A spate of 'suicides' of authority figures is plaguing Italy and Luc Merenda is the cop whose is going to ignore them while trying to figure out who killed some fat electrician with a poker. How, he wonders, does an electrician live in a huge palace and afford high class swanky prostitutes? And why does the last visiting hooker have 10 million lire (£25) in her drawer, and why has she tried to kill herself?
All sorts of things are transpiring as Luc tries to find out what's going on, much to the ire of DA Mel Ferrer. The mystery deepens as a man claiming to be a government agent is caught breaking into the electrician's house which uncovers a blackmail ring and a government organisation run by bearded Tomas Milian. Can Luc figure out what's going on before every single person involved gets murdered in some way? And who can he trust, as he finds out that blackmail would be preferable to what's really going on...
People might find that the first half of the film gets bogged down in Luc uncovering the elaborate mystery, interrogating people, and trying to track down witnesses before they get whacked, but Sergio Martino saves the action for the second half of the film where we get a complicated car chase, and a full-on helicopter led assault on a bad guy camp which reminded me of those great Italian Rambo rip-offs from the eighties. I wasn't sure what was going on by that point, but Luc did then take the time to indulge in a philosophical argument with one of the bad guys that cleared that right up. Kind of.
Tomas Milian isn't in this one so much so don't get disappointed if you're expecting him to run around in his pants, screaming. Mel Ferrer is also in a support role but does actually seem to dub his own voice but doesn't seem that animated, so the film mainly rests on Merenda's shoulders, and he does a fine job of looking suitably angry while punching Antonio Casale in the face.
Director Martino applies his usual style to the film, which is full of really wide angle shots, ensemble shots, and a couple of crane shots (that give the film a strange horror feeling during those particular scenes). I'd never heard of this one despite watching dozens of other Martino films, and it's another good one!
All sorts of things are transpiring as Luc tries to find out what's going on, much to the ire of DA Mel Ferrer. The mystery deepens as a man claiming to be a government agent is caught breaking into the electrician's house which uncovers a blackmail ring and a government organisation run by bearded Tomas Milian. Can Luc figure out what's going on before every single person involved gets murdered in some way? And who can he trust, as he finds out that blackmail would be preferable to what's really going on...
People might find that the first half of the film gets bogged down in Luc uncovering the elaborate mystery, interrogating people, and trying to track down witnesses before they get whacked, but Sergio Martino saves the action for the second half of the film where we get a complicated car chase, and a full-on helicopter led assault on a bad guy camp which reminded me of those great Italian Rambo rip-offs from the eighties. I wasn't sure what was going on by that point, but Luc did then take the time to indulge in a philosophical argument with one of the bad guys that cleared that right up. Kind of.
Tomas Milian isn't in this one so much so don't get disappointed if you're expecting him to run around in his pants, screaming. Mel Ferrer is also in a support role but does actually seem to dub his own voice but doesn't seem that animated, so the film mainly rests on Merenda's shoulders, and he does a fine job of looking suitably angry while punching Antonio Casale in the face.
Director Martino applies his usual style to the film, which is full of really wide angle shots, ensemble shots, and a couple of crane shots (that give the film a strange horror feeling during those particular scenes). I'd never heard of this one despite watching dozens of other Martino films, and it's another good one!