Medo na Cidade

Overnight, in Rome, 12 (!) criminals escape from prison and 4 police informants are brutally murdered. The DA reluctantly calls upon Commissioner Murri, who previously was suspended due to his unorthodox methods and "shoot-first-no-questions-asked" mentality. In between shooting gangsters in the back, Murri discovers that mob-boss Lettieri led the escape, and that one of the convicts was an elderly man who only had 40 days of his sentence left to serve. He was probably forced to join, and Merri gradually finds out why via his gorgeous niece Laura.

My fellow reviewers around here, some of them guys I usually always agree with, have referred to "Fear in the City" as a lesser Poliziotesschi outing and one of the weakest crime thrillers in which Maurizio Merli plays the heroic copper. Yours truly begs to differ. Well sure, if you watch "Fear in the City" straight after "Rome Armed to the Teeth" and right before "The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist", it'll definitely be the weakest link. But, as a stand-alone, this is a highly entertaining and action-packed thriller. It has brutal executions, bank robberies gone wrong, car chases, motorcycle chases, vigilante action and a virulent climax at the railway station. The best scene involves a nasty assassination attempt at a cemetery. James Mason stars as the obligatory prominent Hollywood star-on-his-return, but he clearly wasn't too enthusiast. Raymond Pellegrin and Fausto Tozzi, on the other hand, are excellent in their supportive roles, and the heavenly beautiful Silvia Dionisio decorates the film with her natural charm and her ravishing naked body.

I'm a big fan of the Italian Polizi flicks, and for me; having made some of the most entertaining films in the genre, Maurizio Merli is much more than just a Franco Nero clone...but despite the title similarity to the great French-Italian co-production Fear Over the City, Fear in the City is unfortunately a lesser example of the genre. The entire genre owes itself to Don Siegel's masterpiece Dirty Harry; although some of the films in it have taken some creative licence and made something a bit different out of it; that is not the case with this film. The film focuses on Murri; the token maverick cop. He is called in (reluctantly) after a bunch of criminals pull off a successful prison break and spend the night picking off various informers and people they don't like. Murri investigates; hooking up with one of the criminal's nieces along the way. He uses his own methods; which mostly involve breaking all the rules, and thus comes under a lot of scrutiny from his superiors who don't take too kindly to the cop's way of working.

The main problem with this film is undoubtedly the pacing; as we skip from one action scene to the next without much substance in between. Of course, it's the action scenes that make this genre what it is; but the more successful films in it generally have something else to like, and this one doesn't. Maurizio Merli makes a likable lead as ever and it's not hard to see why he so often gets cast in these films as the roles suit him like a glove; but even he doesn't have enough to make Fear in the City a success. Anyone who has seen more than a handful of these films will have seen everything in this one before and not even the action scenes are anything to write home about; although there is an amusing motorcycle chase midway through the film which is well done. This is one the lesser known Polizi flicks outside of Italy and I'm not really surprised about that because there are so many better ones. Overall, I could perhaps recommend this film to hardcore fans of this sort of stuff; but everyone else would do well to not bother with this film.

If you are a fan of the Euro-crime type films then this a typical violent outing that delivers a lot in 90ish minutes running time. Merli plays the usual tough cop Dirty Harry type role, and gets a decent motorbike chase that is a highlight. I certainly disagree with comments that the film is dull as there's plenty of great action sequences. There is less plot than say 'The Marseille Connection' (High Crimes) or other similar films though. Merli is good in this film, though naturally dubbed. He's great in the action scenes especially the fights! It's more than can be said for an clearly ill at ease James Mason, who acts like he'd rather be somewhere else.

Its a shame this genre of films is difficult to come by (certainly in the UK) and the copy i've watched is the grainy '23rd Century' release which i gather is missing footage at the start. Even so it's definitely worth a watch if you can track it down.

Recommended.

Euro-Crime can be an acquired taste at the best of times - bad dubbing; senseless killings; one-dimensional plot lines, just some of the gripes levelled against this genre of film. However, if you are looking to watch a film that is rather sparing on subtlety, pathos and seriously lacks any kind of pacing(choppy editing issues), but excels with well-choreographed action sequences; ultra- violence; over-the- top silliness and an easy-to-follow storyline, then this is another Polizio film worth casting a keen eye over.

Maurizio Merli plays a cop forced into retirement by his superiors due to a fondness in the past, of taking matters into his own hands and meting out his own brand of justice to any wrongdoers who have the temerity to commit a crime in his neck of the woods. This exile doesn't last too long however, as he suddenly finds himself recalled to duty by the very same superiors, who believe utilising his brutish methods is just about the only option they have of putting a stop to a gang of nefarious criminals who have just escaped from the clink, and mean BUSINESS! Cue exploding cars; a spectacular motorcycle chase; a one-sided dust-up where Merli teaches four(middle-aged)hooligans some manners on a public bus and plenty of gratuitous shoot- outs(endless bullets entering endless baddies chests).

All in all, an enjoyable 89mins, that's not going to tax the mind and will entertain you from start to finish. Oh, and watch for an unusual turn out for James Mason, playing an Italian Police Commissioner with a clipped Yorkshire accent. Fascinating!

Italian police thrillers were partly inspired by 70's American films like "Dirty Harry", "The French Connection", and "Serpico", so they have a kind of indirect film noir sensibility to them, but one updated to the gritty urban decay of the 1970's. They were also, of course, inspired by the Spaghetti Westerns, a popular Italian genre which they would essentially replace. The Spaghetti Westerns had taken the white-hatted American John Wayne type heroes and substituted much more morally ambiguous anti-heroes, often ruthless and violence prone and pursuing only their own self-interest. These kind of ambiguous anti-heroes carried on into the police thrillers, and that mixed with noir elements and the social turbulence of 70's led to a cynical, downbeat, and extremely morally ambiguous genre that was nevertheless entertaining as hell. The problem is though in the hands of hacks these films could very easily turn into the most trite right-wing fantasies imaginable.

Actor Maurizio Merlino was one of those hacks. Basically, he was Franco Nero with a fraction of the talent. Still, he was OK in some of the films he made with Umberto Lenzi and other relatively talented directors. Unfortunately, director Guiseppe Rossi was an even bigger hack, responsible for such nonsense as the dim-witted giallo "The Perfect Crime". As a result, this movie has no intelligence, no depth, and no irony (not even the over-the-top fascist excesses of something like Ruggiero Deodata's "Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man"). It's just the typical ho-hum story of a vigilante cop who defies his superiors and refuses to go "by the book" as he fights crime--in this case a dozen ruthless gangsters who have broken out of prison and are out to settle the score with everyone that put them there. This is the kind of thing Hollywood crapped out about a thousand times in the 80's, usually with Sylvester Stallone or some other meat-head in the lead role. There's not even a memorable villain like Thomas Milan or Henry Silva on hand.

On the plus side, the music is pretty good and visual style is serviceable. Silvia Dionisio turns up as Merlino's love interest and she has her usual highly gratuitous (but highly enjoyable) nude scenes. James Mason is also in this, and even though he is obviously slumming and his role is pretty perfunctory, an actor of his caliber can't help but add a little gravitas to the proceedings. Still,this is generally a weak entry into the Italian cop genre.