QUICK SCHLOCK: YEARS OF LEAD - Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers 1973-1977

The crime flicks and cop procedurals Hollywood produced in the '70s could be both wild and cynical but they look restrained compared to what Italy did with the genre during the same decade. They took influence from the American examples, most notably the didactic cops vs. crooks style of Dirty Harry and the adrenalized verite grit of The French Connection, but dialed up the style and brutality to in-the-red levels to create the poliziottesco (or poliziotteschi when pluralized). They also added in specific elements that addressed social unrest in Italy from that era.

U.S. and U.K. home video outfits began to pick up on the array of noteworthy titles offered by this genre during the DVD era and it's gotten better in the hi-def era. Arrow put out a particularly strong release in 2021 with Years Of Lead: Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers 1973-1977. This box set shows how diverse the genre could be, delivering good cops-vs.-crooks programmers as well as a couple of films that mix cop procedural with dark explorations of the criminal mindset and - best of all - a pointed expose of how failings in the justice system could be exploited by the wealthy and unprincipled at the expense of the common man.

Read on for a quintet of capsule reviews covering each film in this set...

SAVAGE THREE (1975): "Interesting crossbreed of the poliziottesco with a portrait of urban alienation." https://boxd.it/2034E7

LIKE RABID DOGS (1976): "A deep-cut for the Italian exploitation film heads but they better gird themselves for an onslaught of dark-hearted scuzz." https://boxd.it/2033Gr

COLT 38 SPECIAL SQUAD (1976): "Dallamano's direction has the visual fluidity you'd expect from a former cinematographer... and he knows how to choreograph the action to achieve both excitement and visceral horror" https://boxd.it/20oOjh

HIGHWAY SQUAD (1977): "Poliziotesschi are macho affairs by nature but this one is particularly interesting because it is about machismo itself." https://boxd.it/20oEvn

NO, THE CASE IS HAPPILY RESOLVED (1973): "...offers a damning critique of the social caste system in Italy, law enforcement biases and the consequences of "minding your business" over performing one's civic duty." https://boxd.it/20oOTz