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: You got a match?
[Punches Tony]
Tony Parenzo: [Grunts] Ow!
Commissioner Leonardo Tanzi: Get in the car.
Commissioner Leonardo Tanzi: [after arriving in the middle of a motorway, they stop] Don't fuck about! Get out!
Tony Parenzo: I'm not in this! She injected herself!
Commissioner Leonardo Tanzi: You fucking scumbag! You killed her! You showed
[Close to yelling]
Commissioner Leonardo Tanzi: NO PITY FOR HER!
[Produces his Beretta M9 9mm and pulls the slide back and forth to chamber the clip and is ready to kill Tony]
[...]

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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 Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the '70s (2012)

User Reviews

Scorching

Recently I had the pleasure of watching both the Italian "Roma a Mano Armata" and the US cut "Assault with a Deadly Weapon." Lenzi's reputation as a filmmaker rests mainly on his Crime films from the mid-to-late '70s for good reason and this is an addictive and fast-paced brilliant piece of that work. Maurizio Merli is great as the quietly intense Leonardo Tanzi and deserves much more credit than the "Franco Nero wannabe" usually leveled at him. The US cut is missing the first 8 minutes of Merli's failed bust of an illegal gambling ring (at least that's what I gleaned from the lack of subtitles) and sets up his frustration of being under the law himself while desperately trying to rid the world of those who break it. Even with a different credit sequence that oddly doesn't actually credit anyone but actor Arthur Kennedy (as the director!), the US cut (available on VHS in the '80s as part of Sybil Danning's Adventure Video series with a bizarre introduction by Ms. Danning herself) is still highly highly recommended. Hopefully this will be available on DVD for more people to discover these series of films, which can easily appeal to the same fans of Italian horror and Eurocult cinema.