Poliziotti violenti

Maestro, Michele Massimo Tarantini's flint-edged 'Poliziotti violenti' aka 'Crimebusters' (1976) is a terrifically entertaining Poliziottesco from the largely unheralded director of the no less exhilarating, 'A Man Called Magnum' & '7 Hours of Violence'. This enjoyably boisterous Euro-crime includes the splendidly stone-faced Henry Silva, charismatically delivering yet another Stoic, sinisterly simmering performance as the honourably straight-shooting, Maj. Paolo Altieri. Incensed by army corruption and the increasingly brutal machinations of the criminal underworld, Altieri is fatefully driven to acts of extreme retribution, and soon, wherever the militantly macho Major ventures, a bloody swathe of cathartic ultra-violence is sure to follow!

Swarthy cinematic stud, Antonio Sabato is well cast as the sharp-witted, belligerent Police commissioner, Paolo Tosi, whose fearsome propensity for twin-fisted justice is put to efficient use in Tarantini's enjoyably rough-hewn poliziottesco potboiler, and, rewardingly, the dynamic filmmaker constructs a number of compelling action scenes. The vehicular calamity, ear-shattering gun play and equally pugnacious punch-ups ensure that, Michele Tarantini's rumbustious, pleasingly action-packed actioner remains a shrapnel savage Poliziotteschi that most certainly merits a larger audience among Euro-cult fans. For me, one of 'Crimebusters' most enduring qualities is the robustly propulsive crime-jazz score by thrilling Euro-crime maestros, Guido & Maurizio de Angelis.