La mano spietata della legge

One of the more clichéd plots in Eurocrime cinema is the small time cop fighting his way through waves of seemingly petty criminals before discovering that there is a crooked cop in on the act and a shadowy organisation controlling it all. This is the plot of this film, and the plot of The Big Racket, Silent Action, Violent Professionals, Killer Cop, and so on and so forth.

This time round Klaus Kinski is part of a hit squad who organise the arrival in Italy of a New York hitman who dresses up as a cop, heads to a hospital where a mafia Don is in custody, whacks the capo, then for good measure whacks the two guys helping him before being sent back to the US by Kinski and his mates. Please note that Kinski does not speak a single word of dialogue in this film, so it's easy money for him, the lazy creepy bastard.

Problems arise immediately when the hitmen twig that an employee at the airport may have witnessed everyone meeting and conspire to kill her off in a convoluted fashion (basically one of them hits on her flatmate and dates her for a while, takes her out to a nightclub, then someone else fakes a phone call to her while the guy steals her keys, gives them to someone else, who gives them to Klaus Kinski, who then goes to her house and kills her - simple!). Of course, once this girl is dead, her flatmate can then identify the guy who stole her keys, so then she and he needs to die too, but then what about the guy who pushes the other guy into the path of a car driven by Kinski?

While the hitmen are scrambling about trying to kill everyone in existence the guy trying to save these poor folks is Philippe Leroy, a cop who is wondering why every time he gets a witness under his protection, they end up dead anyway (note to Philipe - watch more Italian crime films - you'll figure it out soon enough!).

The plot might be the same as usual but Mario Gariazzo is a trashy enough actor to know that to keep the audience awake you've got to have the car chases, boobs, violence and Luciano Rossi getting his balls burned off with welding gear. Why does Luciano always get cast as a rapist? Was he comfortable with this?

Mario Gariazzo's twin-fisted,'La mano Spietata della legge' (1973) aka 'The Bloody Hands of The Law' is, sadly, a little-known, and somewhat poorly documented, enjoyably mean-spirited poliziottesco treat that certainly merits a higher standing amongst the cult movie cognoscenti. In its great favour, any high-octane, murderously mob handed Mafioso actioner from the early 70s, sensually scintillated with a perceptibly phat-sounding, gloriously grooved-out score from maestro, Stelvio Cipriani, additionally enlivened with a no less muscular performance from sterling, steel-thewed Thespian, Philippe Leroy as the Stoic Gangland-busting, High Noon heroic, il commissario Gianni De Carmine is going to be anything but a tawdry time waster!

The brutal murder of a hospitalized mobster provides a suitably incendiary opening to, Gariazzo's engagingly gritty Poliziottesco that ticks a multitude of boisterous B-movie boxes, not least being the luminous presences of, Pia Giancaro, and serial screen-gobbler, Klaus Kinski, who, uncharacteristically, delivers an intriguingly restrained performance as the gimlet-eyed, blow torch-wielding hit-man, Vito Quattroni; the inimitable, flaxen-haired, Kinski looking dangerously dishy in his hep-cat sunspex! 'The Bloody Hands of The Law' inspired me to seek out a number of similarly neglected Euro-titles starring that most swarthy of enigmatic actors, Philippe Leroy, who dynamically cuts a strident swathe through these bullet-blasted proceedings with great aplomb! Methinks it is LONG overdue for a comprehensive, Leroy retrospective!

Found this title on Danish x-rental vhs-tape the other day. Letterboxed 1:1.70 and uncut. Runningtime is 95.21 mins, pal system. Danish title is....Politiets Hårde Drenge(tuff police-boys...in English!!). It's supposed to be extremely violent,but I fail to see the reason for this rumour as no real graphic violence is shown directly "in y'ar face"!! Ok...Klaus Kinski...looking very very cool in 70´s sunspex by the way....does set a guy's groin area on fire with a small flamethrower. Not a very pleasant scene. There's really no interesting story to follow and the action is rather tame, but we do get lots of truly nice shots of Klaus, who performs with his usual flair for putting on a cruel face. Participating from start to finish,he dosn't speak one single word throughout the entire movie,though!! Recommended for die-hard fans of either Italo crime or the wonderful Mr Kinski. I'm the latter, yep!! Worth a million on the sell/swap/trade scene among collectors worldwide!!

The Bloody Hands of the Law is a rarely seen Italian crime film. It stars the reliable Klaus Kinski in a role as a professional killer. He goes through the entire movie without even saying one line of dialogue, I'm sure not having to learn any lines suited Kinski just fine. Anyway, the film still benefits a lot by having his considerable presence at its disposal. He isn't the lead actor though, that would be Philip Leroy who had an important role in another much better poliziotteschi, Milano Calibro 9. He has more of a starring role in this one and he does give it his all. He looks like a bad ass and he clearly seems to be doing his own stunt work as well. With these two on board it's a bit of a pity to acknowledge that the movie itself doesn't match up to its lead actors. The story is fairly uninteresting and has no real dynamism and it isn't even always easy to follow what's going on. The crime network that underpins the story isn't very well explained and we never really know what they're all about.

The story, such as it is, begins with a professional assassination of a crime boss. Witnesses to the crime are bumped off and then others involved in the investigation also meet violent ends. A policeman frustrated with the ineffectiveness of the law demands that the gloves are removed and a more heavy–handed approach is taken in bringing these gangsters to justice.

Like all Italian crime films it's pretty violent in places, with a particularly memorable scene where a would-be rapist has his crown jewels obliterated with a blowtorch which seemed rather appropriate. But otherwise the violence is less original and consists mostly of men administering beatings to one-and-other. As I said, the story is messy, so it's hard getting very involved in this one, which is a shame because there is good things about it. I particularly liked the downbeat and moody ending that at least rounded things off on an interesting note. This one also stars the very dark and dusky beauty Silvia Monti, who also featured in Lucio Fulci's classic giallo A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, in a support role as Leroy's lover.

With his less than flattering cover, under the title "The Bloody Hands Of he Law", that could be the best thing about this fizzer, which isn't anything awe. Inspiring. More so, it's just a droning go nowhere drama, an unconventional cop with unorthodox methods of interrogation. The superb Kinski, sadly underused is the big disappointment, as wanting to see more of his excellent performance, as a hitman.

The film is just like other undemanding, Italian cop dramas, with beautiful scenery, and some nice car chases. Too, we also have that all so fake blood. And it's amazing, just how quickly, our unorthodox, cop's face heals, from a severe beating.