The Tough Ones

Sometimes I think that what really takes you into this movies is... the tune. At the beginning you see an "Alfetta" driven by a guy wearing a red and black scarf, some creepy skyscrapers in the background while the credits appear on the bottom right of the screen. You feel just surrounded by a massive soundtrack and you smile. I wonder if it used to feel the same in the seventies. I've seen only another Lenzi's movie. "Milano odia. La polizia non puo' sparare" has got a similar plot (Same subject, to be honest) but the director chose to put the criminal as the protagonist. In "Roma a mano armata" the policeman is violent and aggressive, in "Milano odia" the outlaw is a sort of victim of the system. It looks like the fight against criminality gets tougher day after day. The cinematographic relevance of these movies is their success in celebrating the action. But I found in Lenzi's a strong attention in the sociological issues related to his stories. His characters have got a good inner nature, they seem like gotten worse because bred in a hard environment. Finally, it is just amazing how a 31 years old film is still perfectly enjoyable and that is probably due to a neat and careful direction.

Effective installment in ¨Inspector Tanzi¨ series and followed by various sequels still gripping and moving . A twofisted , rule-bending Inspector called Tanzi (Maurizio Merli) chases mobsters (Luciano Pigozzi as Moretto , Luciano Catenacci as Gerace) and a maniacal , trigger-happy hunchback (Tomas Milian) , an one-handed bank robber and other hoodlums in an effort to catch them at whatever cost , as he'll stop at nothing to get it . As iconoclast , tough cop Tanzi tries to detain the vicious killer and other cronies who are robbing a bank , he takes on criminals determined to bring them to justice , even if he has to break some rules . Tanzi pursues the revenge-obsessed series killer and encounters he has more problems with him than he expected . The psychotic murderer is detained but is freed on legal technicalities and Tanzi takes the law into his own hands . Rule-breaking Tanzi strides grimly throughout Rome in pursuit the murderous , including an exciting final on an ambulance . Whatever your reservations about Tanzi's expeditious methods we know he'll always vanquish , shooting in cold blood with his pistol . Inspector Tanzi makes Dirty Harry look like Mr. Clean! .He lives by the law - Tanzi's Law .Vigilante enforcers - lurking in the dark... waiting to kill!

Formula thriller with plenty of action , crisply edition , tension, intrigue , suspenseful and lots of violence in exploitation style . Compellingly directed by Umberto Lenzi , after directing his Cannibal movies , in the late 1970s , Lenzi turned to the police thrillers or polizieschi , which rejuvenated his confidence and his popularity . Titles like Milano odia: la polizia non può sparare (1974), Free Hand For a Tough Cop (1976) , Brothers Till We Die (1978) , From Corleone to Brooklyn (1979) were the most popular and brutal of his thrillers . Fine main and support cast giving acceptable , tough exaggerated interpretations . Maurizio Merli's nice performance as two-fisted Inspector Tenzi , the tall and taciturn inspector who utilizing his Magnum 44 pistol kills baddies , acting as a judge , jury and executioner , and , along the way , he tells some original phrases . It packs intrigue , violence, action-filled and being a really effective film . It turns out to be interesting and plenty of vivid action , suspense and thriller . Good secondary cast gives cool performance as the American Arthur Kennedy playing Vice-Commissioner Ruini , Giampiero Albertini as Inspector Francesco Caputo and the gorgeous Maria Rosaria Omaggio as Tenzi's girlfriend . And others secondaries usual in B Italian genres as Ivan Rassimov , Luciano Catenacci , Stefano Patrizi , Tom Felleghy , Carlo Gaddi and Luciano Pigozzi nicknamed the Italian Peter Lorre .

Special mention for the stinging , stabbing musical score by Franco Micalizzi . As well as atmospheric and adequate cinematography by Federico Zanni , shot completely in Rome , Italy . The motion picture was competently directed by Umberto Lenzi , adding an interesting script by Dardano Sacchetti , Lenzi's regular. Umberto was an Italian craftsman who directed all kind of genres , such as Wartime: Bridge to hell, The biggest battle , Tempi di guerra , Wild team , The damned brigade , From hell to victory , Desert commando , The damned brigade . Poliziesco : Roma a mano armade , Napoli Violenta , Manhunt in the city , From Corleone to Brooklyn , The executioner , Brothers till we die . Eurospy : Superseven chiama Cairo, 008 operation exterminate, Kriminal. Terror and Cannibal fims : Sacrifice! Cannibal Feroz, Comidos vivos, House of witchcraft, Hell's gate , Invasion of Atomic Zombies . Giallo : Wide-eyed on the dark, Orgasmo, Spasmo, Paranoia. Spaguetti Westerns : Tutto per tutto, Pistol for a hundred coffins . Adventures : Invincible masked rider, Catalina of Russia, Triumph of Robin Hood, Temple of the white elephant , Adventures Mary Read , Sandokan, Pirates of Malasya , Zorro versus Maciste , among others . Rating : 6.5/10 . This formula thriller will appeal to Inspector Tenzi/Mauricio Merli series enthusiasts , because of the unstopped action , tension , exciting edition , chills abound in this original entry . Well worth seeing for Maurizio Merli fans and it's an enjoyable companion for the action genre followers . An entertaining and amusing film , mounted for its maximum impact and with several scenes that'll have you on the edge of your seat .

First film in the pentalogy from the Tanzi/Moretto/Monnezza universe (first shown: February 25, 1976)

With this film, Umberto LENZI started a series of five films in which three characters appeared again and again. The focus was on Tomas MILIAN, who played two criminal twin brothers who were very well received by the audience. In the film ROMA A MANO ARMATA, the Italian actor MILIAN plays the hunchbacked gangster Vincenzo Moretto, who is characterized by excessive cruelty. His twin brother will not make his first appearance until the second film in the pentalogy (IL TRUCIDO E LO SBIRRO).

In Rome, crimes are happening all the time. A hotheaded inspector like Leonardo Tanzi (Maurizio MERLI) cannot like that at all. The powerful inspector is always on hand when the criminals strike. But it's stupid that there are sensitive juvenile judges like the attractive Anna (Maria Rosaria OMAGGIO), the grumpy police chief (five-time ACADEMY AWARD nominee Arthur KENNEDY) and the somewhat sleepy colleague (Giampiero ALBERTINI) who put obstacles in the way of the hyperactive inspector. Whether dealer (Ivan RASSIMOV), rapist (Stefano PATRIZI) or unscrupulous gangster (Tomas MILIAN): crime in Rome never sleeps.

With this thriller, Umberto LENZI has created a film that has essentially become the blueprint for a hard-boiled Maurizio Merli poliziottesco. It was very well received by audiences, with more than 1.6 billion ITL being made at the Italian box office.

In German-speaking countries, the connections between the five films were hardly noticed. MERLI is dubbed here as Inspector Ferro. His next appearance will not be until the third film (IL CINICO, lL INFAME, IL VIOLENTO) of the pentalogy.

This is a dumb, but thoroughly enjoyable Italian police thriller from journey-man Italian director Umberto Lenzi. Maurizio Merli is not my favorite actor (he was kind of a cut-rate Franco Nero), but he's pretty entertaining here as an over-the-top vigilante cop who slaps around suspects, engages in dangerous high-speed chases, and has shoot-outs in busy downtown Rome. When five young punks rape a girl, he goes into their hangout BY HIMSELF and beats up ALL of them up before chasing down and eventually shooting one of them to death. Even when his superior (Arthur Kennedy) transfers him to the licenses unit, he won't stay out of the action. In one of the funnier scenes, he beats information out of a bartender, breaks into a suspect's apartment without a warrant, and chases him around the Rome rooftops (in a great cinematic scene), but after the whole thing goes awry, he blames his superiors for making him go "by the book" (if that's true I'd hate to see "the book").

This movie has a great supporting cast. Besides Arthur Kennedy (who was in movies like "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" and "Rico, the Mean Machine"), the movie features Ivan Rassimov, perhaps somewhat wasted as a low-level thug who gives his girlfriend an overdose of heroin simply because she's a "pain in the ass". The best of all though, is the great Tomas Milian as a psychotic hunchback, who starts out as a sympatheic figure, but turns out to be a frightening heavy. In one scene Meri's detective slaps him around and makes him swallow a bullet, which he later he craps out and vows to shoot the detective in the face with face with it for revenge!

The real weakness of this movie is the loose plotting. There's a lot of action set pieces, but the whole thing doesn't really hold together, especially whenever Milian is not on screen. The movie also could have used more women. Merli does have a pretty girlfriend (who the villains at one point threaten to put through a car compactor), but her role is pretty perfunctory.Still this is definitely a fun movie and I would recommend it.

For the most part, this is one of the better poliziotteschi I've watched with several of the virtues associated with the genre - unrelenting action, pounding score, hard-boiled dialogue, an undercurrent of sleaze - and two of its top stars in Maurizio Merli and Tomas Milian.

A measure of the film's popularity is the fact that the characters played by both leads here (Inspector Tanzi in Merli's case and Vincenzo Moretto, dubbed "The Hunchback", in Milian's) were developed into individual series: in fact, the latter appeared in two more outings, while Tanzi had only one more film to go - THE CYNIC, THE RAT AND THE FIST (1977) which, interestingly, still had Milian co-star as an odious criminal but in a totally different characterization. One other typical feature of the genre is the presence of a veteran American star - in this case, Arthur Kennedy as Merli's by-the-book superior (but who's eventually converted to our hero's iconoclastic viewpoint). The supporting cast, then, features any number of familiar faces who thrived in Italian genre movies - chief among them Ivan Rassimov and Luciano Pigozzi.

The film has no real plot to speak of - other than to place Tanzi, at times in rather contrived fashion, in the midst of some action set-up (chasing and/or beating up petty criminals or intimidating some rich-kid suspect) - and, hence, may feel somewhat disjointed. The narrative, however, takes care to include as many social plagues as possible - underage delinquents involved in snatch-and-grab cases, a gang-rape, a drug-overdose victim, a hold-up from a post office (which our hero manages to disrupt virtually single-handed), etc. Besides, while the requisite romantic subplot does come in, it's an unusually complicated one - as Tanzi's girlfriend happens to be a magistrate whom he believes to be too lenient, and the couple eventually decide to go their separate ways. That said, I feel that the climactic showdown between Merli and Milian comes up a bit short in comparison with the action sequences throughout the rest of the film.

Still, the film is quite often hilarious: my favorite moment is when Merli blows his top in front of an elderly colleague - but whose meek interjection eventually leads Tanzi to crack the case! For genre addicts, however, the absolute cult scene in the film is the one in which Milian is made to swallow a bullet by the incensed Merli - but whose tough exterior isn't quite broken in the way the latter had expected, as The Hunchback proceeds to give out a loud hearty burp in defiance!

In the end, I ought to say that I'll be getting to another of Milian's poliziotteschi - EMERGENCY SQUAD (1974), where he's actually the cop hero - soon. Also, if my Unwatched DVD backlog hadn't taken a serious beating of late (I haven't gone through much but DVD-Rs and rentals for some time!), I would have been inclined to schedule a second viewing of the film (also directed by Lenzi) which contains perhaps his most important role in the genre, i.e. ALMOST HUMAN (1974) - via the "Special Edition" Italian DVD, which comes with an accompanying Audio Commentary (not included on the R1 "No Shame" release) and a second feature (Sergio Martino's VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS [1973]) to boot!!