La polizia è sconfitta

One of the better Italian crime films of the genre, it's also a fairly obscure one and although the plot is hardly original, the film never lets up and delivers more than it's fair share of thrills. Marcel Bozzuffi (of French Connection & Fulci's Contraband amongst other) is as reliable as always, this time as Inspector Grifi who sets up a special unit of commandos (the 'stunt squad') to combat the rise of violence towards innocent shop owners who refuse protection from the rackets. Their number one target is main villain Valli, who surprisingly turns out to be quite a memorable bad guy - impulsively gunning down, and in some cases exploding, anything that stands in his way. The best moments of the film are when Grifi and his Stunt Squad are pursuing Valli. Amongst some mild nudity (courtesy of the obligatory but very welcome night club scene) there are also some pretty brutal moments including a vicious throat slashing & repeated knifing of an hospital patient and **spoliers** the death of a double crossing pimp (Nello Pazzafini who can be seen in over 100 euro crime, Giallo and Westerns) who is beaten, castrated and then gunned down. (There is a very generous amount of blood squibs - no 'bloodless' deaths here!). I would highly recommend this to fans of Italian & Euro crime, it's pretty solid throughout and doesn't have any of the unnecessary humour or cheesy moralising which ruins so many other films of it's type.