L'accusé

I mean that, for once, Sergio Martino gives us a political oriented crime thriller, not a common poliziottesco, which invaded the italian film industry in the seventies. No gangsters here but a complex political scheme, inspired by true events, as was PARALLAX VIEW in the USA. Plot, conspiracy, intelligence special services, shadow warlords.... A very American like Italian plot. Luc Merenda and Thomas Milian are awesome here, in this interesting movie, among my favourites from Sergio martino, far better than his giallos and other horror films. Very gloomy, brutal, gritty. Damiano Damiani or Pasquale Squitieri's movies spirit are not so far from this one.

The only famous name in this Martino movie is Mel Ferrer and I guess he was just taking the money and running to invest it in one of his productions .Ferrer could not care less and he really seems to want to leave as soon as possible this muddled political-cum-thriller effort ,a genre that was so popular in Italy at the time .It did produce good works ("Cadaveri Eccellenti" (Rosi) or Elio Petri's "Indagine Su Un Cittadino Al Di Sopra Di Ogni Sospetto" ).Alas ,such is not the case here.

"La Polizia Accusa " (which became in France "The city accuses ") features a "meaningful" scene on a plane where the villain explains Hitler's "philosophy" (Mao's doctrine was the same ,we are told ) to the virtuous cop (played by Luc Merenda whose only claim to fame was his part in the "Chateauvallon" miniseries).

A spate of 'suicides' of authority figures is plaguing Italy and Luc Merenda is the cop whose is going to ignore them while trying to figure out who killed some fat electrician with a poker. How, he wonders, does an electrician live in a huge palace and afford high class swanky prostitutes? And why does the last visiting hooker have 10 million lire (£25) in her drawer, and why has she tried to kill herself?

All sorts of things are transpiring as Luc tries to find out what's going on, much to the ire of DA Mel Ferrer. The mystery deepens as a man claiming to be a government agent is caught breaking into the electrician's house which uncovers a blackmail ring and a government organisation run by bearded Tomas Milian. Can Luc figure out what's going on before every single person involved gets murdered in some way? And who can he trust, as he finds out that blackmail would be preferable to what's really going on...

People might find that the first half of the film gets bogged down in Luc uncovering the elaborate mystery, interrogating people, and trying to track down witnesses before they get whacked, but Sergio Martino saves the action for the second half of the film where we get a complicated car chase, and a full-on helicopter led assault on a bad guy camp which reminded me of those great Italian Rambo rip-offs from the eighties. I wasn't sure what was going on by that point, but Luc did then take the time to indulge in a philosophical argument with one of the bad guys that cleared that right up. Kind of.

Tomas Milian isn't in this one so much so don't get disappointed if you're expecting him to run around in his pants, screaming. Mel Ferrer is also in a support role but does actually seem to dub his own voice but doesn't seem that animated, so the film mainly rests on Merenda's shoulders, and he does a fine job of looking suitably angry while punching Antonio Casale in the face.

Director Martino applies his usual style to the film, which is full of really wide angle shots, ensemble shots, and a couple of crane shots (that give the film a strange horror feeling during those particular scenes). I'd never heard of this one despite watching dozens of other Martino films, and it's another good one!

An interesting poliziotteschi made by and with a lot of the people from one of my all time favorites 'The Violent Professionals' 1973.

Sometimes the re-use of footage and score can lead to Deja vu.

Sergio Martino has made many and different films silly, sexy, violent and serious. This one is the last type as long as you know here this is more a serious idea than the sometimes rather silly stuff. As Tomas Milian is in this one and you might not nearly even notice him. The Suspicious Death of a Minor (1975) is barely not a giallo but interesting and The Violent Professionals (1973) like these other ones a rather more thrilling political stories that are terrible films on what Italian's were rather like in the 70s. Luc Merenda and Mel Ferrer good as always and the great ride is also a very thinking about in Milan.