Die Klette

A typical police mystery from Italy. It skirts with the giallo genre at times but is much more of a police procedural. Franco Nero gives good value as a corrupt cop who doesn't mind roughing up a string of suspects, and indeed the film plods a bit due to the basic and somewhat repetitive construction of him visiting and interrograting one suspect after another. Eventually the mystery is solved and the usual conspiracy exposed. Middle of the road for this genre.

As in the classic films of Hollywood's black series (film noir), we are dealing here with a cynical and corrupt Commissario Belli (Franco NERO), who offers his services to the highest bidder on the open market. The lawyer Fontana (Adolfo CELI) is worried about his son Mino (Maurizio BONUGLIA). He is hopelessly in love with a beautiful Englishwoman (Delia BOCCARDO) and wants to enable her to have a career in recording. And all this with his father's money! The record company is based on the famous Via Veneto. And when the corrupt Commissario wants to pay the record boss a visit, he finds him murdered in his fancy apartment. Of course, Mino and his free-spirited Englishwoman in particular now come under fire from the investigating Commissario Baldo (Renzo PALMER). Baldo follows the law, while the corrupt Belli is prepared to share the bedsheets with all the suspected ladies in the case. Then there is the drug-addicted pop singer Emmanuelle (Susanna MARTINKOVA, who in real life was married to CINECITTA divo Gianni GARKO for several years), and above all the beautiful wife of the lawyer and stepmother of Mino: Vera Fontana (Florinda BOLKAN). The case becomes more and more confusing. And soon there are more deaths to mourn.

A very good representative of the successful EUROCRIME genre! Here the restless action of the 1970s is even less in the foreground, instead a grandiose social portrait is drawn using the means of classic film noir. The two CINECITTA beauties Laura ANTONELLI and Silvia DIONISIO can be admired in smaller roles. In the 1980s, Florinda BOLKAN (seasons 1, 2 and 7) and Delia BOCCARDO (season 5) made an exciting reunion in the globally successful Italian television series LA PIOVRA.

The wonderful images of the Via Veneto in the middle of Rome are particularly worth seeing. The male and female divas of the Roman CINECITTA film industry would come there every evening. Whether they were looking for a new role or a new love interest! Romolo GUERRIERI's film skilfully captures this shimmering atmosphere of the late 1960s.

A dialogue heavy murder mystery whose story is just full of twists and turns, "Un Detective", a.k.a. "Detective Belli", a.k.a. "Ring of Death", is a reasonably entertaining, competently made movie that does provide handsome leading man Franco Nero with a good vehicle, based upon the novel "Macchie Di Belletto" (translated as "Make Up Stains" in the English dubbed version) by Ludovico Dentice.

Franco plays police commissioner Stefano Belli, a shamelessly crooked individual who takes a pair of cases offered to him by prominent criminal lawyer Fontana (Adolfo Celi). The details of these cases include a provocative photograph, blackmail, and cheating partners.

One review read by this viewer was certainly on the mark when it comments on the story's resemblance to the legendary "The Maltese Falcon", right down to the final showdown when Belli confronts the killer with the knowledge he's gained. (Of course, the denouement here is one that the viewer may NOT expect.) A fair amount of the screen time actually involves Belli confronting one character after another, so it gets kind of repetitive, and what with all of the exposition relayed throughout, it does require one to pay close attention. One standout scene features Belli intimidating British model Sandy Bronson (Delia Boccardo) into giving up information by driving dangerously through the city streets.

There's a brief scene of delectable bare female skin but the scene is over a little too quickly. Still, it's nice to see an assortment of "Euro-babes" among the cast: Florinda Bolkan, Boccardo, and Susanna Martinkova (whose dubbed in French voice is ridiculous yet still rather cute). Uncredited appearances are made by the likes of Laura Antonelli, Geoffrey Copleston, Silvia Dionisio, and John Stacy. But the most fun to be had is in watching Nero play a man of absolutely no moral fibre who always looks out for number one while becoming intent on solving the cases. He's a real brute of a man, yet is very democratic about it, roughing up men and women alike.

The movie is decent entertainment overall, if not particularly memorable, and may please plans of European crime stories.

Seven out of 10.

During Christmas time, a corrupted policeman "from the old school" (Franco Nero) acts like a private detective with pale eyes, ironic smile and direct methods. While he tries to get closer and closer to the identity of a mysterious killer, dead bodies pile up. He tricks with the true and false game to dig out some right clue, and deals in a fantastic sequence with the psychological torture of being a passenger trapped in a crazy car. Lost in a labyrinth of wrong leads in this very giallo fit little world of the fashion photo, he has to cop with the traditional "I don't know nothing" replies to make his path until "the end is near", whilst climate gets heavier around the giallist actress Florinda Bolkan.

Mixed bag

The acting is better than average for this kind of film.

And the mystery component is actually really well written and unravels nicely!

However, Franco Nero's character is such a jerk. Like he's impossible to care about as the hero because he treats everyone around him like a punching bag.

Also, the fact that his character is so clever and thinks ahead and solves mysteries, but he was somehow surprised in the end was unbelievable. That ending was truly garbage... especially compared to how well it was written leading up to it.