Tour of Italy: Poliziotteschi Eurocrime

Devin & James are back in the Den to bid a final "ciao" to the TOUR OF ITALY series with a look at the violent world of POLIZIOTTESCHI movies! (or Eurocrime, for the pronunciation challenged.) Italy had a special touch with crime thrillers during their politically tumultuous "Years of Lead," and we go over some of the genre's highest points, starting with Enzo G. Castellari's HIGH CRIME (1973), starring Franco Nero, and Franco Nero's mustache. We follow that with Lucio Fulci's only crime film, the gloriously bloody CONTRABAND (1980). Then we get into the sticky details around the release of Mario Bava's underseen and underrated RABID DOGS/KIDNAPPED, and why two different cuts of this movie were finally released over 20 years after the movie was shot and abandoned in 1974. We follow that with some fun in Umberto Lenzi's THE CYNIC, THE RAT, AND THE FIST (1977), which matched up 3 of the genre's most iconic stars (Milian, Merli, & Saxon). Finally, we cover the influential second entry of Fernando Di Leo's "Milieu Trilogy," THE ITALIAN CONNECTION (1972), where actor Mario Adorf outshines hitmen Henry Silva and Woody Strode to give the most heart-pounding and heartbreaking pimp performance we've ever seen. We're sad to finally be leaving Italy behind (for now), but we closed out with some of our favorite movies ever committed to celluloid. Buckle in and hold on for some off-the-wall Italian mayhem.