STUNT SQUAD
(la polizia e` scontiffa)
1977 Domenico Paolella Italy
With: Marcel Bozzuffi, Ricardo Salvino, Vittorio Mezzagiorno
Marcel Bozzuffi (The French Connection, The Smuggler) stars as police commisioner Grifi. Fed up with the murderous shenanegans of a protection racket led by low life thug Vali, Grifi forms the stunt squad, a team of daredevil, motorcycle-riding special agents.
There are some really cool training scenes that look like a commercial for the Riccardo Petrazzi stuntman school. The stunt squad wear yellow helmets and chase down some bank robbers, and that's about it. Probably the only bad thing about this movie is that the stunt squad don't do much.
There is a lot going for this film though. To start, another superb score by one of my favorite composers Stelvio Cipriani. Very upbeat and funky at times, and also very effectively used. Second, some truly awesome car chase and crash scenes. One scene, a car burst into flames and rolls into a busy intersection as traffic passes by, all caught in slow motion. Ther's also some bloody shootouts, bombings, innocent old women killed, bitch slappings and great one liners.
The ending stands out as very unique. Vali, after shooting a cop on a crowded bus is lynched by angry citizens. Grifi tries to break it up, and Vali gets lynched a second and slightly more fatal time once he gets off the bus!
A very cool, and very rare action flick, put this one on your shelf next to The Tough Ones and High Crime.
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