Leofwine_draca This, the first of many polizia outings to pair director Enzo G. Castellari and star Franco Nero, is much more of a layered and thoughtful film than I at first imagined. As well as providing the viewer with plenty of his hard-hitting violence and trademark slow-motion in the action sequences, Castellari also carefully creates a very dark, tragic story of crime and its various victims. In many ways this is more of a human drama than a crime thriller, with the action aspects largely being confined to the latter stages of the film. Before then we see the effects of crime on the mind of ruthless cop Belli, a man obsessed with cracking some of the biggest criminals in town. Unfortunately, Belli's flawed plan to destroy the entire drugs trade is what ultimately results in his downfall - through his words and actions he finds his old work buddies being cold-bloodedly slaughtered, then finally even his own family.The no-frills direction works well for Castellari, who imbues his film with a cold realism throughout. The backdrops often contain ugly industrial buildings and dockyards, giving the movie a harsh mechanical and inhuman setting - appropriate in that most of the cast are inhuman monsters who think nothing of slaughtering rival men in the streets in return for large sums of money. Fittingly, the music from the De Angelis brothers is appropriately moody, packed with melancholy tunes of despair and foreboding.Castellari displays plenty of the style he delivered throughout his career, from the slow-motion deaths to the exciting action sequences which invariably make the palms sweat. Beginning with a lengthy car chase through crowded streets and ending with a large-scale shoot-out between cops and criminals in a deserted dockyard, Castellari is at the top of his game with the action and the resulting sequences are slick and very well filmed. There are also some very shocking murders in the film, all captured artistically on camera despite the cruel subject matter; a small child is crushed under the wheels of a car, a man is ruthlessly hacked to pieces with metal hooks, and in the most shocking moment, a man is shot dead in the street outside his office. This latter moment is extremely well portrayed and so intense that it left me close to tears - an excellent piece of film-making rivalled by only a few of the great directors.The film largely revolves around the character of Franco Nero and his increasingly frantic outbursts as he is foiled by criminal masterminds time and time again. Nero is unsurprisingly excellent in the role, proving once again his worth and the reason for his international success - he really feels for his character and puts himself into the scarf, overcoat, and shiny shoes, becoming the policeman and living his life. Nero's acting becomes better and better throughout, coping especially with all of the heavy emoting required by the second half of the movie; a wonderful performance from a wonderful man.Imported star James Whitmore, meanwhile, is similarly excellent as weary fellow cop Scavino, whose top-secret file of the crime bosses leads to his shocking demise; Whitmore actually out-acts Nero at key moments, especially with his outburst in the secluded wood which is acting at its best. Full marks to Whitmore for creating such a well-rounded and likable character. The rest of the supporting cast also put in very good performances, with some really nasty thugs, really slimy kingpins and a fine humane turn from Fernando Rey. These factors and more combine to make THE MARSEILLES CONNECTION a winning example of the Italian polizia genre.

HumanoidOfFlesh "High Crime" aka "The Marseilles Connection" by Enzo G.Castellari with Franco Nero actually helped popularize the Italian cop thriller genre/poliziotteschi.The film is extremely well-acted and features plenty of brutal and bloody violence.Franco Nero plays police commissioner Belli who wants to destroy dangerous European drug ring.When gangsters kill his daughter Nero becomes an angry killing machine.I must say that I found "High Crime" utterly fascinating.It's a vicious and mean-spirited cop thriller with unforgettable moment where little girl is run over with a car.It's obvious that Franco Nero's character was an influence for Maurizio Merli's Inspector Tanzi in later poliziotteschi movies.It's a crying shame that "High Crime" is still unavailable on DVD.9 car chases out of 10.

Bezenby This was my introduction to Poliziotteschi films, and also my introduction to Enzo G Castellari, who in my opinion may be the greatest Italian director of the 70s and 80s. I can't get enough of this guy's films! In fact, when I started watching this, a large beam of light focused on me and a voice said "Spend cash on all my movies, chosen one." This was a rubbish video transfer copy of High Crime that I picked up for a quid, but even the washed out look and occasional flicker couldn't detract from the greatness of this movie. It's proof that beyond zombie flicks and slasher movies, there's a whole world of groovy Italian films out there. A mysterious man is taken from Marsielles to Genoa, and before he can go about his business, he's on the run from the cops, led by Comissioner Belli (Nero). The chase soon switches from foot to car, with some really dangerous looking stunts going on. There's one shot where the cars are heading straight for the cameraman, then abruptly cuts away. Hope the guy survived. If not, then he died contributing towards a good cause. Who knows in these films.Belli gets his man, but before he can question him a car bomb kills the guy, three cops, and a little girl. As this is an Italian movie, we get to see a burning carcass flying out of the car window when it blows up. The film has hardly started. It seems that there's a new crime family trying to muscle in on things in Genoa, and Belli wants to get straight to the top and arrest Mister Big. Belli's boss, played by James Whitmore, knows who these guys are but due to their political connections is reluctant to do anything about it. Belli ends up getting help from an unlikely source: an ailing mafia boss who's own men are starting to switch sides, a man who also seems to be obsessed with using metaphors and analogies littered with animal/insect/eating imagery. He's cool though, and his sidekick was alright too. The problems facing Belli and numerous: who is the real Mister Big? Who can he trust? Every time he thinks he's got to the top, the suspect is murdered. Worse still, the deeper he gets the more his loved ones are put at risk. Does he risk all or heed the repeated warnings to back off? This being an Italian film, do you think anyone at all will be alive at the end of the film?There's hardly a minute wasted in High Crime. A constantly shifting storyline that flys through its running time, switching scenes at an alarming rate, and only slightly getting confusing once all the characters are introduced. By that point, however, people start getting bumped off as characters double cross each other and try to shift suspicion onto others. This is done usually in slow motion, with a kind of standard squib-or-no-squib-at-all technique that is also prevalent in Italian war movies. Aside from the funky soundtrack, there are two main factors that make this film a classic: Castellari and Nero. The direction is flawlessly high energy: even dialogue scenes are infused with nervous hyperactivity. There's good use of slow motion, especially when main characters are assassinated, plus plenty of bizarre camera angles, shaky cam, and some shots that reminded me of spaghetti westerns. Everyone is kind of sleazy, and you can't help applaud when a guy with a slight squint sniffs some smack, turns to the camera and mutters 'pure snow'. He doesn't shy away from the violence either. One character is killed by meathooks, another has his head run over by a bike, then gets castrated, a kid gets run over and dragged along the road, and in one stand-out scene, Massimo Vanni gets shot in the balls in slow motion! When Massimo Vanni turns up in a film he always does two things - a couple of stunts, and a mini massacre, then a (sometimes) gory death. He's class. Watch for him in Street Law, Bronx Warriors, Big Racket, Bronx Warriors 2, Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (and 3!) and other films I've forgotten. I befriended a stray dog when staying in Sorrento last year, and someone had gone out their way to buy this dog a tag naming him Massimo. I knew there and then it was a tribute to Massimo Vanni. Franco Nero is the icing on the cake. The guy acts his socks off here. Belli does three things: chasing people, shouting and slapping people around. When he's not doing one he's doing another. He shouts at the bad guys, his colleagues, even his girlfriend. He slaps six different people around. The guy literally cannot sit still. His agitation at the ever elusive Mister Big comes out in flailing hands and stamping feet, gnashing of teeth and bursting into rooms. When the film calls for him to be more calm and emotional, he can do that too. Then he slaps more people around and kills them. This is a brilliant film, and it feels somehow epic even though it lasts just over 90 minutes. If they remade it today in Hollywood it would last 4 hours and be Shiite.

RICHARD HARDISTY Like an Italian version of the Sweeney (Nineteen Seventies British police show); cigarettes are there to be smoked, girlfriends are there to be slapped, trench coats are there to billow behind you like a cape as you chase your villains down the street. There are two especially memorable scenes, which make this film. A short but almost Italian Job-esquire car chase through the streets of Genoa, filmed from axle height so it looks faster, complete with an Alfa-Romeo Giulia Police car cornering so sharply that the tyres almost tare themselves off the rims. Needless to say it ends messily, with some gruesome violence that no Hollywood director would dare to film because it shows the fragility of human life (Remember always check under your car for devices...). A sophisticated dinner party, where a roving camera crew is used as a simple but effective way of introducing some of the prime suspects, complete with off the cuff comments about what these prominent citizens have to hide. Aside from this the plot is wonderfully Byzantine, leaving you wondering 'So who was it?' and an ending which leaves you thinking that nothing is going to change- which is probably what strife and Mafia torn 1970's Italy felt like.