Maurizio Merli and Tomas Milian star in probably the most typical, yet completely enjoyable Italian crime movie by Umberto Lenzi. With a blazing soundtrack by Franco Micalizzi and some exciting camerawork by Federico Zanni, this film is fast-paced and furious although the narrative makes relatively little sense. This reminds me of THE RAIDERS OF ATLANTIS, a film Dardano Sacchetti also penned, which was completely fun and enjoyable although it didn't make any sense whatsoever.

The best scenes in this movie have to be the extended car chases. Milian hijacks an ambulence and kills all the people on board for no reason. When it crashes in a crowded flea market, Milian jumps out of the ambulence and just starts randomly firing his sub-machine gun into the crowd to create enough confusion to get away. Another great scene has a gang of upper-class teenagers led by the baby-faced Stefano Patrizi who get bored of nightclubbing and proceed to rape a girl and beat up her boyfriend in a vacant lot. Patrizi is wholely unsympathetic as he punches the boyfriend in the gut repeatedly and knees him in the face, then making weird gestures with a nearby piece of wood. Merli later pops by their nightclub and smashes Patrizi's face right through a pinball machine and then simultaneously beats the tar out of the six or so members of the gang!

This film comes fast and furious. Good performances all around by a veteran cast (with Arthur Kennedy, Ivan Rassimov, and Luciano Pigozzi along for the ride). It's not the most coherent of Lenzi's works, but it's definitely a genre classic. Where's the DVD?

This classic entry in the Italian crime thriller (or "polizia") genre is highlighted by the unforgettable pairing of director Umberto Lenzi and star Maurizio Merli, who combine to make this one of the very best Italo crime films you'll see. This is a perfectly-made movie, well-shot at all times and incredibly fast paced. In the first twenty minutes you'll see enough action to make three low budget made-for-TV thrillers and the pacing doesn't let up until the very end. Shoot-outs, hold-ups, fist fights and car chases, they're all here and done in splendid style by a director who was at the very peak of his career before his star began to wane in the '80s. Anyone put off by plot complexities can relax because this, like many other Lenzi/Merli collaborations, is a relatively plotless movie that just features lots of random crimes, plot-threads and sub-plots linked together by Merli's ever angry Inspector Tanzi.

Whilst the name of Maurizio Merli's character may change with each film he's in, you can rest easy knowing he'll play the same angry, on-the-edge, anti-criminal policeman each time whose hard-edged tactics cause him to inevitably fall out with his superiors. Merli is at his best here, perfectly believable as the dedicated, no-nonsense lawman, a character you can really cheer for. Once again Lenzi assembles a cast of familiar Italian faces like Stefano Patrizi, Luciano Catenacci and Luciano Pigozzi to play the various scum who are terrorising the streets of Rome. Plus there's Ivan Rassimov (THE RED BERETS) playing a really evil creep who keeps his pretty, unfortunate girlfriend hooked on heroin and Arthur Kennedy (KILLER COP) reprising his "angry man" routine as Merli's increasingly frustrated chief. Hats off to Giampiero Albertini as a sympathetic fellow cop, Caputo, and in particular Tomas Milian (FREE HAND FOR A TOUGH COP) who excels as the slimy villain, an unbelievable hunchback character who runs amok.

This politically incorrect film definitely isn't for all tastes, especially with a near-the-knuckle rape sequence which pushes the boundaries of bad taste and is deeply unpleasant stuff to watch. Thankfully the rest of the violence is well-deserved and thus enjoyable, as we watch Merli beat up endless bad guys, smashing heads on pool tables, through pinball machines and roughing up countless bad guys. The action sequences are highlighted by a superb catchy and jazzy score (which kept me humming for days) and noisy engine revving and gunfire. The car chases are excitingly portrayed, especially a great scene involving an ambulance speeding through the city. I can't sing this movie's praises highly enough and recommend all Euro fans to track it down now, as it really is priceless stuff.

Director Umberto Lenzi is widely known for his raw and uncompromising films of a variety of genres, his doubtlessly most famous films being his gory and gruesome Cannibal flicks "Cannibal Ferox" (1981) and "Mangiati Vivi" (1980). These are flicks one is not likely to forget, of course, but, as far as I am concerned, Lenzi's most memorable and brilliant achievements are his tough-minded and ultra-violent Poliziotteschi, such as "Milano Odia, la polizia non pùo sparare" (aka. "Almost Human", 1974) or this "Roma A Mano Armata" (aka. "Rome Armed To The Teeth"/"Brutal Justice") of 1976. "Rome Armed To The Teeth" is an action-packed fast-paced, brutal and breathtaking crime flick like it could only be made in Bella Italia, and a perfect proof for what gifted a director Lenzi was.

Even more than the foregoing "Milano Odia...", this delivers the absolute opposite of political correctness. Commissario Leonardo Tanzi (Maurizio Merli) is a super-tough and relentless cop with a mustache, whose unorthodox methods make Dirty Harry look like a peace-loving social worker. Respectless towards his (hypocritical) superiors and without any form of sympathy for offenders, Tanzi hates criminals as much as he hates crime, and he has no scruples to beat information out of suspects and bend the law whenever it is necessary to do the right thing. Tanzi is super-tough and the role seems as if it was written for Maurizio Merli. The great Tomas Milian (one of my personal all-time favorite actors) plays 'Il Gobbo', a hunchbacked and psychotic gangster. Milian is excellent in any role I see him play, and this particular role of the malicious and sadistic criminal fits him like a glove. Apart from Merli and Milian, who are both excellent in their roles, the cast includes a bunch of other regulars of Italian genre-cinema, such as Giampiero Albertini, who plays a cop, Luciano Catenacci, and, most prominently, Ivan Rassimov as a sleazy drug dealer. The film contains a vast amount of sleaze and brutality, and is definitely not for those who are very sensitive when it comes to violence. For my fellow lovers of Italian genre-cinema from the 70s, however, this is an absolute priority. The score by Franco Micalizzi is absolutely brilliant, the cinematography is excellent, and the film is tantalizing from the beginning to the end. Tough-minded and gripping throughout, "Roma A Mano Armata" is an ultra-violent and wonderfully politically incorrect Poliziottesco that no lover of Italian-genre cinema can afford to miss. In short: Brutal, brilliant, and an absolute must-see for all fans of Italian Crime cinema!