I have had a hankering for the mystery crime thrillers Italy put out in the 70’s with lesser action than you might see in Violent Rome or of a similar ilk. Looking for something more akin to Death Occurred At Night, a perfect example is La polizia ha le mani legate or Killer Cop from 1975.
In the wake of Castellari’s High Crime’s success there were a number of attempts to recapture this film’s success and Killer Cop comes close. It might not have hit big at the box office, but it shares a few similarities with High Crime’s approach and attempts to be more intelligent than the myriad of violent action films hitting Italian cinemas. This is a slow burn thriller, focusing on intrigue.
Claudio Cassinelli plays Commissario Rolandi investigating the bombing of a hotel in Milan. Rolandi has a frustrating journey negotiating the red tape that is frequently rolled out to stall him. He also has to evade a senior investigating officer, played by Arthur Kennedy, who is lagging behind and whilst growing suspicious of Rolandi. Franco Fabrizi gives a notable turn as Cassinelli’s partner and together the two cops have a good rapport. The adventure follows Fabrizi on a couple of occasions and draws his character into the story.
Sara Sperati, in one of the last roles in her short but notable career, is gorgeous and captivating. The events of the plot unfold slowly and there are little moments of character study along the way. Whilst not as immersive as Death Occurred At Night and certainly lacking the wit, this storyline keeps the thrills to a minimum and the social commentary seems to be a little more obvious.
Cassinelli proves to be utterly engrossing here, a far cry from his bored contribution to Island of Fishmen. It’s always nice to see Arthur Kennedy, even if he doesn’t do much to make the role his own. He has a great face, however, I couldn’t help but feel there would be some sort of villain connection with the role and a twist was always around the corner to make a role worthy of Kennedy’s presence. Giovanni Cianfriglia crops up in a pinnacle role adding some much appreciated excitement to the climax. The late Bruno Zanin, who we lost a few weeks prior to my viewing of this, gives a creepy and desperate performance, however, we don’t spend as much time with him as I’d hoped.
Luciano Ercoli helms the film and whilst the film does not sizzle in the same way as his two best known films Death Walk on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight, Killer Cop might be the highlight of his directing career. This is one of only a couple of films written by Body Puzzle producer Mario Bregni. Gianfranco Calligarich adapted the screenplay as one of his early films, having worked on Violent City with Charles Bronson some years before.
Killer Cop has an interesting detective idea at the centre of the story with Cassinelli noticing one particular element to follow to find the way to the conclusion makes for a more intriguing journey. When many of the films of this ilk would rely on a chance encounter or informant to work out the plotline we have a story with a good hook to keep the audience invested in the investigation.
Killer Cop is hardly a fun jaunt, however, it’s an intriguing police procedural with an interesting collection of characters at its heart.
As you might expect from an Italian crime film, the poster art is one of the stars of the piece. Each poster beautifully represents what you might expect from the film and thankfully does not use any tactics to misrepresent the film as something more exciting than it really is.
I picked up my Blu Ray from the states and the price is slowly creeping up. There are a couple of DVD releases here and there and whilst the curious might be better checking those out, the serious should grab the Blu as it’s a lovely transfer and there are a couple of interesting featurettes and a booklet.
