EMERGENCY SQUAD (1974)
Directed by: Stelvio Massi.
Written by: Franco Barberi, Adriano Bolzoni & Stelvio Massi.
Director of Photography: Sergio Rubini.
Edited by: Mauro Bonanni.
Music by: Stelvio Cipriani.
Released by: NoShame.
Language: Italian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Italy. 95 min. Not Rated.
With: Tomas Milian, Gastone Moschin, Mario Carotenuto, Ray Lovelock & Stefania Casini.
DVD Features: "Stelvio Massi: The Last Round" - last interview with late director Stelvio Massi. "Tomas' Squad" - Interview with Tomas Milian. Director's Intro. Trailer. Photo & still gallery. Massi's still gallery. Booklet. English & Italian audio

THE LAST ROUND (1976)
Directed by: Stelvio Massi.
Written by: Piero Regnoli, from a story by Franco Mogherini.
Director of Photography: Franco Delli Colli.
Edited by: Mauro Bonanni.
Music by: Luis Enriquez Bacalov.
Released by: NoShame.
Language: Italian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Italy. 95 min. Not Rated.
With: Luc Merenda, Carlos Monzón, Giampiero Albertini, Mario Brega & Susanna Gimenez.
DVD Features: "Enter the Merenda" - On site visit of Luc Merenda's Paris antique shop. Poster & still gallery. Trailer. Booklet. CD: The Eclectic Ultimate Cinedelic Experience (Funky Cops & Hard Boiled Girls) featuring scores from Italian '70s action films. English & Italian audio.

A MAN CALLED MAGNUM (1977)
Directed by: Michele Massimo Tarantini.
Written by: Dardano Sacchetti & Michael E. Lemick.
Director of Photography: Sergio Rubini.
Edited by: Alberto Moriani.
Music by: Franco Campanino.
Released by: NoShame.
Language: Italian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Italy. 92 min. Not Rated.
With: Luc Merenda, Enzo Cannavale, Claudio Gora, Sonia Viviani, Claudio Nicastro & Enrico Maisto.
DVD Features: "Milan Naples One Way Only" - Interview with Luc Merenda. Commentary by director Michele Massimo Tarantini (in Italian wtih English subtitles). Poster & still gallery. Booklet. English & Italian audio.

If you enjoy watching men in tight pants driving around in small cars, you’ll probably enjoy these three Italian films from the 1970s, each a striking example of the poliziotteschi genre of police drama. Due to low production budgets, poor sound quality, and long fist-fighting/shoot-out scenes, the films feel much more like an episode of Baretta or Starsky and Hutch than a feature film. With plenty of machismo on display, they are quintessentially Italian - featuring many bared breasts.

The plots are heavy with clichés, but are not overly predictable. Bank robbers hide out after a big heist in Emergency Squad, after being sent on the run by a talented, if disheveled, young police inspector, who is chasing the gang's leader to revenge his wife’s murder. In the Naples-set A Man Called Magnum, a hijacked drug deal stirs a war between rival gangs, while an out-of-town police inspector tries to halt the fighting with the help of a little girl acting as his mole. The Last Round is perhaps the most original, and the most improbable, of the three: A young traveler shows up in a Northern Italian town controlled by dueling crime families and seeks to take both down from the inside, with the help of a psychic blind girl and her father.

These films are not for the faint of heart as all three are incredibly violent, featuring the kind of long drawn-out fights that make one question if the actors are actually hitting each other. Gun fights aren't scarce either. And The Last Round features a graphic rape scene (and yes, it's the psychic blind girl). Tim Farnam
November 12, 2005