The Violent Professionals

MILANO TREMA boasts some nice Milan location work and some very well-handled action sequences by Sergio Martino. The proceedings however get a little bogged down with a few too many subplots, unlikable characters, and lots and lots of talking about politics. Ernesto Gastaldi was one of the best of Italy's genre movie screenwriters, always able to inject some realism and dimensionality even into the small bit players. There's even some successful intentional humor, particularly during Luc Merenda's successful infiltration of a bank heist racket even though he's (a former?) chief of police.

The car chases in this film really take the cake though as some of the best of the genre, and quite early in the cycle too. Footage from the chases popped up in numerous other crime films, particularly Umberto Lenzi's. Also, a lot of the same henchmen would pop up in film to film from here on out. While at first I was irked that the two bumbling goons (Claudio Ruffini and Sergio Smacchi) who get tasked with tailing Merenda around just disappear without any resolution, I was delighted to see teamed again (possibly as the same characters?) in such films as THE CYNIC THE RAT AND THE FIST.

Granted, the success of this film, along with HIGH CRIME led to an explosion of Italian crime movies over the rest of the decade. The two films share much in common including featuring a fisticuffs- loving inspector using extreme methods to rid his city of crime to the tune of Guido and Maurizio De Angelis music. Oh yes, and Silvano Tranquilli appears in both, though his character here much less intimidating.

When hard cop Luc Merenda discovers that the old cop he was just talking to that morning has been blown away by some escaped convicts, in addition to several other cops and an child, Luc dispenses justice the only way he knows how - by gunning the bad guys down in cold blood in front of all his colleagues.

His superior tells Luc to cool it, then goes off to blow the lid on something he's discovered, getting himself murdered in the process. Now Luc's mad as hell and suspended from the force to boot, so he does the only thing he can - poses as a pimp to get access to a local gang as a getaway driver. That's a plan so daft that you'd have to bitch slap an awful lot of people to get there...and it works.

Sure, Luc got a couple of women killed by accident when he called the cops on that robbery (plus the boyfriend of a junky girl who helps him out, plus I guess he gets her cooled too when I think about it), but it does get him noticed by local legitimate businessman Richard Conte, who might employ him, but wants him to demonstrate some mad GTA San Andreas type skills behind the wheel of a car. Does Luc feel guilty about those two women? I don't think he had the time.

Of course, this is no straightforward film where Luc just gets his revenge on the bad guys, there's also some politics involved, as it seems the gang are more interested in causing as much havoc as possible than grabbing money, and someone may even be pulling Richard Conte's strings too.

Although not up there with the best of the crime films, Violent Professionals is still a good film if you like these kind of things. You know, car chases, people firing guns at each other, Richard Conte's terrible stunt double, Luc Merenda violently assaulting everyone, funky music, smoking. Luc Merenda by the way looks like a really skinny Arnie and is very good at staring at things.

Luciano Rossi turns up at the beginning to get himself shot too.

Many of the best Giallo directors tried their hand at the Dirty Harry-inspired Polizi sub-genre at some point, and The Violent Professionals is Sergio Martino's classy effort. The film isn't as good as Martino's Giallo efforts (few films are), but it still stands up as one of the better Polizi films. Martino packs the film with all the elements that make this sort of thing successful; we've got car chases, gun fights, fist fights, a headstrong lead character etc. Unfortunately, despite working from a script by ace writer Ernesto Gastaldi, The Violent Professionals does suffer from the classic Italian film problem of a confusing plot. The plot follows the murder of a police chief. Lieutenant Giorga doesn't take this very well, and decides to follow up the chief's investigation by going undercover in a local gang of low lives. His plan is to build up enough of a reputation for himself that will enable him to get close to the leaders of the group and learn their secrets; but this foolhardy plan runs into a lot of adversity...

Like many Italian crime flicks, this one takes place in Milan. I've never been to Milan, but I'm guessing that it was one hell of a sleaze den back in the seventies as these films don't exactly paint a pretty picture! Sergio Martino does well at presenting a gritty urban atmosphere, and this hugely benefits the film. Martino's direction is solid throughout, and he can certainly take his place as one of the finest directors that Italy ever produced. Even when I wasn't completely sure what was going on, Martino keeps the tension bubbling and the film ticks over nicely all the way through. The standout moment takes the form of a car chase through the streets of Milan, and cinematic chases have rarely been better. The acting is strong also, and the film features a brilliant performance from Luc Merenda in the lead role, as well as film noir regular Richard Conte in support. The film lacks a good female lead, but other than that it pretty does everything you would want it to. Overall, The Violent Professionals isn't the best film of its type - but it's certainly a good one and gets high recommendations from me.

A renegade Italian cop fears that the law is too restricted when trying to fight lawless criminals, especially after seeing a prisoner escape and kill more people. Why send him back to prison when he already had a life sentence? All future murders are free of charge. Then, a high-ranking cop is killed on the street and the renegade is given an audience -- he is free to fight crime in his own way, which is a bit reckless.

I've seen reviews compare this film to "Dirty Harry", which seems about right. If anything, the officer in this film goes beyond what Clint Eastwood's character would do. Working with prostitutes, infiltrating a crime syndicate -- even robbing a bank with them, resulting in the death of a pregnant woman. The title "violent professionals" really sums it up... though, whether this refers to the cop or the criminals is left ambiguous.

After seeing another film from the box set I retrieved this from ("Kung Fu Punch of Death") I had very low expectations. But, ignoring the low production value that runs rampant in Italian films, the story and action were pretty amazing. There's a car chase scene that can give "French Connection" a run for its money. If you can tolerate cheap films, this is a truly great crime film.

Would I watch this again? Sure I would. I'd love it if someone would clean up the picture, sound and give me subtitles instead of dubbing... but for what the film cost me I more than got my money's worth on it. Don't be afraid to watch "Violent Professionals".

THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS (Sergio Martino - Italy 1973).

Not all too interesting Dirty Harry variation from Sergio Martino in this crime thriller, starring Luc Merenda as a tough smooth-guy cop who goes undercover as a wheels man to infiltrate a ring of cop-killin' bank robbers.

The main problem is main man Luc Merenda who has little charisma and is either permanently smiling or desperately trying to look tough. Either way, his repertoire is a bit limited. The unimaginative screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi is entirely short on logic. This is less urgent when writing horror or giallos, but the actions of police and crime bosses are supposed to contain some kind of logic, since they're driven by greed and money. In the world of organized crime, there's usually little room for vague motives, but here, most actions lack any kind of motivation. Even a bank robbery is carried out so incredibly clumsy, it was beyond me why the bank robbers were even surprised things went wrong.

Occasionally, it's a pretty lively affair with lots of action with some spectacular car chases (one of them probably took half the budget of the entire film), but some of these exciting set pieces can't save this from being a bore most of the time, with Merenda driving around in his car aimlessly or beating the living crap out of everyone he meets to get some answers about his chief's killing. In most cases, the answers don't add up to much or didn't make any sense to me. The English dubbing wasn't a big help in that department either.

Camera Obscura --- 5/10