply fits this role better. Pop singer Jürgen Drews probably got his small role by chance and at the request of co-producer Dieter Geissler. But he does his job really well. Respect! In 1976 he was supposed to perform with the Les Humphries Singers (Sing Sang Song) at the Eurovision Song Contest and land a huge hit in German-speaking countries with "Ein Bett im Kornfeld".

Great police film that you should definitely see as a EuroCrime fan!

"La Polizia Ringrazia" is, at first sight, a prototype of an Italian euro-crime/poliziotesschi thriller like there were dozens during the first half of the 1970s. They practically always featured the same recurring themes, like unorthodox coppers, the ever-failing Italian justice system, vigilante squads violently cleansing the streets, corrupt politicians and police superiors, media circuses and liberal newspapers influencing the public opinion. You'd think the audience eventually grew tired of these familiar and continuously recycled themes, but no. Quite the contrary, every Poliziotesschi is unique and, for avid genre fanatics like me, it's almost becoming an obsession to track them all down. "La Polizia Ringrazia" is a downright stellar example of the euro-crime's peak period, complete with a compelling & intelligent script, an intensely raw atmosphere of realism, a few shocking bits of violence, a great soundtrack (Stelvio Cipriani, of course) and brilliantly devoted performances by some of the finest contemporary stars (notably Enrico Maria Salerno, Mario Adorf, Cyril Cusack, ...)

Salerno is truly amazing as the clearly tormented Commissioner Bertone, caught between the frustration of seeing criminals getting released without a proper punishment and the accusations of the press about the police being too violent when making their arrests. Whilst on the case of finding two bank robbers who killed two people during their escape, Salerno is suddenly confronted with another major challenge. A secret group, existing of former policemen and even judges, are hunting down acquitted or fugitive criminals and brutally execute them in true mafia-style. Moral dilemmas aside, Commissioner Bertone must find now the bank robbers before the so-call "clean up squad" does. The material may be familiar, but writer/director Stefano Vanzina (better known as Steno) keeps the levels of suspense, plausibility and originality quite high and steady. I was particularly surprised by this, because Steno is mainly known for his light-headed comedies starring Bud Spencer!

The last thing you can say about "La Polizia Ringrazia" is that it is light-headed! There are a couple of sequences that initially seem very bizarre, but they actually work quite effectively. For example, Commissioner Bertone invites a whole bunch of journalists on a nightly tour bus drive through the city, just to demonstrate how disastrous the crime plague is. The role of Mario Adorf, as the unreliable district attorney, is also quite unusual for this type of film, but the role (and, of course, Adorf's performance) add a great deal of value to an already intelligent film. "La Polizia Ringrazia" is far from being the most explicitly violent Poliziotesschi, but several scenes are nevertheless immensely brutal and gritty. The clean-up squad's cold-blooded executions, for instance, and especially the horrendous fate of a poor woman who's taken hostage and eventually thrown off a driving vehicle. It's the second time in a short period that I've seen such a similarly shocking death, the other movie being "La Legge Violenta della Squadra Anticrimine", starring John Saxon and J. Lee Cob. And no, it's not recycled footage, as I know the Italians were infamous for that.

I really love those Poliziotteschi pictures from Italy, it's has an incredible sense of realism, a veteran Police Commissioner Bertone played by the great Enrico Maria Salerno has been pushed by press, society and several groups against policemen violence, meanwhile many assassins, drugs dealers, crooks are free for their smart defence lawyers, also by the prosecutor (Mario Adorf) that pressure him to best treatment of those human beings , so quickly enter the Dead Squad commanded by ex-cops and judges, a closed club, a crime picture who dared to touch in a true sensitive point, so rarely even in this specific genre, a criticism or a farce, actually this fact had occurred on the mostly major cities around the globe and still on action, except where the law has a fully control, valuable offering by Italian Poliziottesque's era!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

I wasnt aware of the sub genre titled "Poliziotesschi", until I read the reviews here for this title. Yeah, i'm definately a fan. I watched docu recently, where Martin Scorsese talks about post war film making in Italy and a movement called "neo-realism", there is definately an element of that to be found here in this genre also. These early 70s Italian movies definately had a big influence on American film makers for decades to come. The Sopranos, Nico (also known as Above the Law), & Sidney Lumet's Serpico & Prince of the City, are all examples that spring to mind of popular culture 80s/ 90s cinema/ Tv, which are direct descendants of this subgenre. I found this film intelligent and analytical. Most likely these themes have a historical foundation in 1970s Italian politics as they appear often, but they exist in every country to one extent or another, maybe so, more than we would like to admit. The biblical quote I refered to in the review title, used by a character in this movie, resonated at the end of the movie when the brave officer falls foul of his good intentions. Its gritty powerful storytelling.

Me, I was born to watch all the movies. And that's what I've been doing all my life for 62 years. I'm aware that it's impossible, I'm not crazy. Now, in present times, it's harder and harder to choose a movie to watch, when there are so many, millions and millions. It's hard to find a real good movie. That's why, many times, I choose to re-watch a movie that I really liked sometime in the past. I've seen this one for the first time in 1972 or 1973 and I remember that I liked it very much. I was only about 13 years old. Exceptional actors, Enrico Maria Salerno, Mario Adorf, Mariangela Melato, Franco Fabrizi, Cyril Cusack. Cool music, with obsessive piano and violins, in Morricone's style, signed by Stelvio Cipriani. Cool cinematography too by Riccardo Pallottini and, especially, precise direction signed Stefano Vanzina (Steno). The film is "related" to "The Great Kidnapping" (1973)La polizia sta a guardare (original title) directed by Roberto Infascelli. Enrico Maria Salerno plays a similar character in both films, Commissioner Cardone in the one directed by Infascelli, and Commissario Bertone in the one directed by Steno. This "Execution Squad" (1972)La polizia ringrazia (original title) has something in common with the absolute masterpiece signed Elio Petri, "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (original title). The character played by Salerno has very similar features to the police chief played by Gian Maria Volontè. OK, watching the film again in 2020, at the age of 62, I didn't like it as much as at 13, it didn't fascinate me anymore, but anyway, it's worth seeing, it's a good film.