THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS

Directed by Sergio Martino
Written by Ernesto Gastaldi
Produced by Luciano Martino
Music by Guido & Maurizio Deangelis
Cast: Luc Merenda, Richard Conte, Silvano Tranquilli, Martine Brochard, Luciano Bartoli & Lia Tanza

1973/100 mins/Color/Dolby Digital Mono
2.35:1/English/Italy/NTSC Region 0

Review from the Wild East DVD

Lt. Giorga (Luc Merenda of TORSO and GAMBLING CITY) is a ruthless and suspended police officer who infiltrate the mob to seek revenge for his superior's death. Soon enough, he finds much more then what he bargained for.

Sergio Martino's crime flick begins with a great sequence of two convicts escaping from a train. Unfortunately, the movie becomes your average 70s crime flick. We get the usual car chases, prostitutes, pimp, poll player, dumb police and terrible dubbing. Sure it ain't bad but the movie would have been much better if it kept the pacing of the beginning. Still, its always a pleasure to watch a movie with Luc Merenda but did he really needed to get naked for no reason infront of other guys?

The movie is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio but isn't anamorphic. The beginning looks terrible as lots of print damage are present but things gets better at about 10 minutes in. The colors are a little soft but it is still a nice transfer, especially considering that the movie was made in 1973. The English dubbed Dolby Digital Mono track isn't anything special but does the job. Still the original Italian track along with with subs would have been much welcomed. The movie is separated in 11 chapters. The disc features some rather ugly static menus with music, the very cool theatrical trailer and a still gallery consisting of soem very nice lobby cards. We also get a inlay card which features the original poster.

It is interesting to note that through his career Martino's used the pseudonyms of Julian Barry, Martin Dolman and Christian Plummer. He was introduced to the movie business as a child when he frequented the film-sets of Gennaro Righelli who was his grandfather and director of the first Italian sound film. He got his big break into the business working as a second level assistant to legendary director Mario Bava on THE WHIP & THE BODY. And the main reason as to why the delicious Edwige Fenech appeared in many of his films is that at the time was married to Sergio's brother Luciano Martino, who produced all of Sergio's movies. The movie was also released on DVD along with Umberto Lenzi's ALMOST HUMAN.

(original title: Milano trema – la polizia vuole giustizia)

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2006. ©

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