SEASON 2, EPISODE 40, EUROCRIME: The Documentary On Italy's Toughest, Roughest, Meanest Movies Ever Made!

An RRH Exclusive!

For our Season 2 finale, we’re focusing on our very first documentary feature, where we explore the often brutal and bombastic 1970s Italian cop and gangster subgenre of action cinema, with EUROCRIME!

In another Rad Revival House first, we’ve invited an honest-to-God member of the filmmaking crew behind this week’s review as Special Guest Lecturer, professional VFX creator and EUROCRIME co-producer, Michael Martinez!

The basic concept of “Eurocrime” (or “Politzioteschi”) is simple: it involved Italian filmmakers in the 1970s taking the era’s burgeoning cops and gangsters movement in Hollywood (with films such as DIRTY HARRY, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and THE GODFATHER, among others), and copied as gritty action cinema but in a very distinct Italian style. The EUROCRIME documentary focused on such films as HIGH CRIME, VIOLENT ROME, VIOLENT NAPLES, and ROME ARMED TO THE TEETH (which was reviewed on the first season of The Rad Revival House), and some of the extreme measures Italian filmmakers took to make these movies. These measures often included making dangerous guerilla-style shooting, and fearless stuntmen who employed dangerous stunts that were perilous to the safety of the cast and crew! Plus, EUROCRIME sheds light on the Italian social crises that plagued the films’ productions at the time, ranging from actual mafia influences to even political terrorism.

Our host, Professor Cesare Augusto and Michael discuss how EUROCRIME the documentary came to fruition, how its director Mike Malloy (a self-styled “Tough Guy Film Expert”) worked to gather the film’s many special guests, and what aspiring filmmakers can learn from the Eurocrime subgenre to enhance their own craft should they decide to create their own gritty, no-holds-barred action cinema. Who are these special guests, you may ask? Try such icons as Franco Nero, Henry Silva, John Saxon, Fred Williamson, Luc Merenda, and Enzo Castellari, among a ton of others!