Michael A. Martinez John Saxon's top cop in an Italian city overflowing with violent crime. This get personal when his top witness gets shot right in front of him while strolling a little too close to the ocean. While personally I thought the idea of hard-headed cop Saxon vengefully tearing the city apart after an assassin would be a great idea for a film, the writer thought it'd be a much better idea to focus everything on another story of a low level bank robber Lino Capolicchio (who becomes the protagonist of the story) and his dealings with obese newspaper editor Palmer.Much of this film feels extremely mishandled, resulting in some severe plot holes. The key bank robbery sequence near the start suffers from poor editing and writing when the robbers' plan completely falls apart once their driver gets killed. Why no one bothered to just push his body out of the car or into another seat so they can still drive away can't just be chalked up to the characters' nerves. To me it felt like a total contrivance to get them all running around the streets in some tense foot-chases and endless hide-and-seek thrills for the remainder of the film.The hero-robber Capolicchio's devoted girlfriend's motivation makes no sense at all either. He's wimpy, stupid, and wanted by the police, yet she's loyal to a fault and glued to his hip throughout his ordeal even after he gets her beaten up and nearly killed several times. A blind and bumbling Lee J. Cobb and his total schlub of a lead henchman Alfredo Zammi (who reminds me of an even more grandfatherly version of Roger Corman) have to be the two least threatening villains ever in a Eurocrime movie. If ever a film screamed for Romano Puppo to show up and start bumping people off in random silent hit-man vignettes (a la CONTRABAND), this would be the film. As it is, the drama relies too heavily on contrived tension running in short supply due to some really awkward writing. For Eurocrime completists only.

jrd_73 Flatly directed Italian crime film with John Saxon doing the Dirty Harry routine. The film serves up only a handful of brief, dull action scenes. Instead, the film focuses on a two-way manhunt. A low level hood on the run steals a mobster's car. Inside the car is incriminating evidence which will send a don to prison. The hunt is on with both the police and the mob dogging the young hood. The drama falls flat and the lack of shootouts makes this one a slog. There is some posturing about liberal newsmen and how they get in the way of justice as well as the usual strongarm scenes. That's it for subtext. An infirm looking J. Lee Cobb plays the blind don who stands to go to prison if the car thief isn't found. Director Stelvio Massi also made Convoy Busters, which was an enjoyable Italian actioner. Watch it instead.

William Paramount Pictures shelved this Italian action film (which is heavy on the drama) that features John Saxon in a suporting role as a cop bend on arresting a blind mafia boss Lee J. Cobb. The film too busy focus on the bank robbers and a newspaper guy Renzo Palmer instead of Saxon's plot which is a misfire to all Saxon fans. The photography and the location is wonderful, but the plot is very extremely slow. Not recommended for someone looking for action films.