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

This one didn't quite catch fire for me and I had never heard of the director. It turns out that Mario Caiano has made almost 50 movies though not many of note. The most interesting sounding one is a giallo, L'Occhio Nel Labirinto, which I shall seek out although the film in question here being some mix of crime and giallo is less that awe inspiring.

It begins well enough but is never really engaging with uninteresting characters and a missing girl we barely know. After a protracted police procedural section the picture becomes more lurid and there is plenty of young flesh but still we remain uninvolved because of lack of charisma, mundane dialogue and lack of pace or direction.

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.

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

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!

"Calling All Police Cars" directed by Mario Caiano is an intriguing Italian oddity as it mixes elements of poliziotteschi and giallo.Massimo Dallamano's effective giallo "What Have They Done to Your Daughters?" is an obvious influence here.The body of murdered teenage girl is found at a lake.Commissario Fernando Solmi(Antonio Sabato)leads an investigation and he discovers a teenage prostitution racket.During the final third of "Calling All Police Cars" three vicious murders are committed by black gloved killer including nasty throat slitting.There is plenty of nudity and like I already said there is an emphasis on police procedural methods during the first hour of Mario Caiano's movie.7 nude teenagers out of 10.