OK, so this is a contender for favorite box set release of 2021, but there are a crazy bunch of them right now, so admittedly this is kind of hard. But this one has the advantage of containing 5 poliziotteschi from the golden era of the genre 1973-1977. The set consists of 3 discs 2 containing 2 movies, each, and one containing a single feature.
The breakdown is as such
Disc 1 – Savage Three/Like Rabid Dogs
Disc 2 – Colt 38 Special Squad/Highway Racer
Disc 3 – NO The Case is Happily Resolved
Savage Three stars Warhol wunderkind Joe Dallesandro (Blood for Dracula) as Ovidie, an employee at a research lab that is bored with his day job. One day while at a soccer game, he and 2 friends start a riot, and realize they really enjoy the very human act of creating violence. On the way out in his car, they continue the activities with vehicular violence, and so it goes from there with further criminal activities, for which they are never suspect, because during the day they aren’t criminals, but average Joe’s. This one was a real interesting flick, like most in the genre there is a lot of political and social subtext with a decent bit of action. Dallesandro is great as always.
Like Rabid Dogs I’m not entirely sure if the reference to Rabid Dogs in the title was meant to reference literal “rabid dogs”, or was a reference to the incomplete, but EXCELLENT, Mario Bava film, as the two films certainly have parallels. The film follows Tony (Cesare Barro), who is an upper-crust college kid bored and frustrated by his existence and his Dad, who decides to take it all out with a crime violent crime spree and drag his friends into it. This is a wild piece of poliziotteschi cinema with murder, rape, and more. Like the Bava film it is wildly disturbing (the murder and rape part should have given that away I guess), but it really just is insanely watchable from the first moment to the last.
Colt 38 Special Squad is the one I was most excited about. What Have You Done to Solange and What Have They Done to Your Daughters are delightfully sleazy, and fun, and this one is directed by Massimo Dallemano so I was already signed in before I even hit play. So this one follows Captain Vanni (Marcel Bozzuffi) who is dealing with Black Angel’s (Ivan Rassimov) gang. Black Angel ain’t taking none of his crap, and invades Vann’s apartment and takes out his wife. Vanni’s superior decides it’s time for the cops to go vigilante and exceed their powers to take out Black Angel. This is sleazy, it’s violent, it’s great. This is everything I wanted out of this movie.
Highway Racer this is basically a chase film. It is ridiculous, and wonderful, and I was smiling the entire time. This film tells the true tale of Armando Spatafora, who basically foiled bank robbers by not using real cop cars which were pitifully slow, but his own Ferrari to outspeed them, and win. The film is less about guns and shoot-outs and more about high speed chases and crashes which differentiates from the rest of the films in the set. Having marathoned these over a few days, I was pleased to have something like this in the lineup.
Finally, we get “NO, The Case is Happily Resolved”. This one is a wild twisty little flick, that opens with a fellow Fabio (Enzo Cerusico) who is happy to spend his days fishing, and living a calm life, so much so that when he witnesses a murder, and the murder witnesses him, he just ignores it. Problem is the murderer assuming that he would be turned in to the police, turns in Fabio, who must now try to prove his innocence. This one is a real thought experiment and a truly suspenseful ride.
Arrow Video presents all 5 films in 1080p transfers in their OAR. Everything looks great, here filmlike, natural transfers, colors are well-reproduced, no issues. Mono soundtracks in both English where dubbed, and Italian, so totally crisp and clear. Extras for the set are packed to the brim. We get interviews with the cast and crew for most films, and film historians where not. We get visual essays, trailers, soundtrack clips, and a booklet of liner notes. This release is insanely detailed, wonderful, and highly recommended!