...a tutte le auto della polizia...

The Giallo was one of the more popular genres in Italy during the early seventies, and as the decade moved on (and Dirty Harry was released), the Polizi flick pushed the Giallo out a little. Mario Caiano's Calling All Police cars is a sort of mixture of the two; for the first half of the film, it plays out like a Polizi flick and then as we move into the final third, the film transforms into a Giallo. Rather than feel like two movies stuck together, however, the film actually does feel like a complete whole and the two blend well with each other. The plot takes obvious influence from Massimo Dallamano's unofficial 'Schoolgirls in Peril' trilogy and puts its focus on corruption inside a school. The film begins by focusing on Fiorella Icardi, the daughter of a rich surgeon. She lies to her parents about where she's going and promptly goes missing. Due to her father's standing in the community, the police mount a big search for the girl; who promptly turns up in the river with a bullet in her brain. Commissioner Fernando Solmi investigates and he is lead to a schoolgirl prostitution ring.

The first two thirds of the film are rather short on action and put more focus on building up the situation and characters as well as showing us some police procedure. It's all very well done and that is thanks mostly to director MMario Caiano who gives the film a great style that suits the film perfectly, as well as pulling great performances from his cast, which includes Antonio Sabato in the lead role. Despite taking obvious influence from Massimo Dallamano's films, this one is not nearly as sleazy and that is down to the fact that we focus more on the police investigation and characters than the actual schoolgirls. This may not please some movie fans; but for me, Calling All Police Cars is a better film for it as the director keeps the focus on things integral to the plot. The film really takes off in the final third when many Giallo themes start being incorporated and we are treated to three murder scenes; the final one of which is particularly bloodthirsty and a scene that the great Dario Argento would be proud of! The mystery itself comes to a satisfying, if not particularly inventive, conclusion at the close and overall; I would not hesitate to recommend this film to fans of Italian thrillers.

This extremely rare and hardly known film (as far as I know, it was never released outside of Italy) is an interesting mix of a classic crime story and a typical giallo. In the first half of the film, there is only one murder to be solved, but as soon as the police comes closer to the truth, people are killed in usual giallo style, during thrilling and atmospheric intense scenes. This mixture may seem odd (one may ask why the film wasn't made in giallo style right from the beginning), but it works quite well and keeps the tension up until the end. The murder scenes are nasty, and the identity of the killer really a big surprise. The movie has also its tragic moments, but never becomes exaggeratedly melodramatic.

One of those films that deserve a far broader release, interesting not only for giallo fans.

I don't know how many times I missed out on this one on late-night Italian TV, believing it to be a low-brow poliziottesco; having recently enjoyed Caiano's WEAPONS OF DEATH (1977) and, noticing it was scheduled for yet another passage this week, I decided to check it out (even if I knew that particular channel would suffer from bad reception).

As it turned out, the film contains strong elements of the giallo and, in fact, most resembles a similar hybrid I watched a couple of weeks ago – Massimo Dallamano's WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? (1974)! The plot again involves the uncovering of a teenage prostitution ring (also treated in Romolo Guerrieri's CITY UNDER SIEGE [1974]) – though, in this case, it emerges as a red herring (a false trail picked up by the police in its investigation into the disappearance of the 15 year-old daughter of eminent surgeon Gabriele Ferzetti).

The above-average cast also includes Antonio Sabato (better than expected as the cop assigned to the case), Enrico Maria Salerno as his superior, Luciana Paluzzi as a social worker (paralleling the feminist angle seen in the Dallamano film), Ettore Manni as a peeper, Marino Mase' as the racketeer leading an outwardly respectable life, etc. Similar to WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS?, the police procedural is quite thorough and takes center-stage; however, a couple of the murders are pretty graphic (one of them was basically replicated outright into Alberto Negrin's RINGS OF FEAR [1978] – another giallo which recently received a first-time viewing from me). Actually, the film feels a bit too voyeuristic in its intent (with plenty of gratuitous female nudity) – though making up for this by not providing any easy answers with its unexpected revelation at the finale

A teenage girl from a wealthy family mysteriously disappears. After her body is found at the bottom of a lake the police begin an intense investigation that leads to a teenage prostitution ring and several more bloody murders, but the actual killer may be someone much closer to the home.

This was one of the Italian films from the 1970's that were inspired by Massimo Dallamano's "schoolgirl gialli" where dissipated, middle-class schoolgirls become involved in drug orgies, prostitution, back-alley abortions, and other sordid goings on, and eventually meet a sticky end. These films were at once sleazy and hypocritcally moralistic. They range from the Dallamano's relatively classy "What Have You Done to Solange?" (loosely based on an Edgar Wallace novel)to Alberto Negrin's irredeemably trashy "Trauma" (with its infamous death-by-dildo scene). This movie most resembles Dallamano's second film "What Have They Done to Your Daughters?" in that it tries to mitigate the sleaze a little by putting straight-arrow cops at the moral center and focusing on police procedure rather than the sexual intrigue. In a way though, this makes the movie even more objectionable. The most disturbing thing about it isn't really the tender age of the victims (the actresses, at least, all look like they'd long since blown out the candles on their 18th birthday cakes), but the way their characters are almost literally reduced to pieces of meat: It really doesn't matter whether they are alive, lying unconscious on abortionist's table, or lying dead on a slab--it's all pretty much just an excuse to get them nice and naked.

Like "Daughters?" this film tries to include a feminist angle by including former Bond girl Luciana Paluzzi as one of the investigating detectives, but they really manage to waste her. Still, it's not all bad. The director Mario "Nightmare Castle" Caiano was certainly visually talented and the film is stylish and nowhere near as sleazy as by all rights it should be. And if you think about it, aside from the full-frontal nudity, these films anticipated (if probably not inspired) a lot of more recent American television like the "who-killed-Laura-Palmer?" intrigue of David Lynch's "Twin Peaks" or the morbid forensic intrigue of the "CSI" series. Not great, but worth a look.

Luciana Paluzzi and Antonio Sabato in a police thriller with giallo elements

The Italian crime film "...a tutte le auto della polizia" (1975) would have to be translated in German as "...an alle Einsatzwagen!". It was directed by Mario Caiano and stars Antonio Sabato and Luciana Paluzzi in the leading roles.

A 16-year-old daughter from a good Roman family disappears. A little later her body is found in the idyllic Lake Alban. An inspector played by Antonio Sabato (confidently and this time emphatically reserved) takes up the investigation, supported by a police inspector played by Luciana Paluzzi (as Fiona Volpe in "Fireball" (1965), the best Bond villain of all time).

In the first half of the film, we as viewers follow the investigators' patient police work. They are finding more and more evidence that the disappeared woman was probably part of a prostitution ring. A typical theme from Italian crime films of the 1970s is taken up here: the prostitution of young people (Ilona Staller also plays a role, who was to achieve a certain scandalous fame in the 1980s as an entertainer for adults and as a member of the Italian Parliament). But this is by no means as sensational as in other films of the genre. Different characters are developed who are somehow involved in this matter. This offers interesting roles for such excellent actors as Enrico Maria Salerno, Gabriele Ferzetti, Ettore Manni and Franco Ressel.

The second half of the film surprises with blatant giallo elements that bring us, the audience and the investigators, ever closer to solving the case.

"Calling all police cars" is a crime film well worth seeing that skilfully combines elements of the police film and the giallo. The actors are very convincing. It's great that Luciana Paluzzi plays a police officer on a par with her colleague Antonio Sabato. Her role could have been accentuated a little more, but compared to other female roles in Italian films from the time, that's huge.

Absolutely recommended!