Bezenby When hard cop Luc Merenda discovers that the old cop he was just talking to that morning has been blown away by some escaped convicts, in addition to several other cops and an child, Luc dispenses justice the only way he knows how - by gunning the bad guys down in cold blood in front of all his colleagues. His superior tells Luc to cool it, then goes off to blow the lid on something he's discovered, getting himself murdered in the process. Now Luc's mad as hell and suspended from the force to boot, so he does the only thing he can - poses as a pimp to get access to a local gang as a getaway driver. That's a plan so daft that you'd have to bitch slap an awful lot of people to get there...and it works.Sure, Luc got a couple of women killed by accident when he called the cops on that robbery (plus the boyfriend of a junky girl who helps him out, plus I guess he gets her cooled too when I think about it), but it does get him noticed by local legitimate businessman Richard Conte, who might employ him, but wants him to demonstrate some mad GTA San Andreas type skills behind the wheel of a car. Does Luc feel guilty about those two women? I don't think he had the time. Of course, this is no straightforward film where Luc just gets his revenge on the bad guys, there's also some politics involved, as it seems the gang are more interested in causing as much havoc as possible than grabbing money, and someone may even be pulling Richard Conte's strings too.Although not up there with the best of the crime films, Violent Professionals is still a good film if you like these kind of things. You know, car chases, people firing guns at each other, Richard Conte's terrible stunt double, Luc Merenda violently assaulting everyone, funky music, smoking. Luc Merenda by the way looks like a really skinny Arnie and is very good at staring at things. Luciano Rossi turns up at the beginning to get himself shot too.

JohnHowardReid A Dania Film/C.C. Champion Production. Italian release: 27 August 1973. French DVD title: Rue de la Violence. 104 minutes.COMMENT: I have mixed feelings about this one. I purchased the NEO DVD (which I can most highly recommend, even though they can't spell "giustizia") solely because Richard Conte was billed above the title (Luc Merenda was billed first and then Conte – and that was it for above-the-title billing). Well, Conte is one of my favorite actors and I'd never seen any of his Italian films, so naturally I was quick to pounce on this DVD. As most of you know, Conte is an Italian name and Richard could speak Italian. And doubtless he did so during the shooting. But nonetheless, his voice is dubbed. Disappointment number one.The NEO DVD offers a choice between the original 98-minutes (allowing for DVD speed) Italian version (with French sub-titles) and a censored (to 95 minutes), French-dubbed version. Naturally, I chose the Italian version. The print is impeccable, but in a sense it's too good. The print is so sharp, it's easy to spot that Conte is not doing his own fighting. On the other hand, the other action scenes – and most particularly the car chases – are out of this world. Nonetheless, the sleazy, depressingly dark and bloodthirsty tone of the whole movie made me wish I'd watched the French version instead.

Camera Obscura THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS (Sergio Martino - Italy 1973).Not all too interesting Dirty Harry variation from Sergio Martino in this crime thriller, starring Luc Merenda as a tough smooth-guy cop who goes undercover as a wheels man to infiltrate a ring of cop-killin' bank robbers. The main problem is main man Luc Merenda who has little charisma and is either permanently smiling or desperately trying to look tough. Either way, his repertoire is a bit limited. The unimaginative screenplay by Ernesto Gastaldi is entirely short on logic. This is less urgent when writing horror or giallos, but the actions of police and crime bosses are supposed to contain some kind of logic, since they're driven by greed and money. In the world of organized crime, there's usually little room for vague motives, but here, most actions lack any kind of motivation. Even a bank robbery is carried out so incredibly clumsy, it was beyond me why the bank robbers were even surprised things went wrong. Occasionally, it's a pretty lively affair with lots of action with some spectacular car chases (one of them probably took half the budget of the entire film), but some of these exciting set pieces can't save this from being a bore most of the time, with Merenda driving around in his car aimlessly or beating the living crap out of everyone he meets to get some answers about his chief's killing. In most cases, the answers don't add up to much or didn't make any sense to me. The English dubbing wasn't a big help in that department either.Camera Obscura --- 5/10

castelli Typical Italian police movie of the Seventies. The baddies (and sometimes the goodies) meet a violent death. Bandits, hostages, police shooting at anything and anybody, hand grenades fly through the air.... Entertaining car chases in the Milan of the period, particularly if you like spotting old cars! Sound-track unmistakably Seventies!