Five years losing his wife to stray bullets during a robbery getaway, newly appointed Interpol agent Ravelli (Tomas Milian) gets the tip off that a fresh heist may have been pulled off by the same guys. Ravelli comes back to town to investigate the case, even if the local authorizes have their reservations about his methods. Always one step ahead of them in do part to his longtime friend on the inside the force, played by Mario Carotenuto. As Ravelli gets closer to the answers, the group involved with pulling off the heist begin to fall apart. One by one they drop from the ranks of trust until there is only but one man standing. Criminal mastermind Marseilles (Gastone Moschin) is the only thing left on Ravelli’s mind, as he finds that this is indeed the man responsible for his wife’s death. The great duel of cat and mouse is over, the final face off comes down to one man’s hell bent rage for revenge, the other’s on money hungry greed, together only one will survive.

 

Pretty much director Stelvio Massi’s first attempt at the Italian Polizia genre. Scripted very well by Massi, Adriano Bolzoni (EXCITE ME, SCENES FROM A MURDER) and the duo who are most famous for co-scripting Mario Bava’s classic bodycount slaughterfest, Franco Barberi and Dardano Sacchetti. SQUADRA pretty much houses many of the usual cop thrillers of the day, the car chases, loads of gunplay, tough guys and the lovely women who fall for them. The initial heist pulled off at the beginning of the film was nicely staged, both as apart of the film’s story and filming the scene itself. The general public pretty much thinking that they are witnessing a film shoot about four bike helmeted gangsters performing a heist, getting away with the loot and gunning down one of the police. Now, why would that be thought to be only a film and not real, well, the gangsters enlisted a camera hoisted above a following car pretending to shoot the action as it went along.

 

Massi’s strongest point in this film and it’s script is the great display of greed and what it can do to a group of people living in close quarters. Their gradual sense of distrust for one another. Also, along with the strong storyline comes the strong character profiles displayed as well. Especially from Tomas Milian, Gastone Moschin and Mario Carotenuto. Not only were the roles seemly very fitting, but all give brilliant performances as well. Milian in my books is pretty much a given for a great performance in these films, his background speaks for itself. Though his role as Ravelli’s is quite different then that of his famous SERPICO like character of Nico Giraldi, his sems quite at home. Holding a burning desire to bring his wife’s killer to justice and one that is only judged in his court, and with only one verdict, death. But you see, Milian is able to portray this character’s desire without giving a blatant hint, only body language indicates his true intentions. This is the main difference between the two characters. Were as Giraldi’s would be sarcastic in his actions, sort of a tip off, but that being all. Ravelli’s character is topped off with his cigar munching and hat.

The other two characters that really added flavor to the storyline was Ravelli’s rival, Marseilles played by Gastone Moschin. Now this role was a prime example of good versus is evil. The cigar versus the mole, and you know the cigar would burn the hell out of the mole! That mole above Moschin eye did kind of get annoying after awhile, but you learn to live with it through his great ability to get underneath your skin. The perfect casting choice for this role, the criminal mastermind that always as that secret alternate motive. Using his arsenal then dumping them when the timing is right. Using the lovely Stefania Cashini (SUSPIRIA, ANDY WARHOL’S DRACULA) as the money carrier, something that didn’t really sit well with the rest of the gang, especially when Marseilles tells them that she gets a cut of the loot as well. Down right mean and in a dirty way to get what he wants and to where he has to go.

 

Finally, Ravelli’s longtime friend in the force played by Mario Carotenuto, who is best known for his various roles in Italian comedies. Massi’s again hits the nail right on the head casting him in this role. Often very elusive, and on his toes, Carotenuto plays this super-sleuth of sorts with style. Seemingly very paranoid in the presence of authority, simply because he is playing Ravelli’s main man for inside info, to keep him one step ahead of the law lets say. Although Carotenuto’s character, one that I was unable to get his name, is on the verge of retirement. I just had this feeling throughout the whole film that Massi was going to have him off’ed to spark the emotional sides of us Polizia fans, another not going to happen things, it’s all good though.

 

It’s too bad that one of my favorite Euro-Cult actors Ray Lovelock, who plays the young getaway driver Reno, only has a brief role. Not even long enough to get his whistle wet, too bad I though he and Stefania were going to have some hot and steamy scene later on, not to happen though.

Rounding out the rest of the films elements, besides all the gunplay and car chases, the score provided by the classic Stelvio Cipriani. Again, another catchy set of riffs gets you right into the mood of this film. For me, if the score blows, it hinders the rest of the film seriously, not in this case. Ranging from the rocking riffs popular of the day backing up the car chases, to the mello jazzy notes during the down periods of the film. Like many of his other scores, Cipriani always manages to add his trademark on any film.

 

The Alan Young DVD release is the only one to date of this Massi cop-thriller, which is a shame on several notes. Company’s need to exploit this genre, there needs to be more Polizia on the shiny format. More Merli, more Milian and more Polizi period! Anyhow, back to this disc. This was released in Italy a few months ago, one that is on the tail-end of several Tomas Milian releases over there. The bonus of this release is it has an English track on it, only in mono, but who cares. Makes it some much easier for us fans who’s Italian isn’t the strongest. For those who can understand Italian, this disc is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and mono. There are only Italian subtitles, which really hurts given that some of the film loses it’s English track here and there making it hard to understand in areas. The print is very clean and crisp, also presented in anomorphic wide screen. There are some very interesting extras here as well, sadly only in Italian, really hurts during the Massi interview. There is also a poster gallery, Massi’s personal stills, trailer and bios on Mass and Milian. The classy thing about this whole disc, is the start of the film being introduced by a present day Massi lighting up a Ravelli cigar!