Squadra antiscippo

I'm so glad that I actually enjoyed this one, because it has TEN sequels, and I would have watched them regardless. This is Tomas Milian as quirky cop Inspector Giraldi, a strangely-dressed, dirty-looking freak who keeps a mouse called Serpico and likes to get the bad guys in less violent fashion than his contempories (even those played by Milian himself).

The film was a huge success in Italy, mainly due I guess to Milian's off the wall performance as Giraldi, a crook turned cop who is always trying to track down a bad guy called the Baron, plus some other guy who keeps leaving message consisting of nothing but 'Up Yours!' on Giraldi's answer machine. Things are played out lightly enough until the Baron accidentally steals five million dollars from a hard case gangster (Palance) and starts getting his mates killed while the Mafia try and get their money back.

This doesn't stop Milian getting it on with the strangely patient Maria Rosaria Ommagio (who looks like Kate Bush), a robbery victim who doesn't seem to mind going to bed with Milian even though he wears two pairs of socks, three jumpers and some nifty red budgie smugglers, because of course no Milian film is complete without him at least appearing once in his pants. He also takes her disco dancing which made me burst out laughing at Milian's moves, as well as his get-up and the hat he wears that has "Tomas Milian" written on it in red pen.

It has a mainly light tone this film, but don't think of it as some sort of Eurocrime 'Trinity' film. The film does mainly stick to the grim plots of before, just with a much better character up front than the usual stone-faced killing machines. And his mouse wears a little hat at the end!

Oh, and all Jack Palance did was chew cigarettes and scowl, as usual.

Surprisingly engaging poliziottesco spoof which actually led to a series, all featuring star Tomas Milian as maverick cop Nico Giraldi; in fact, a total of 11 films were made between 1976 and 1984! I know a few of them turned up on Italian TV as a kid but I had always considered them - and Milian's other contemporaneous series revolving around a character nicknamed "Monnezza" (Italian slang for "garbage"), but which lasted for only 3 'episodes' - low-brow, indeed bottom-of-the-barrel, stuff; considering that their titles - and I'm sure plot lines - were basically interchangeable certainly makes their longevity astounding!

Well, action-packed though it is - with the star (playing a street-wise ex-delinquent dressed as a bum with a mouse, Serpico, for a pet!) going through many a stunt on a motor-bike - the film's most prominent trait is its vulgarity which doesn't merely extend to a proliferation of colorful swearwords; indeed, the very first scene shows a chubby young man mooning a group of Japanese tourists from across the street, in order to distract them while his accomplices make off with their luggage in a van! As such, the film is enjoyable in an unassuming way - though the muddy soundtrack and the characters' frequent resort to the use of dialect made the dialogue a bit of a chore to understand, even for one who's fluent in the language like myself! - and it's certainly made even more tolerable by the presence of a predictably ruthless Jack Palance (whose real identity proves quite a revelation!).

The finale, then, is at once amusing and clever in that Milian - assigned to a special squad dealing with "snatch & grab" cases, hence the original title SQUADRA ANTISCIPPO - resorts to just such a crime in order to help his lovely girlfriend, whose job it is to smuggle provocative literature into the country!; they had met when Milian saved the girl from being raped: keeping her watch and other valuables in her bra, he wonders what she'd say if someone asked her the time, perhaps "a quarter to tits"?!

P.S. at one point, Milian says "La Polizia Ringrazia" (The Police Is Thankful) - which happens to be the title of the 1972 film (released in the U.S. as EXECUTION SQUAD) credited with kick-starting the whole poliziottesco subgenre!

After the spaghetti western genre died in Italy, Italian filmmakers moved to cop movies. Like with spaghetti westerns, there were good and not so good efforts, this movie belonging to the latter category. Tomas Milian, an actor who's made an impression in other movies, seems kind of helpless here, thanks to the costume department dressing him up like a homeless person, and a screenplay that gives him very few opportunities to show some kind of character. Jack Palance is pretty much wasted - he only makes two very brief appearances in the first hour, and not much more in the last half hour. But the main problem with the movie is that it feels oh so tired. There are chases, punch-ups, and guns fired, but it all feels so mechanical. Maybe that's why the musical score plays the same bars of music over and over ad nauseum. Even die hard fans of Eurocult movies would be better off skipping this one.

THE COP IN BLUE JEANS, the US title of this film, was quite widely available in the video budget bins of the 80s and early 90s, so this may be the best known in the US of Tomas Milian's series of films as longhaired, unconventional cop Nico Giraldi. The films starts with a bang as a mini-crimewave is depicted in rapid-fire succession (the scene with the guy mooning the tourists to divert their attention as their possessions are stolen is a classic!), until after seven or eight minutes Milian jumps into action. Like most films of Bruno Corbucci, there is a serious political element in the film too, while it completely satisfies fans who just want an exciting violent action film. And of course, Tomas Milian is brilliant, creating an anti-hero (as he does so well!) who is unlike ANYONE in US cinema. I'm sure there are copies of this sitting in the 99-cent rack of video stores, so check it out if you want to see what is so good about the 1970s Italian police film genre or why Tomas Milian is one of the great icons of world film. My favorite film of this period w/ Milian is SWINDLE, where he is paired with David Hemmings. If you EVER see that offered or shown on TV, don't miss it!

Released in 1976, "The Cop in Blue Jeans" is a loner-cop thriller in the mold of "Dirty Harry" (1971) and "Serpico" (1973). The titular protagonist even looks like Serpico. The difference is that this is an Italian production directed & co-written by Bruno Corbucci. The plot revolves around an undercover cop named Nico Giraldi (Tomas Milian) who arrests several thugs of the purse snatching variety and zeroes-in on the mastermind of the ring (Jack Palance).

The Italian title is "Squadra Antiscippo," which means "Swindle Squad" and I assume refers to the theft ring. Anyway, the movie's an interesting way to observe the more obscure parts of Rome in the mid-70s. The story's relatively compelling and there's a lot of undercover cop type of action (naturally). Maria Rosaria Omaggio is easy on the eyes, but not enough is done with her. Nico's pet mouse, named Serpico, is a nice addition.

While this is a decent Euro flick and worth catching for the highlights noted, don't expect the greatness of any of the Dirty Harry installments.

The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes and was shot in Rome.

GRADE: B-/C+