Poliziotteschi!

If you're around me for any length of time you'll find that along with the entire oeuvres of John D. MacDonald, Elmore Leonard, Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake) and Charles Ray Willeford — I have a parallel interest in hard-boiled action cinema. Particularly, the cinema of the 1970s. In Italy, that means a completely insane genre known as Giallo (of which we shall speak later), and its more grounded yet equally intense cousin, Poliziotteschi.

Euro-Exploitation Movies

Both Giallo and Poliziotteschi are 'exploitation' genres. Of course, as soon as the word 'exploitation' comes up, people assume the movie it describes is trashy, nasty and irredeemable. And, well, that's true. Sex-ploitation, Nazi-ploitation, Blaxsploitation. Non-Missionary Sex and Ultra-Violence. Not exactly suitable for the kids, or granny. But in amongst the dross and the despicable, there lies gold. Fernando Di Leo is a shining example.