Well, the title certainly doesn't lie... There are at least 2 or 3 instances in the film where Commissioner Mark Terzi bluntly guns down a suspect rather than arresting or lightly wounding them, which easily could have been the other option. If he had made the arrests instead, the crime cases Mark was working on perhaps would have been solved much quicker. But hey, then it naturally wouldn't have been a genuine Italian Poliziotesschi!
Apart from this minor footnote, I actually regret admitting that I found "Mark Shoots First" a rather disappointing and thoroughly unmemorable sequel. The first film, "Mark il Poliziotto", was an unexpected but tremendously pleasant surprise. Although reasonably obscure and unknown today, it must have been successful at the Italian box office in 1975, because it spawned two sequels in a period of barely one year. Number two, however, isn't half as compelling or stylish as the original film. The plot comes across as chaotic, unstructured and utterly implausible, as the storyline of a serial sniper killer overlaps with that of corrupt businessmen and organized crime networks. Mark Terzi moves from Milan to Genova to solve two cases; - the bizarre murder of bride (fantastic opening sequence, by the way) and the kidnapping of a wealthy businessman. Mark finds the latter very quick, but he turns out to be his powerful enemy Benzi from the previous film. Apparently the serial killer, calling himself The Sphinx, is after Benzi too, but I never fully figured out why the poor bride had to die. "Mark Shoots First" contains a couple of exhilarating car chases and tense showdowns (including in a theater were "La Polizia ha le Mani Legate" is playing) but it's much less spectacular than what I'm used of seeing from Stelvio Massi. Also, I didn't see the added value of Terzi having a St Bernard dog and still can't believe that Elly Galleani kept her clothes on the entire time!
