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 (as Bert Lenzi)

Writers:

Umberto Lenzi (story) (as Bert Lenzi), Dardano Sacchetti (screenplay)

Stars:

Maurizio Merli, Arthur Kennedy, Giampiero Albertini

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Maurizio Merli	...	Inspector Leonardo Tanzi
Arthur Kennedy	...	Chief of Police
Giampiero Albertini	...	Commissioner Francesco Caputo
Ivan Rassimov	...	Tony Parenzo
Biagio Pelligra	...	Savelli
Aldo Barberito	...	Detective Poliani
Stefano Patrizi	...	Stefano
Luciano Pigozzi	...	Moretto's Henchman
Luciano Catenacci	...	Ferdinando Gerace
Carlo Alighiero	...	Savelli's Lawyer
Carlo Gaddi	...	Ambulance Driver
Claudio Nicastro	...	Fence
Valentino Macchi	...	Franco
Alessandra Cardini	...	Sandra Moretto (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:

italy | ends with freeze frame | gunned down | bad guys win | hunchback | 

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Taglines:

Inspector Tanzi makes Dirty Harry look like Mr. Clean!

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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 Distribuzione,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 (1979) (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

Vincenzo Moretto, 'Il gobbo': Hey what's your name, man?
Ambulance Driver: Theodore.
Vincenzo Moretto, 'Il gobbo': Ah, Theodore, son of a whore. Good to know you!

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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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Alternate Versions

The American release by Aquarius Distribution entitled "Assault with a Deadly Weapon" is missing the first 10 minutes, the beginning credits, and the ending credits. The American version also has several of the scenes reshot so that the originally Italian words on buildings and on people's notes appear in English. Also, the beginning credits list a variety of made-up Americanized names and credit Terry Levene (the head of Aquarius Distribution) as the film's producer.

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Connections

Referenced in Cutting 'Doctor Butcher' (2016)

User Reviews

Pretty dumb but thoroughly entertaining

This is a dumb, but thoroughly enjoyable Italian police thriller from journey-man Italian director Umberto Lenzi. Maurizio Merli is not my favorite actor (he was kind of a cut-rate Franco Nero), but he's pretty entertaining here as an over-the-top vigilante cop who slaps around suspects, engages in dangerous high-speed chases, and has shoot-outs in busy downtown Rome. When five young punks rape a girl, he goes into their hangout BY HIMSELF and beats up ALL of them up before chasing down and eventually shooting one of them to death. Even when his superior (Arthur Kennedy) transfers him to the licenses unit, he won't stay out of the action. In one of the funnier scenes, he beats information out of a bartender, breaks into a suspect's apartment without a warrant, and chases him around the Rome rooftops (in a great cinematic scene), but after the whole thing goes awry, he blames his superiors for making him go "by the book" (if that's true I'd hate to see "the book").

This movie has a great supporting cast. Besides Arthur Kennedy (who was in movies like "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie" and "Rico, the Mean Machine"), the movie features Ivan Rassimov, perhaps somewhat wasted as a low-level thug who gives his girlfriend an overdose of heroin simply because she's a "pain in the ass". The best of all though, is the great Tomas Milian as a psychotic hunchback, who starts out as a sympatheic figure, but turns out to be a frightening heavy. In one scene Meri's detective slaps him around and makes him swallow a bullet, which he later he craps out and vows to shoot the detective in the face with face with it for revenge!

The real weakness of this movie is the loose plotting. There's a lot of action set pieces, but the whole thing doesn't really hold together, especially whenever Milian is not on screen. The movie also could have used more women. Merli does have a pretty girlfriend (who the villains at one point threaten to put through a car compactor), but her role is pretty perfunctory.Still this is definitely a fun movie and I would recommend it.