O Império do Crime

From Director Umberto Lenzi, VIOLENT NAPLES follows Inspector Betti (Maurizio Merli) as he hunts down a vast assortment of scumbags, thugs, and other ne'er-do-wells. His quest leads him into the darkest depths of the drug-fueled underworld, where he uses a little police brutality to take care of the criminal element.

As crime-thrillers go, this is a great one. As its hero, Merli is tough, brave, and unstoppable on his mission to shut down the mob. The bad guys are quite colorful in a vile sort of way. One classic scene involves two of these psycho crooks who pick the wrong people to rob with tragic / hilarious results! Also, the scenes of motorcycles roaring through the streets of Naples are exhilarating!

Co-stars John Saxon as a seemingly mild-mannered businessman who is actually mixed up with a figure known as 'O' Generale (Barry Sullivan).

Hyper-violent and relentless, this is one of the best movies Lenzi ever made...

Italian director Umberto Lenzi made films in many of the genres that were popular at different times throughout a career which spanned the golden age of Italian genre cinema. He will probably remain most (in)famous for his key contributions to the cannibal film cycle but, really, the sub-genre best suited to his sensibilities was the Italo-crime film, better known as the poliziottesco. These movies revelled in brutal action and often featured cops who dealt with crime fighting in a decidedly fascistic fashion; which brings us to the brilliantly - and accurately - titled Violent Naples. In this one we have a Dirty Harry style cop who prefers beating criminals up to questioning them; a punch now, ask questions later kind of thing. He arrives into a Naples rife with crime and run by criminals, a place where his brand of no-nonsense violent retribution seems like the obvious answer to combat the hordes of thieves, rapists and Mafia types bringing the place down.

Needless to say, Violent Naples is severely politically incorrect, which of course, only serves to elevate its entertainment and cult value even higher. Lenzi's sledgehammer directorial style is a pretty significant factor in this. The pacing is fast due to his typically rapid choppy edits that propel us from scene to scene with no messing around. And his approach to violence could never exactly be described as reticent. There are loads of punch-ups and gun fights but also some moments of creative violence such as where a rapist dies by way of facial impalement via fence post and another occasion where a policeman is murdered by way of death by bowling ball. On the action front there is a pulse-pounding race across town on a motorcycle and a well-staged gun battle on a train carriage that includes a poor woman having her coupon obliterated when an unreasonable gangster shoves her head out a window into the path of an oncoming train. Lenzi even makes time to show his sensitive side too with scenes involving a young boy that introduces some pathos into all this mayhem, although these particular scenes are cheesy to the point of hilarity and only ultimately serve as a springboard for our tough cop hero to return to his day-to-day business of physically assaulting petty criminals in the name of good old 70's Italian law and order.

Ever been to Naples? It's like a sprawling metropolitan city, only someone's decided to condense that sprawling city into a very small space, then add loads of markets and alleyways, then add loads of mopeds and cars, then add loads of people screaming in each other's faces at top volume. Naples is total bedlam from the moment you emerge from the train station. It really does chew you up and spit you out. I love the place, and would return there in a second, but will not argue with the opinion that it is, to be honest, an absolute hole.

Take it from me: I relished any time I spent there, but it does have an overcrowded, hyperactive atmosphere to the place. This seems to have infected the makers of Violent Naples, because nary have I seen such a Euro-crime movie that has so many story lines, or a pace that moves at 100mph....

Maurizio Merli is Inspector Berti - who has arrived from Rome on an assignment to another Italian city (he was hoping for something more exotic, but Naples is Italy's whipping boy so he regrets going there), and before you know it, he's getting death threats and is already on the case of some jewel thieves, and some rapists, and, to be honest, a trail leading to the boss of all bosses, Mr something or other (the film is so fast paced I didn't have time to catch his name - The Commandante - That's it!) Merli bothers himself at first with the rapists, the protection racket, and the jewel thief, plus an armed robber who manages to establish an alibi in sequences that had even my jaded wife's jaw dropping in awe at the actual lack of safety towards the actors or indeed the public...

Merli works himself up the line, exposing undercover police agents (none of whom receive a happy ending), wasting the rapists (one gets impaled on a fence, right through the jaw), and generally hassling John Saxon, a sleazy businessman who seems to have made a general series of mistakes leading to his heading into hiding...

Most folks, I'd guess, are introduced to Umerbto Lenzi through either his cannibal films (Cannibal Ferox, Eaten Alive), or his zombie efforts (Nightmare City) or for his late-eighties crap-fests (House of Lost Souls, Nightmare Beach), but I can say, without a doubt, that this guy was an expert in action film. He does not waste a minute of this film, even injecting a bit of pathos in the end as some sort of statement regarding the youth's arrogance in the face of corruption, or something. Look - If Tarantino were to re-make this classic, it would take him about nine hours.

Violent Naples is well up there in terms of greatness, in a genre the Italians rarely got wrong, and gets my highest recommendation. It's a sheer classic from start to finish.

Actually, I'm gonna mention how violent this film actually is, because at some points I had to say "For feck's sake!" at the TV screen. At first this happened when one of the rapists impaled his face on a fence, but when an armed robber pushes a woman's head out of a window in order for her face to be struck over and over again with a passing tram, my jaw hit the floor. Not to mention the guy used in a bowling alley or the ironic crippling of a kid, and you've got something mental here. It still doesn't manage to be as gory as Contraband, but it's sure up there.

Cult director Umberto Lenzi is probably most famous for his shocking Cannibal films "Cannibal Ferox" (1981) and "Mangiati Vivi" (1980). These are of course memorable films and more than worth watching for every exploitation fan, but, as far as I am concerned, Lenzi's greatest films date back to the 70s. Especially his mean-spirited and ultra-violent Poliziotteschi are absolutely essential to every lover of Italian Cult-cinema. "Napoli Violenta" aka. "Violent Naples" of 1976 is another action-packed, adrenaline-driven, ultra-violent and delightfully politically incorrect cop-thriller that no fan of Italian genre cinema should consider missing. While it is, in my opinion, just not quite as brilliant as Lenzi's foregoing Poliziottesschi "Milano Odia: La Polizia Non Può Sparare" (aka. "Almost Human", 1974) and "Roma A Mano Armata" (aka. "Rome Armed To The Teeth", 1976"), which is mainly due to the lack of the great Tomas Milian, who played sadistic criminals in these two films, this is yet another great and outrageously brutal Poliziottesco from Lenzi.

Genre-star Maurizio Merli stars in the role of Comissario Betti for the third time (the first two Commissario Betti films were Marino Girolami's "Roma Violenta" of 1975 and "Italia A Mano Armata" of 1976, two priorities on my list of films that I haven't seen yet). Betti, who is known for his unorthodox methods hates criminals as much as he hates crime, and he has does not keep his beliefs a secret. When he comes to Naples, where he has worked earlier, the local criminal underworld, above all the Camorra, the Mafia of Naples, are already getting nervous, as they know that the Comissario, who has no mercy for criminals, is dedicated to clean up... Merli is once again great as the mustached and unorthodox copper Betti, who treats criminals in a way that makes Dirty Harry look like a social worker. The cast also includes the great John Saxon, and Barry Sullivan in the role of a Mafia-boss called "Comandante". The supporting cast furthermore includes many familiar faces for Italian genre fans, such as Guido Alberti as the chief of police, or the butt-ugly Luciano Rossi as a sadistic mugger. The score by Franco Micalizzi, who also delivered the score to "Roma A Mano Armata", is once again very good, and the camera work is fast-paced and great. "Napoli Violenta" is generally a violent film, and it has several moments of outrageous brutality. I will not give away more, but I am sure that most of my fellow Poliziotteschi fans will enjoy the film as much as I did. Brutal, gripping and breathtaking, "Napoli Violenta" is a film that fans of Italian Crime/Police films can not afford to miss!

Well, look no further! "Violent Naples" is the second entry in the masterful Commissario Betti trilogy, released in between "Violent City" and "A Special Cop in Action", and it's the only one not directed by Marino Girolami. Die-hard Poliziotteschi fanatics needn't worry, though. Quite the contrary in fact, because the man who took over the director's seat is none other than Umberto Lenzi: Italian cult director genius and particularly experienced in the field of Poliziotteschis. I tend to repeat myself when reviewing titles in this particular sub-genre of cinema, but "Violent Naples" is once more a brilliant cop thriller with harsh violence, exhilarating action sequences, fascinating characters, gritty atmospheres, mean dialogs and a splendid soundtrack. Straight from the opening credits, with a camera attached on the hood of a car that is rushing through the traffic-infested city to the tunes of awesome Franco Micalizzi music, you have the guarantee that Lenzi & Co will deliver 95 minutes of non-stop excitement. Commissioner Betti (no first name) gets transferred to Naples because this crime-laden metropolis is in desperate need for his unorthodox but highly efficient methods. Betti takes every case very personally and obsessively hunts down all type of criminals. He's equally intolerant for jewelry thieves, home-invading rapists, armed bank robbers and mafia kingpins that run a relentless protection racket. In the highest regions of the Naples crime hierarchy, there's a bit of a feud going on between Francesco Capuano and the nicknamed "Commandante", and Betti terrifically uses this to bring them both down. The highlights of the film are numerous and nearly impossible to list! There's the race across town on a motorcycle, which has to bring a dangerous but slick bank robber from the scene of the crime towards his waterproof alibi at the police station in less than ten minutes, or the vicious battle inside an upwards train carriage (that poor woman). Unforgettable as well are the bowling ball massacre and the impalement of Luciano Rossi's ugly mug on a fence. There isn't a whole lot structure in "Violent Naples" and it doesn't look as if Betti ever sleeps, but action addicts will get everything the wish for … and more!