Colt 38 Special Squad (1976)
Bleak gritty Eurocrime formed by a time in Italian history plagued by extreme high crime and terror rates with its nihilistic depiction of complete lack of trust in law enforcement. Inspector Vinni’s wife gets murdered in front of his son by a ruthless crime lord as a revenge for their previous encounter, Vinni forms a special police squad to combat the gangsters on their own term. The point being the normal police procedures aren’t sufficient to deal with the new levels of brutality from the crime world, forcing the use of unofficial methods. In general the political system is shown as having lost all will and hope to protect the city, and instead want to give into to the terrorists demands.
While it has the usual great car chases, funky score and hardboiled 1970s atmosphere, it is considerably more bleak and nihilistic than usual for the genre. No charming side-kick characters, no time for romantic interludes and the action are not the over the top style that is funny, but sinister and brutal with plenty of civilian casualties from terrorist bombings in the middle of the street shown with bloody severed limbs and all.
Rating: 3.5