Colt 38 Special Squad (1976)

Colt 38 Special Squad was the last movie directed by Massimo Dallamano before his death in a car accident in 1976. It belongs to the poliziotteschi genre, as does his earlier Super Bitch.

To understand the poliziotteschi genre you have to understand that these were violent times in western Europe with widespread terrorist activity by groups such as the Baader-Meinhof Gang in Germany and the Red Brigades in Italy as well as organised crime due to the boom in the drug trade. There was an air of paranoia, and a certain sympathy for the idea that the police sometimes needed to be ruthless. There was of course at least some of the same paranoia in the United States in Britain, but the sheer extent of terrorist violence in Italy kicked the paranoia there into overdrive. The emergence of a genre of hard-edged ultra-violent crime films should have come as no great surprise (and crime movies in Britain and the U.S. were become more hard-edged at the same time with movies like Get Carter and Dirty Harry).

The poliziotteschi genre emerged at the end of the 60s, just a couple of years after the rise of the giallo. By this time the spaghetti western genre had fizzled out and gothic horror was in decline.

Colt 38 Special Squad gets off to a flying start. A police raid led by Inspector Vanni (Marcel Bozzuffi) turns into a full-scale gun battle. The brother of the gang leader is shot to death by Inspector Vanni. The gang leaders is known as the Black Angel, and he takes a terrible revenge.

Inspector Vanni now has a personal score to settle.

He’s been angling for the formation of an elite four-man squad of motorcycle-riding cops with special firearms training. Now he’s been given the go-ahead. The Special Squad are not exactly given carte blanche but they’re given to understand that they’ll be given some leeway in their methods. A certain degree of ruthlessness is expected of them.

They prove to be not just ruthless but undisciplined hot-heads who will be more trouble than they’re worth unless Vanni can lick them into shape. But they’re brave and they’re keen.

A stroke of luck may point Inspector Vanni in the direction of the Black Angel. A large shipment of dynamite has been stolen. One of the thieves is caught quite by accident, and he is linked to the Black Angel.

It doesn’t help much, but at least the police know that the Black Angel is planning something that requires a lot of dynamite.

The Black Angel holds a few aces that the police don’t know about and he is always a step ahead of them. He plans to hold the city to ransom.

This is a very violent movie with a very dark tone. Innocent people get killed. The body count is very high. The police cannot protect people. Inspector Vanni is a smart tough cop but he’s up against a criminal who is also very smart and has the advantage of not having to care about his methods. He’d cheerfully kill hundreds of people if it would further his plan. Vanni finds some leads but they don’t lead to quick results, time is against him and the most promising leads go nowhere.

Ivan Rassimov (who also starred in Dallamano’s Super Bitch) makes an effectively ice-cold villain. Marcel Bozzuffi gives some real substance to Inspector Vanni, a man driven to the brink of despair by his inability to catch the Black Angel.

Carole André is very good as Sandra, a pretty young nightclub owner who is mixed up in the Black Angel’s plans. She’s a nice girl but she’s naïve and she has a bad boy boyfriend and she gets much more involved than she wants to be.

There’s as much action as you could want. There are explosions, gun battles and car and motorcycle chases. Some of the violence is pretty gruesome, after dynamite has done its work.

Dallamano handles the action scenes with confidence. Dallamano really was one of the great Italian directors of his era and has never received quite as much recognition as he deserved.

Colt 38 Special Squad deals with terrorism but it doesn’t deal with specifically political crimes. Perhaps there was a feeling that it would be unwise to give the film anything that could be interpreted as a political slant.

This is a fine if rather grim action thriller. Highly recommended.

Arrow have released this movie in their Years of Lead poliziotteschi boxed set. The transfer is excellent. Those who care about extras may be disappointed that there are virtually none for this movie.

I’ve reviewed a couple of other movies in this genre - Revolver (1973) which is extremely good, the incredibly nihilistic Milano Calibro 9 (1972) and the superb Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (1976).