ptalnyc Review of Detective Belli

Detective Belli (1969)

The theatrical release came out to good reviews

[6/10 · 10 July 2009]

The film came out as "Detective Belli", starring Franco Nero, then a European heart-throb when the movie came out. Nero plays against type as an unrepentantly corrupt police detective. During the course of the investigation of a murder, Det. Belli makes his way through the upper society of Rome. Amazingly, he begins to develop a conscience and decides to "do the right thing" and find out who the real murderer is. Like all sentient males, he is attracted to Florinda Bolkan who looks fantastic in this film, having also shared the screen with Michael Caine in another movie around this time. The upshot--in a reprise of the famous ending scene in the Maltese Falcon, Nero confronts Bolkan in a graveyard and, although attracted to her, confronts her with the fact that she is the murderer. She tries to bribe him, alluding to a life together. Det. Belli is intransigent. But then, in a very atypical ending, she shoots him and he dies and she gets away with it. A very twisty thriller when it first came out. I enjoyed it and remember the surprise ending to this day.