Die Zuhälterin

The late Maurizio Merli was a staple in many excellent Italian crime films of the 1970's, reminding me at times of both Franco Nero and Chuck Norris (!!!). FEARLESS (as the US video of this is known) is an exciting Italian police film, largely shot in Austria (which looks beautiful!), with Merli as a low-rent private investigator and former cop who is sent to Austria on a job, and while there sees a number of seemingly unrelated coincidences that lead him into a strange web of corruption and decadence. But at the forty-minute point, the film enters a new sphere with the arrival of JOAN COLLINS, looking incredibly sexy, doing a striptease in a club, and giving the film a wonderful shot in the arm. This film was made right before her "comeback" with the films THE STUD and THE BITCH, based on literary works by her sister Jackie. I've always admired Ms. Collins and the way she took charge of her career and showed the world how sexy an over-35 lady can be. The crime elements of the film work well, Merli is exciting and witty (as he usually was), and Joan Collins is a seductive femme-fat ale in a role that her fans simply must see. I've watched this film a number of times over the years, and I can't recommend it highly enough...an exciting 70's Italian crime film with the added attraction of Joan Collins at the height of her powers is a dream come true for this viewer!

The first half hour is so fast paced and campy you can't look away. (Crazy cartoon dubbing) But then... after that it's kinda hard to find the plot.

Joan doesn't show up for a long time. But after she does the plots becomes more clear and I personally had to stay to find out what happens.

For the most part this is for dire hard Joan fans only.

The Italians are genuine masters in deconstruction their own successful cult/exploitation cinema streams! As soon as the popularity or ticket sales were slightly diminishing, the writers and directors began throwing in aspects of other genres and bucket-loads of dumb humor; - slapstick even. It happened to the legendary Spaghetti Westerns at the end of the sixties, and it happened to the Poliziotesschi flicks a decade later. It's almost saddening to see how, in a span of barely 5-6 years, the films that were initially brutal, relentless and non-stop violent are slowly becoming light-headed parodies. "Poliziotto Senza Paura" still offers a reasonably well-balanced mix between action, thrills and chuckles, but the sub-genre would rapidly deteriorate further, notably with the "Delitto" franchise starring Tomas Milian. For most contemporary Italian actors and directors, the slow disappearance of the Poliziotesschi wasn't a big tragedy, as they sought out new and different horizons. For Maurizio Merli, however, the Poliziotesschi movies were literally all he had, so he kept playing his familiar roles, even if it meant acting like a clown or depicting supportive characters (like in "Convert Action").

In good old Italian tradition, "Poliziotto Senza Paura" has a lot of alternate titles. I watched it as "Fearless Fuzz", but it's also known as "Magnum Cop", "Fearless", "Fatal Charm", "The Private Detective" and "A Matter of Honour". Despite several bad omens, like the comedy elements and recycled poster images, it is still an entertaining film that benefices from a solid plot and the presence of Joan Collins! To my knowledge, it's Diva Collins' only appearance in an Italian exploitation movie ever, but she does a terrific job and still looks astonishing as the 44-year-old stripper. Walter "Wally" Spada is a former cop now working as a financially struggling private detective. Austrian colleague Gaston Moschin subcontracts Wally to trace the runaway daughter of his wealthy businessman client, but the child is brutally kidnapped in front of him. Wally then travels to Austria himself, and via the related case of a murdered schoolgirl, he slowly uncovers a filthy network of teenage prostitution led by the owners of a sleazy nightclub. The first 10 minutes, as well as the final 15, are extremely compelling and chock-full of hard-boiled Poliziotesschi action. A few of the death sequences are unexpected and quite shocking and there are some clever plot twists. Unfortunately, the entire middle-section is too talkative and dull, and the non-stop, supposedly humorous gasconading between Merli and Moschin becomes irritating quite fast. Nevertheless, the more than decent score by the reliable Stelvio Cipriani and the above-average directing competences of Stelvio Massi contribute to making "Poliziotto Senza Paura" a recommendable viewing experience for fans of Italian 70s cult.

If you know good Italian Eurocrime flicks when you see one, you'll spot the flaws in this one faster than a Poliziotteschi car chase. Despite Maurizio Merli gunning down two goons before the opening credits roll, the stalwart Poliziotteschi leading man doesn't deliver in playing a non-nonsense tough-guy detective that ruthlessly pursues his foes. Instead, he fumbles his way through a chaotic dumpster fire of a script that lacks a coherent narrative or central focus, dangling a few vague plot points that float around like free radicals and then suddenly resurface just when you've nearly forgotten them. Merli shines at rocking a mid-70s mustache and getting the crap beat out of him multiple times, but is continuously denied the opportunity to actually kick ass. He runs away from fights into dead ends, hides with pride, never shoots back, smashes a few windows with convenient (if inexplicable) blunt instruments, and fails to take down the main villain himself. Instead, he's knocked unconscious, AGAIN, leaving the character that cold-cocked him to finish the job themselves. His character, Walter 'Wally' Spada, is bafflingly stupid, failing to see through the obvious and glaring Joan Collins double-cross or the fact that he's getting set up over and over. If this film had been remade in the '90s, it would've starred Roberto Benigni, who'd have fit the role perfectly-the only difference being that with Benigni, the comedy would've been intentional.

This film slots into the Italian 'Polizi' genre, although it's something of a black sheep as the focus is not on police officers or police procedure. The film is still similar to other genre entries, however, and although the lead character is a private detective; he's not really far away from being a police officer. Fearless is directed by Stelvio Massi who previously made the disappointing Polizi flick Emergency Squad with Tomas Milian and went on to make the decent Convoy Busters with the star of this film; Maurizio Merli. The plot in this one focuses on Merli's private detective character who is put on the trail of a missing girl in Austria. After the investigation goes pear shaped, he finds himself on another case; this time revolving around a dead girl and by chance realises that the two are connected. His investigation leads him into the underworld of Austria which is inhabited by several very shady characters and he soon discovers links between the girls he's investigating and a prostitution racket.

The biggest draw of Fearless is undoubtedly the presence of the great Maurizio Merli; he may be just slightly ridiculous, but he has a great screen presence and while most of his screen roles are more than a little bit similar; in this film, he actually gets a chance to show that he has some range and overall it's one of the best performances I've seen from him. The film also stars Joan Collins in her only Polizi flick role as a seductive femme fatale. She looks good and fits into the role well, although it's disappointing that she obviously refused to do a nude scene and the edited nude sequence towards the end is not convincing. The plot itself moves at a steady pace and while it does get a little muddled and hard to follow at times; it manages to remain entertaining throughout, which is to its credit. The film doesn't completely take itself seriously either, and there's plenty of comedy thrown in - particularly during the first half of the film, which actually creates a bit of an odd mood when the film turns darker later on. Fearless is topped off by an excellent score and overall this is a well done and entertaining Italian thriller.