Police Serve the Citizens?, The / La polizia è al servizio del cittadino? (1973)

While The Police Serve the Citizens? is not the best known title in the history of poliziotteschi film, the fact that it is so easily overlooked is not so easily explained. Okay, maybe it is not the most original work in the genre but it is still one of the most gritty, dry and hardboiled of the lot.

As expected there are the obligatory chases involving the familiar green Alfa Romeo Giuliettas and a range of moustache wearing, square-jawed villains. Also the fascistic tough cop with the prepared-to-bend-the-rules meme is represented here by the ever wonderful Enrico Maria Salerno.

Even though The Police Serve the Citizens? would always be overshadowed by crowd-pleasers such as Street Law or Almost Human it is still pure porn to Eurocrime fanatics. The film makes great use of Genova locations, has a minor role for talented Malizia child star Alessandro Momo as the communist son of the commissioner and features a genre-perfect score from Luis Enríquez Bacalov. Romolo Guerrieri, the man behind the Fernando Di Leo penned Young, Violent, Dangerous is in the director chair while serial villain John Steiner plays, as expected, to type.

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Luna / La luna (1979)

As a fine, artistic, work of cinema, Bernardo Bertolucci's Luna is certainly a work worthy of the time of exploitation film fans. It features, after all, a fantastic mainstream supporting role for Eurocrime favourite Tomas Milian. Though, while this work from the director of The Last Emperor may be a little outside of the comfort zone of genre film fans it does feature a child heroin addiction and mom-on-teenage-son incest theme for all those sick puppies out there. It also features Veronica "Martha" Lazar out of The Beyond, the prolific Franco Citti and Fred Gwynne from The Munsters. However, real stars of the film are the American mother and son pairing portrayed by Jill Clayburgh and Matthew Barry who are top notch as the dysfunctional family.

For culture-vultures the score features opera performed by Maria Callas and Plácido Domingo. Mere mortals who are not into that sort of thing may prefer the brief Bee Gees interlude of a disco dancing homage to Saturday Night Fever. That's, after all, in there too.

Despite the themes of the Sins Within the Family variety this cannot be lumped in with the likes of Blue Jeans or Lover Boy any more than Devil in the Flesh can be placed within the sexploitation milieu. It's too good for that. Too stylish, too clever and far too polished.

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Tough to Kill / Duri a morire (1979)

This lame Joe D’Amato men-on-a-mission jungle adventure doesn't have the budget for any rousing action scenes like in the similarly themed Codename Wildgeese. But, at least the redoubtable Donald O’Brien impresses in a sadistic turn as the group’s leader,Major Haggerty, subjecting the men to a tirade of physical and mental abuse along the way. Luc Merenda is too suave to convince as a mercenary and the film’s tone is completely hindered by Stelvio Cipriani’s woefully misplaced disco score. A nice little twist ending briefly brings the film back to life, but, by then, it’s too little too late. For D’Amato completists only.

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Bloody Pit of Horror / Il boia scarlatto (1965)

By having a smooth pace, the right amount of action and cheese, and a good dolloping of the old fashioned castle dungeon ambiance, there definitely ends up being very little to not like about Massimo Pupillo’s turn from the black and white Terror-Creatures from the Grave to this colored and near comic-like take on de Sadean torture. The sheer zaniness of it all makes the overly elaborate death devices and unlikely situations perfectly acceptable. It’s just that type of movie.

With an energetic, show stealing performance and a fitting resemblance to the flamboyant, masked antiheros populating the fummeti neri boom of the time, it becomes hard to forget Mickey Hargitay’s turn as the cruel but entertaining Crimson Executioner.

Bloody Pit of Horror’s music score and story premise will prove very welcoming to fans of movies like The Devil’s Nightmare.

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