Roma a mano armata (1976)

A tough, violent cop who doesn't mind bending the law goes after a machine-gun-carrying, hunchbacked psychotic killer.

Director:

Umberto Lenzi

Writers:

Umberto Lenzi (story), Dardano Sacchetti (screenplay)

Stars:

Maurizio Merli, Arthur Kennedy, Giampiero Albertini

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Maurizio Merli	...	Commissioner Leonardo Tanzi
Arthur Kennedy	...	Vice questore Ruini
Giampiero Albertini	...	Commissioner Caputo
Ivan Rassimov	...	Antonio 'Tony' Parenzo
Biagio Pelligra	...	Savelli
Aldo Barberito	...	Detective Poliani
Stefano Patrizi	...	Stefano
Luciano Pigozzi	...	Savelli's Henchman
Luciano Catenacci	...	Ferdinando Gerace
Carlo Alighiero	...	Avvocato di Savelli
Carlo Gaddi	...	Ambulance Driver
Claudio Nicastro	...	Receiver of stolen goods
Valentino Macchi	...	Franco
Alessandra Cardini	...	Sandra Savelli (as Sandra Cardini)
Gabriella Lepori	...	Marta Assante

Storyline

A tough, violent cop who doesn't mind bending the law goes after a machine-gun-carrying, hunchbacked psychotic killer.

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Plot Keywords:

foot chase | sniper rifle | sex | ambush | police | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

July 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

Assault with a Deadly Weapon

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dania Film, Medusa Produzione, National Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Terry Levene distributed this film in the late 1970's, he replaced a few of the establishing shots with those of American locations. For an establishing shot of the Rome youth center where Tanzi meets Stefano, Levine used a shot of the Manhattan night club "Fascination". Strangely enough, in the later Lenzi film Da Corleone a Brooklyn (which also starred Maurizio Merli as an Italian policeman), Merli drives by the club "Fascination" after he arrives in New York.

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Quotes

Commissioner Leonardo Tanzi: [Holds up a football score card] Is it yours?
Stefano: No, it's your sister's.
Commissioner Leonardo Tanzi: [Beating him up] I'll make you forget women for the rest of your life, damn it! You fucking stupid son of a bitch! I'd like to see you do it again, you know!

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits are played while the camera in first person view mode (From a criminal's POV) drives through Rome looking at banks and building societies and leaves the city through a long, dark tunnel as the credits end.

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Connections

Referenced in La banda del gobbo (1978)

User Reviews

Strangely satisfying, pure cinematic lunacy

I don't know how the uncut Italian version runs, but the American version released by Aquarius under the ASSAULT W/A DEADLY WEAPON title is probably one of the most fastmoving, violently over-the-top Euro crime movies you'll ever see. The closest thing I could compare it to would be Kinji Fukasaku's early 1970s yakuza movies like BATTLES WITHOUT HONOR & HUMANITY series(aka THE YAKUZA PAPERS) with Bunta Sugawara or Kosaku Yamashita's TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE YAMAGUCHI GANG (released here in fastmoving but severely edited form as THE TATTOOED HITMAN). Although not as well written as its Japanese counterparts, Dardanco Sacchetti's screenplay is suitably deranged with Maurizio Merli portraying an apoplectic, hot tempered cop who makes Dirty Harry seem like a flower child. Super charismatic Tomas Milian is stupendous as the wisecracking hunchback psycho villain who occasionally likes to gratuitously machine gun innocent bystanders. My only problem with the English voice dubbing is that they didn't have Milian, who speaks English and dubbed many of his films himself, do his own voice. The guy who does it isn't terrible but it would have definitely added another aura of dementia with Milian's own vocal performance. Also unfortunately whomever the fast buck artists were who released the film here to USA grindhouses back in the 1970s created a completely fictitious credit list for the titles where Merli, Milian and even American movie veteran Arthur Kennedy receive no screen billing whatsoever. A crime! Likewise the adrenaline pumping, nerve pounding score by Franco Micalizzi and Umberto Lenzi's expert direction (this is the best film I've seen by Lenzi by the way) are credited to imaginary persons. Although it has a completely predictable cliche-ridden story, the treatment is fresh, the dialogue memorable (and often hilarious) and the ultra violence and degenerate depravity continous. Strangely satisfying and watchable as only the best of grindhouse cinema can be. As one of the other reviewers asked, where's the DVD release!?