Franco Nero stars as Inspector Belli, a no-nonsense cop on a crusade to take down a crime syndicate peddling in drugs and corruption. Stifled at every turn by higher-ups that are either in the pocket of the mob or too scared to make waves, Belli is like a bull, charging headlong into danger. Things get especially tense when Belli’s own family becomes a target. Now he must do all he can to take everyone down once and for all.

High Crime marks the first of several fruitful collaborations between the intense and charismatic Franco Nero and action director par excellence Enzo Castellari. It also happened to be one of the primary films to kickstart the popularity of the poliziotteschi in Italian in the 1970s. High Crime was obviously and intentionally created to capitalize off the success of films like Dirty Harry and especially The French Connection (High Crime is very similar in many respects to Friedkin’s Oscar-winning film), but it’s a firecracker of a film in its own right. After a cool, moody opening credits sequence of a first-person shot of a boat slowly drifting through a tunnel, the action heats up real quick with a slam bang chase sequence of Belli trying to catch a suspected drug dealer, racing on foot through the narrow streets of Genoa before they hop into cars and kick off a high-speed chase with a capper of an explosion. It’s a breathless sequence not just because the pace is unrelenting and it occurs right out of the gate but also because Castellari is one of the best Italian action directors out there, with perhaps Umberto Lenzi and Sergio Martino being his only peers at this level. Considering he was coming off a string of mostly fairly pedestrian westerns and comedies, Castellari shows an almost preternatural sense for camera placement and framing to achieve maximum visceral intensity in a given action sequence. Franco Nero of course needs no introduction, and his chops are displayed to full effect here. He brings a simmering rage and take-no-shit cool to the character of Belli that leaves such an impression that it spawned several imitators like Maurizio Merli who seemed to based much of his career off Franco Nero’s look here. While High Crime‘s action sequences are electric, the film does sag a little as it gets bogged down in rote machinations within the mob and interoffice politics, particularly during the second act. But it still contains enough punch to keep the pace moving along despite the occasional expository scene.

Eurocrime fans in the US have been waiting a long time for a proper upgrade to this film, which has previously only been available on DVD. And Blue Underground has gone above and beyond with an excellent new 4K transfer that looks much clearer and crisper than I ever thought possible given the amount of mediocre transfers of Italian films from this era we’ve gotten over the years. Very nice saturation levels and the grain seems to be balanced really well. For audio we have a nice, clean mono track in both Italian and English dubs. Both are solid options as this was the first film that I believe Franco Nero actually dubbed his voice into English on. As usual with these beefy Blue Underground releases, we have a smorgasbord of extras to dig through. First off, we’ve got three meaty commentaries. The first is a really good one moderated by Bill Lustig with a very chatty Enzo Castellari who has lots to say about the making of this film. This guy is just chocked full of film industry anecdotes and is a delight to listen to. The second track features Franco Nero and is moderated by Mike Malloy who actually ends up doing a lot of the talking. Nero has a tendency to speak about what he feels like and occasionally just ignores Malloy’s questions or comments, which is too bad since Malloy has interesting points to make. Still, Nero has some interesting things to say, so it’s worth checking out of you’re a big fan of his. The third commentary includes film historians Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani and is the one to go to if you want to nerd out over every detail of the film and the poliziotteschi genre. I happen to be a big ol’ nerd for this stuff, so I really dug this commentary. Up next we have several interviews with various cast and crew including Enzo Castellari, Franco Nero, actor/stuntman Massimo Vanni, cameraman Roberto Girometti and composers Guido and Maurizio de Angelis, and these are all worth checking out. I especially like the one with Castellari and Nero discussing their many collaborations and why they work together well. We also get a featurette called The Connection Connection from director Mike Malloy discussing the wave of eurocrime films in the ’70s that capitalized off the success of The French Connection (High Crime a.k.a. The Marseilles Connection being one of the primary examples). We also get an alternate ending, trailer, image gallery, and, one of my personal favorite kinds of extras, a CD soundtrack. I haven’t mentioned the score yet, so I’ll mention it now. It’s friggin’ great with Nero and Castellari mentioning that they wanted it to sound like Quincy Jones and Emerson, Lake & Palmer respectively. And you can definitely hear elements of both of those in it. This is one to crank up LOUD.

With this UHD Blu-ray of High Crime, Blue Underground has single-handed put out the definitely release of a bonafide classic of the EuroCrime genre with fantastic image quality and a delicious feast of extras to dig into. If you have an even remote interest in poliziotteschi or if you can just appreciate a badass cop barreling head first into visceral, high octane action sequences like a bull in a china shop, you absolutely have to get this release!