Arrow Video: Rogue Cops and Racketeers (1976 - 1977) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Arrow Video

Aside from being known as the director behind the most infamous unofficial Jaws knockoff The Last Shark (which is absolutely worth your time by the way), Italian director Enzo G. Castellari is also responsible for some of the best genre classics the film industry had to offer including but not limited to the original The Inglorious Bastards and Keoma.  Another genre he displayed particular expertise in was the gritty and viciously violent poliziotteschi or Eurocrime subgenre also known as the Years of Lead so brilliantly curated and covered by Arrow Video’s still tremendous box set of films.  While the Italian film industry was spitting out films reflecting the sociopolitical turmoil and renewed crimewave affecting the country, Castellari began carving out his own niche within the subgenre and wound up producing two of the most brutally violent action packed poliziotteschis ever produced: The Big Racket from 1976 and The Heroin Busters a year later.
 
Curated by Arrow Video in two newly produced 2K restorations of the original 35mm camera negatives and prominently starring Fabio Testi in the lead role of both pictures as a ruthless cop gone rogue in 1970s Rome, the films are startling, shocking, mean and above all exhilarating.  Replete with the tropes of the subgenre including cops going against the grain of political chicanery and criminality operating above the law with impunity, some very rough attacks on decency and finally death-defying action stunt work that dazzle and defies the eyes.  Characterized by their uncompromising attitude towards the concepts of drug dealing, human trafficking, lawlessness and amid it all some small measure of hope someone will fight this crimewave, the two-film boxed set aptly named Rogue Cops and Racketeers represent the poliziotteschi, its realisateur Enzo G. Castellari and most importantly the leading man Fabio Testi in two of his most iconic crimefighting screen roles.
 
 
The Big Racket (1976)
 
Afflicting modern Rome is a group of ruthless thugs and gang members enforcing a city-wide extortionist protection racket who smash up and burn down businesses and/or homes while terrorizing the civilian population.  On their tail is Inspector Nico Palmieri (Fabio Testi) who bites off more than he can chew one shift and finds himself outnumbered with his car pushed off a cliff in a spectacular stunt sequence.  Surviving the attack, Palmieri picks up speed and begins raids and arrests but not before being rebuffed by his superiors including a slimy criminal defense attorney.  After trying to shelter another racketeering robber named Uncle Pepe (Vincent Gardenia) in an effort to expose some of the criminals, he is taken off the case and thus quickly forms an underground rogue posse of assassins including a few incarcerated criminals in the hopes of toppling this illicit criminal empire themselves.

 
Mean and mad, abrasive and unforgivingly rough including but not limited to two particularly tough gang rape and murder scenes which trigger the building revenge plot which proves to be a thoroughly satisfying form of poetic justice, The Big Racket is at present one of the hardest poliziotteschis on the slate.  That’s not to say its all shock and awe, as it builds up to some spectacular action sequences including but not limited to some wild car chases and gun battles.  Take for instance the aforementioned sequence of Fabio Testi being rolled around in his car down a cliff with the camera fixed on the window so the car doesn’t move but everything outside of it does such as broken glass and metal.  Its an astounding technical feat and it looks like Fabio Testi did his own stunts for the scene.
 
Lensed in slick, colorful 1.85:1 widescreen by No, the Case is Happily Resolved cinematographer Marcello Masciocchi, the world of The Big Racket jumps frequently between swanky neon lit nightclubs and squalid abandoned construction sites where a good number of the shootouts take place.  The soundtrack by the Italian band Oliver Onions best known for their work on Torso and A Blade in the Dark is an especially effective, grungy noise heavy score that frequently breaks out into tense panicky shrieks during violent scenes.  

The film is primarily led by Fabio Testi and eventual Little Shop of Horrors star Vincent Gardenia who despite working on opposite sides of the law come together against a common enemy.  The supporting cast of characters include Robowar actor Romano Puppo, How to Kill a Judge actor Renzo Palmer as a grieving father gone mad after losing his daughter to the gang, and an ensemble of icky goons including renowned Italian singer Marcella Michelangeli as an especially cruel femme fatale who eagerly helps her male comrades rape their victims.
 
Naturally, the film was savaged by the critical establishment of the time who lobbied terms at it like ‘ugly’, ‘vile’ or even ‘fascist’ in describing the work but that didn’t stop it from becoming a prominent box office success with audiences in a film that accurately reflected the criminal worlds being operated and fought.  Fabio Testi and Vincent Gardenia bring a lot of screen presence to the proceedings, the stunt and action sequences are exciting and thrilling and the brooding yet energizing score by Oliver Onions help round out The Big Racket as one of the quintessential poliziotteschis of the 1970s and one of the true highlights of filmworker Enzo G. Castelleri’s growing resume. 


The Heroin Busters (1977)

A year after the success of the still grisly white-knuckled crime thriller The Big Racket, Enzo G. Castelleri and his leading man Fabio Testi reunited once again for another riff on the cops gone rogue antiheroic film with the drug raid and trade crime saga The Heroin Busters.  While much easier on the viewer with the harder violence despite upping the ante in terms of the action stunts, this equally gritty and tough actioner follows deep-in-undercover cop Fabio (Fabio Testi) who is on the tail of a group of drug smugglers working out of Rome.  Enlisting the help of Interpol agent Mike Hamilton (David Hemmings fresh off of Deep Red), Fabio intends to infiltrate the drug lords’ operations from the inside, culminating in an utterly astounding private airplane chase sequence that has to be seen to be believed.

 
Featuring a rousingly funky and psychedelic experimental score from prog-rock group Goblin and scenic globe-trotting cinematography from The Inglorious Bastards cinematographer Giovanni Bergamini, The Heroin Busters both revels in the griminess of the illegal drug trade underworld with particular emphasis on the suffering of the addict and transcends the expectations of the poliziotteschi subgenre with an astounding finale that really speaks for itself.  

Unafraid to get up, close and personal with dirty heroin needles and rusty spoons and equally entrenched in the sociopolitical satires of the police force being all but completely ineffective in quelling crime, The Heroin Busters puts the antihero played by Fabio Testi on the other side of the fence pretending to be riff raff but secretly scaling a drug trade empire.  David Hemmings though underutilized as an ill-tempered cop gets some good scenery onscreen including having to hold on tight to a female motorcyclist during a chase scene sure to get some eyebrow raising laughs from the viewer.
 
Decidedly easier to take than The Big Racket and therefore far more fun despite some gross details involving the aforementioned needles and withdrawal symptoms, The Heroin Busters grows so action packed it almost becomes escapist.  Less interested in the characterization and personal vendettas being worked out than a mostly stylish and cool undercover cop thriller, the film became one of Italy’s box office rulers of 1977 and further cemented Fabio Testi and Enzo G. Castellari as a unique actor-director tag team.  

A crime movie with the unusual propensity of making some viewers get up and dance to its sizzling Goblin soundtrack, The Heroin Busters while not as emotionally or viscerally taxing as The Big Racket more than makes up for its softer edges with the intense and fast action sequences that play out here.  Rounding out the Rogue Cops and Racketeers boxed set, Arrow Video once again have gone above and beyond the call of duty with the packaging, reversible artwork, reproduced Italian lobby cards and booklet.  Not everyone accustomed to the poliziotteschi will be ready for these movies but those who are will be in for two indelible cinematic Italian crime treats!

--Andrew Kotwicki