Squadra volante

In the wonderful world of Italian Poliziotteschi (a cult/exploitation sub-genre) movies from the 1970s, Stelvio Massi was a director/cinematographer whose name and reputation were rather insignificant compared to some of his more talented and infamous colleagues, most notably Umberto Lenzi or Enzo G. Castellari or Fernando Di Leo, but he did deliver a handful of undemanding & fun films. This "Emergency Squad" is arguably his best work; a rudimentary and derivative but nevertheless blood-soaked (literally) story about an unorthodox copper on a personal quest for raw vengeance against the bastard criminals that killed his wife during their escape from a bank robbery. During his prolific in these euro- crime movies, cult actor Tomas Milian alternately played borderline coppers and psychotic criminals, and this time he depicts the cop. Inspector Ravelli from Interpol is called to the holdup scene where a quintet of criminals inventively pretended to be a film crew and gunned down an unfortunate policeman. Ravelli immediately spots that the bullet shelves on the ground come from the same weapon that killed his wife five years earlier and begins his obsessive hunt. Meanwhile, there's severe distrust and hostility between the crooks. Particularly their leader Marsigliese clearly doesn't intend to share the loot and prefers to get away with his mistress Martha. "Emergency Squad" is memorable to me for three main reasons: the performances of the two lead actors, the extremely violent nature of the gunfights and the fact that approximately 1/3 of the DVD that I own is spoken in its original Italian language without English dubbing subtitles. The latter point is rather bizarre, since the DVD is an official release (yellow box with a drawn picture of Tomas Milian's character in front of a bullseye) and actually quite expensive! Milian's opponent in the film is none other than Gastone Mochin (immortal thanks to the brilliant "Milano Calibro 9) and he portrays a marvelously complex and atypical gangster. Marsigliese is a ruthless thug, but also struggling with his health due to chain- smoking. Last but not least, "Emergency Squad" contains numerous of vile gunfights and executions for which I honestly wonder whether the human blood spillage is anatomically correct or not… Whenever someone is shot, admittedly always with heavy artillery and at extremely close range, his/her clothes are immediately drenched in blood. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen bigger bullet wounds or more massive bloodshed in any other movie in my life. Of course I never witnessed an execution in real life, but I do suspect that director Stelvio Massi exaggerated a tad bit with the blood spillage in order to make his film more sensational and more appealing to fans of the Poliziotteschi genre … And it worked, too!

This time round we've got Milian playing a cigar chomping, revenge obsessed cop out to catch (and kill) the men who machine gunned his wife by accident. I could have sworn that this film was part of a series of films starring Milian in the same role, but I see no mention of it here.

The marked men in question have just pulled off another heist, and we spend probably more time with them than we do with Milian. You've got Ray Lovelock as a left-wing militant, Gaston Black Thumb as the leader with the gorgeous chick lady woman, that guy who was a cop in The Bird With The Crystal plumage and two other guys. Gaston's character is a lot more interesting that Milian's as he's a smart bad guy who's got his own agenda.

This film isn't a fun as some of Enzo Castellari or Umberto Lenzi's gangster films, but Stelvio Massi is no fool. His camera work is very inventive and the films looks great. Plenty of violence, car chases, sexism, you know the drill. It's good!

"Squadra Volante" (aka. "Emergency Squad") of 1974 is an underrated Poliziottesco which gets less attention than it deserves. Sure, this is no notorious Italian Cop highlight en par with "Almost Human", but it is nonetheless a raw, action-packed, and highly entertaining film starring two of the Italian crime cinema's greatest, Tomas Milian, one of my personal all-time favorite actors, and Gastone Moschin, who is immortal for his role in the arguably greatest of all Italian Crime flicks, Fernando Di Leo's masterpiece "Milano Calibro 9". The main reason why some people seem to dislike "Squadra Volante" is due to the fact that they compare it to Umberto Lenzi's notorious Poliziotteschi-highlights "Almost Human" (1974) and "Rome Armed To The Teeth" (1976) that were made around the same time. Tomas Milian was outstanding in the role of the sadistic criminal Psycho he played in Lenzi's films, but, as far as I am considered, he is also the perfect choice to play the rough-and-ready copper he plays here.

A violent holdup in the city in broad daylight leaves a cop dead. Inspettore Tomas Ravelli of Interpol is immediately convinced that the assault was the work of the same criminals responsible for the death of his wife, who was killed in Marseille some years ago... Milian is once again outstanding in his role of the mustached, cigar-smoking tough-guy copper he plays. Gastone Moschin is equally great in the role of the bad guy the ruthless criminal Marseiliese, who is troubled by his chain-smoking habit. The supporting cast includes Italian Genre-cinema regulars Ray Lovelock ("Almost Human", "Macchie Solari", "Roma Violenta",...) and Giuseppe Castellano ("Milano Calibro 9", "Manhunt", Almost Human",...). Stefania Casini is sexy, but almost annoyingly dimwitted as Marsiglese'S bimbo girlfriend Marta. While "Squadra Volante" is not nearly as (brilliantly) gruesome as Umberto Lenzi's Poliziotteschi from the time, it is nonetheless a rough and violent film in which a lot of blood flows. The action is raw and well-made and enthralling, and while the story may not be the most original, it is definitely more than well-executed. Director Stelvio Massi was mainly a very good cinematographer, and this is also visible here as the camera work is very good. The score by Stelvio Capriani is also great. Overall, "Squadra Volante" is no Poliziottesco masterpiece, but it is definitely a very good, action-packed film with an excellent cast that I highly recommend to all my fellow fans of Italian Crime cinema.

I'm a big fan of these Italian crime flicks, and while Emergency Squad may not be the best one to come out of Italy during the seventies; it's decent enough and does deliver most of what I have come to expect from this sort of film. Emergency Squad does not really add anything new to the genre, and director Stelvio Massi did do better four years later with the Maurizio Merli vehicle 'Convoy Busters'. The main reason I wanted to see this film was for the fact that it stars the excellent Tomas Milian, though like Stelvio Massi; this doesn't represent his best work either. Tomas Milian plays Interpol officer Tomas Ravelli, who finds himself on the trail of a gang of crooks after a botched robbery which left a police officer dead reveals that one of them is using the same gun that was used to kill his wife years earlier. Although it's not his case, Ravelli goes after the criminals anyway to gain revenge for what they did to his wife. He later forsakes the police force, leaving him free to get the crooks by any means necessary...

One of the reasons why this isn't Milian's best work is down to the role he is playing. Almost Human clearly shows that Milian is much more at home playing sadistic criminals; so seeing him as a copper, even one that is happy to break the rules, just isn't putting him in a position to do what he does best. The supporting cast doesn't stand out as much as Milian (as usual), though it does feature esteemed stars such as Ray Lovelock and Stefania Casini. The film does feature the staples of the genre; there's a fairly good car chase, plenty of shootouts and the leading man gets to throw his weight around on several occasions. The film benefits from tight plotting and a storyline that doesn't veer off on a tangent often, as plot lines in other Polizi flicks often do. There's not a great deal of violence in the film, though that isn't a big problem as the plot itself usually contains enough to keep the audience entertained. Overall, I won't name Emergency Squad as one of the very best of the genre, but it's a decent enough film and I can recommend seeing it to my fellow Polizi fans.

Though undeniably enjoyable, the popular poliziottesco subgenre - which proliferated in Italy throughout the 1970s - is also frustrating because one can never tell the quality of a specific title until one has watched it himself (this is mainly due to the fact that this type of film has been largely dismissed by the critics, while at the same time turned into a cult by fans): the thing is that a handful of titles definitely merit a critical re-appraisal, while many others are overrated by the aficionados. Personally, during the last few years, I've sampled films which fall in both these categories - but, thankfully, EMERGENCY SQUAD turned out to be one of the best poliziotteschi out there.

Having just watched ROME ARMED TO THE TEETH (1976), whose narrative was all over the place, it's easy to see how EMERGENCY SQUAD benefits from having a tight, compelling plot line. Besides, I tend to find star Tomas Milian more interesting when playing an anti-hero (as here or in his better Spaghetti Westerns) than an out-and-out villain. The film is clearly inspired by both DIRTY HARRY (1971) - the taciturn, iconoclastic cop hero with a dead spouse - and THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) - the desire for revenge has turned Milian's pursuit of gang boss Gastone Moschin (who, like Fernando Rey in that movie, also hails from Marseilles) into an obsession; curiously enough, the dock finale of this film anticipates the one in FRENCH CONNECTION II [1975]! Moschin (terrific as the anti-hero hood in MILANO CALIBRO 9 [1972]) is a credible villain here, also because the script has atypically made him a victim of tuberculosis.

The supporting cast is led by Stefania Casini, who has fun with her role as a ditzy gangster's moll but isn't really given a lot to do: the actress' above-the-title billing certainly suggests that her character will be more central to the main plot and that, perhaps, she'll become involved with Milian at some point - but they only get to share one scene at the very end! Also featured, among others, are Mario Carotenuto (as Milian's elderly sidekick and conscience) and Ray Lovelock (as one of Moschin's lackeys, though he exits the proceedings rather quickly in one of the film's best scenes).

Director/co-writer Massi's background as a cinematographer is evident in the film's stylish look (even if there's an over-abundance of zoom shots), and equally notable is the inventive editing technique adopted throughout (which shows a definite influence from modern American films - the overlapping of shots from successive scenes before a full transition being borrowed from EASY RIDER [1969], the juxtaposition in slo-mo of Moschin's death with that of Milian's wife at the climax from the work of Sam Peckinpah). Regular genre composer Stelvio Cipriani contributes an excellent and eclectic score, providing several variations on the catchy main theme throughout.

The plot, meanwhile, shows the gang cleverly take up various disguises to accomplish their criminal schemes (dressing up as undertakers, members of a film crew and priests during the course of the film); interestingly, the scene in which they hold a family hostage will be reprised in Milian's subsequent and better-known effort in the genre, ALMOST HUMAN (1974) - where he actually plays the psychotic leader of a gang of crooks. Also, the vulgar humor associated with the genre only makes itself felt in the scenes taking place on the set of an erotic movie and, later, in a hippie commune; in fact, the film's tone is generally quite serious - but this doesn't mean that the hard-boiled dialogue, which so characterizes the poliziotteschi, has been downplayed (thus raising the occasional chuckle, especially among those fluent in Italian).

I watched this via a recording off Italian TV but as the reception wasn't perfect - not to mention the fact that I was surprisingly impressed by the film - I'll have to pick up No Shame's reportedly solid R1 DVD release somewhere down the line...