KILLER COP (1975)

The current popularity of the Italian giallo has rekindled interest in the poliziotteschi because the same cast, writers, and directors were often involved. In fact, any jobbing director working in 1970s Italian pulp cinema would’ve found both genres just as difficult to avoid as the spaghetti western. Luciano Ercoli is no exception but seemed able to innovate any genre he turned his hand to. As producer, he changed the tone of westerns with the seminal Ringo duology (1965). With his directorial debut, The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970), he templated the slow-burn erotic giallo, and with Killer Cop he toys with established tropes to refresh the poliziotteschi. So, it’s great that Radiance Films are making his penultimate film as director available, freshly restored in high definition and presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

Killer Cop is titled La polizia ha le mani legate in Italian, which directly translates as “the police have their hands tied.” Both titles fit the film but one only really makes sense in the final minutes, and the other in the last few seconds. The English title may suggest some rogue policeman on a killing spree, perhaps taking the law into their own hands on a rampage of bloody vengeance. But it’s not that film. In comparison with many of its contemporary poliziotteschi, which tended towards gratuitous violence and plenty of police brutality, it’s a somewhat subdued and intellectual affair. The Italian title more accurately sums up the tribulations of Commissioner Matteo Rolandi (Claudio Cassinelli) who finds his investigations are continually hampered by bureaucracy and interdepartmental politics.

While tracking a drug smuggler who may be hiding among delegates at a hotel hosting an international conference, Rolandi abruptly finds himself amid a deadly terrorist bombing. Oddly, though, it appears that the bomber (Bruno Zanin) had a change of heart and was trying to retrieve the explosive suitcase when the concierge, believing him to be a thief, intervened moments before it detonated. Rolandi is the first officer on the scene but must content himself with being a witness to the carnage because terrorism is not within the jurisdiction of his narcotics investigation. Instead, because of the high profile and political connotations of the case, it’s the chief prosecutor, Armando Di Federico (Arthur Kennedy) who’s put in charge. The veteran actor brings suitable gravitas to the role as a no-nonsense, hard-but-fair taskmaster.

While under investigation for losing his gun, Luigi Balsamo (Franco Fabrizi) a friend and colleague of Rolandi, is temporarily demoted to patrolling trams to catch petty pickpockets. By coincidence, he follows the man we recognise as the bomber, who suspiciously writes something on a newspaper before leaving it in a phone box. The message, scrawled across the front-page story about the hotel bombing is a plea to the police along with an apology explaining it had been a mistake.

The suspect eludes Balsamo, who’s still able to provide a detailed enough description for the police to issue an identikit picture but being a key witness who could identify the bomber in court makes him a marked man. It’s not long before he falls victim to a professional hitman (Giovanni Cianfriglia) wielding a deadly umbrella gun. The weapon is uncannily like the modified umbrella that would be used to assassinate the Bulgarian dissident, Georgi Markov a few years later, in 1978, which goes to show how grounded in reality some aspects of the plot are.

In the collective consciousness of the Italian public of the day, the bomb in the hotel would’ve been readily associated with the Piazza Fontana bombing of 1969, which is often seen as the symbolic start of the so-called ‘Years of Lead’. This was a period of violence in which anarchists and political extremists on both the far-left and far-right resorted to terrorism. As well as bombings, there were pitched battles in the streets of major Italian cities and violent conflicts with police as the nation teetered on the brink of civil war for the following 20 years. It was thought by some that many of the atrocities committed by all the different factions were orchestrated by the far-right to enable the introduction of sweeping police powers, restrict individual freedoms, and re-establish the pre-war fascist regime. This is explicitly alluded to in the dialogue of tram commuters reacting to the newspaper headlines.

It isn’t long before Rolandi starts to uncover a plot that involves a shadowy cabal of politicians and capitalists who are pulling the strings behind the scenes. It seems that the anarchist cell was duped into bombing the hotel with explosives they’d intended to use to bring down a pylon and disrupt infrastructure without killing anyone. Even this scenario would’ve been recognised by the public after the death of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in 1972, a journalist, publisher and far-left activist who died when the bomb he was placing on a pylon detonated prematurely. Much conjecture followed as to whether this was a mistake or if the device had been triggered remotely by an assassin.

Perhaps at this juncture it must be pointed out that Killer Cop is not a bleak political drama but remains a highly entertaining thriller. Gianfranco Calligarich’s stealthily gripping script slowly reveals a plot that’s reluctant to fall into place until the end credits roll. (Apparently the US dub also added a narration by Jack Lemon to explain things for the hard of thinking.) The dialogue is naturalistic though laced with acerbic humour and the key cast manage to balance dramatic conflict without losing their light touch.

Franco Fabrizi was an ageing matinée idol who almost veers into self-parody at times with an almost comic delivery which only makes his death all the more affecting. His Balsamo is a likeable but flawed character who we assume was very good at the procedural but no longer a man of action in the field. He over-compensates for this with his tales of wild threesomes and by flirting with the Di Federico family’s young housekeeper (Livia Cerini). He’s subverting the stock character of the old cop, nearing retirement, who we know will be one of the first to bite the dust.

Claudio Cassinelli is excellent in the lead as a believably beleaguered detective who refuses to be beaten down by the system. Instead, he tenaciously tries to protect those he cares about and prevent the innocent, and the not-so-innocent, from being scapegoated. He’s not the usual macho, two-fisted hard-man so often prominent in poliziotteschi. He’s continually dipping into the well-thumbed copy of Moby Dick he always carries, and we assume he has liberal, perhaps even socialist leanings. Clearly preferring to outwit his criminal quarry, he’s not afraid to give chase and exchange gunfire if necessary, as in a particularly well-staged chase through a crowded underground station. In many ways, Rolandi could be a preamble to his lead in The Suspicious Death of a Minor (1975), the unusual giallo he made back-to-back with Killer Cop.

Of course, no self-respecting Italian thriller from the ’70s would be complete without its distinctive jazzy electro music. Here, Stelvio Cipriani provides an outstanding score that lubricates the action right from the opening credits as Commissioner Rolandi drives his 1966 Mercedes-Benz 300 SE Coupé through the streets of Milan. Although the prestige car is in somewhat poor condition, it’s still responsible for many humorous remarks and quizzical glances from friends and rivals throughout and Rolandi never seems sure if they’re being genuine or ironic.

Luciano Ercoli exploits the Milan locations to great effect, shot in an almost vérité style by cinematographer Marcello Gatti, documenting a vanished city as it was during troubled times. Apparently, the ‘extras’ were mostly pedestrians who are genuinely curious as they pause to watch the chases, jaded by the regular outbreaks of real-life violence they were accustomed to seeing.

ITALY | 1975 | 97 MINUTES | 2.35:1 | COLOUR | ITALIAN

Limited Edition Blu-ray Special Features:

• High-definition digital transfer, presented with both original Italian and English audio options, available on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio.
• NEW audio commentary with Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth. The duo engages in a quick-fire, fact-filled discussion in which they share their clearly encyclopaedic knowledge, providing a solid historical and socio-political context for the film. There’s too much to take in with just one listen, but that’s okay; we can replay it. They tend to compare and contrast many other films that only wealthy aficionados have any chance of tracking down, but it makes for a comprehensive watchlist. Of course, they cover the expected biographies of key cast and crew with some helpful guidance on pronunciation of the Italian names. One of the more useful observations they make is likening Claudio Cassinelli’s character to those Elliot Gould might play in Hollywood films of the era, giving the uninitiated a way into the type of thriller Killer Cop turns out to be.
• 20-minute interview with Alessandro Calosci. This is a joy to listen to as he recalls the making of the film. Being the production manager, he was involved with nearly every aspect and shares plenty of insight and a few anecdotes. He shares the valuable advice that a bad film can be made from a good script but a good film can’t be made from a bad script, and that all aspects of a film are equally important, from the music to the mise-en-scène, the costumes to the way they’re worn… he likens a film to a present, where the gift box and wrapping paper are essential in eliciting the emotional response of the recipients.
• Reversible sleeve featuring artwork based on original posters.
• NEW and improved English subtitle translation, and English SDH subtitles for English audio.
• Limited edition booklet with new writing by Barry Forshaw.
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging.

Cast & Crew

director: Luciano Ercoli.
writer: Gianfranco Calligarich (story by Mario Bregni).
starring: Claudio Cassinelli, Arthur Kennedy, Franco Fabrizi, Sara Sperati, Bruno Zanin, Valeria D’Obici, Enzo Fisichella, Paolo Poiret & Giovanni Cianfriglia.