Featuring nine hard-hitting, white hot lead-filled, pedal-to-the-metal movies straight out of a 70s Italy that was bitterly and dangerously divided along political and social lines, all of the films in the Poliziotteschi collection offer a fascinating insight into a highly specific time and place where corruption and class informed the filmmakers choices in these often morally dubious action-packed thrillers.
Brutal criminals and super-cool cops collide in knuckle-breaking car chases featuring gorgeous retro automobiles flung through traffic at insanely dangerous speeds, and gritty violence doled out by anything from a Colt .38 to a fork lift truck! Featuring the work of extremely brave stunt men literally risking it all for some truly death-defying moments, in these Italian crime thrillers, or crimi, you hold on tight and you take justice any way you can get it.
1975 • Italy • Directed by Vittorio Salerno
By day, Ovidio (Joe Dallesandro, The Climber) and his two friends work at a data center. After work, they blow off steam by committing random acts of savage violence, swiftly graduating from sparking a riot at a football game to vehicle theft, rape and...
1976 • Italy • Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
Over a long and wide-ranging career, director Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma, The Inglorious Bastards) helmed some of the most infamous of all the poliziotteschi – the gritty, action-packed crime films that proliferated in Italy throughout the 70s. In 19...
1977 • Italy • Directed by Stelvio Massi
Devil-may-care driving ace Marco Palma (Maurizio Merli, Violent City) of the Rome police’s Mobile Squad has a reputation for risk-taking – making him the perfect candidate for an undercover op to take down “Il Nizzardo” (Angelo Infanti, The Godfather), a ...
1974 • Italy • Directed by Fernando Di Leo
Luc Merenda is a highly regarded police detective who is taking syndicate money in exchange for departmental favours. His father, a simple man, also works for the department, but on a lower rung. A series of events leads the young detective to ask his f...
1975 • Italy • Directed by Fernando Di Leo
After his son is kidnapped, a millionaire industrialist seeks revenge, in spite of the potential danger that his rash actions will bring about for his child and another kidnapped boy, the son of a poor mechanic.
1976 • Italy • Directed by Massimo Dallamano
The city of Turin is in the grip of a brutal crime boss known as “the Marseillaise” (Ivan Rassimov, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key), and plenty of cops have good reason to want him dead – none more than Inspector Vanni (Marcel Boz...
1969 • Italy • Directed by Fernando Di Leo
In the night school of Andrea and Maria, a group of eleven boys, mostly small street criminals in their teens, brutally murder their female teacher Matilde. The police begins to investigate the murder, but finds no clear evidence or sufficient informati...
1977 • Italy • Directed by Enzo G. Castellari
Over a long and wide-ranging career, director Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma, The Inglorious Bastards) helmed some of the most infamous of all the poliziotteschi - the gritty, action-packed crime films that proliferated in Italy throughout the 70s. In 19...
1976 • Italy • Directed by Mario Imperoli
Three wealthy youths – ringleader Tony (Cesare Barro, Violence for Kicks) and his friends Rico (Luis La Torre, Evil Eye) and Silvia (Annarita Grapputo, Magnum Cop) – get their kicks from committing a series of random thefts and murders. Commissario Muzi ...
1977 • Italy • Directed by Fernando Di Leo
Tony, a mob loan collector, is dissatisfied with his station in life. After meeting up with Napoli, another mob enforcer who’s just been fired from his job, the two hatch a plan.
1972 • Italy • Directed by Fernando Di Leo
The second film in Fernando Di Leo's Milieu Trilogy focuses on Luca Carnali, a mobster who has been set up by his gangland boss. When a shipment of heroin disappears between Italy and New York, Carnali is framed for the theft.
1973 • Italy • Directed by Vittorio Salerno
While out fishing at a tranquil lakeside one peaceful afternoon, Fabio Santamaria (Enzo Cerusico, Blood and Black Lace) inadvertently witnesses the brutal murder of a young woman. Terrified that he too will be targeted by the maniac, Fabio resolves to ...
