The Police Serve the Citizens? (1973) User Reviews

Taut crime Italian flick.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 7/10 · 10 February 2019]

In the pure tradition of the Italian crime film industry from the seventies; brutal, bloody with sharp editing and powerful acting. An urban crime feature where a rough and tough police officer fights against the mob with all his strength. Nothing new, I admit, but so effective. I recommand you this rare film. Don't miss the death of one of the persons whom the mafia wants to get rid of; thrown thru a window from the twentieth floor. It is also question here of the connection between politics and high scale racketeers. Italians were really the best in that field. The lead cop character and actor are absolutely awesome, convincing at the most.

Wonderful Italian Crime Film

[dopefishie · 8/10 · 25 June 2022]

It's not quite a Poliziotteschi - it lacks the amount of graphic violence you'd expect from a Poliziotteschi - but it's definitely a wonderful detective thriller!

Enrico Maria Salerno does a fantastic job in the lead as the detective on the case. The supporting cast also provide above-average performances. The script and dialogue are great. There's action with cars - but actually very little shooting here. In the end, it's a great ride, and I recommend it!

Absolutely worth seeing!

[RodrigAndrisan · 10/10 · 7 September 2023]

This movie is actually a triple drama. It is the drama of an Italian police officer impotent to expose by normal legal means the cancer of total corruption in Italian society. This is on a professional level, which the film deals with extensively. It is also the drama of the same policeman on a personal level, his relationship with his son and the mother of his son, which we see less. And there is also the drama of the same policeman in his relationship with his closest colleague, the policeman Marino, convincingly played by Giuseppe Pambieri, a corrupt character who plays a double role, being also a mafia informant. The protagonist of the triple drama is the policeman Sironi, masterfully played by the brilliant Enrico Maria Salerno. John Steiner in the role of Lambro, as usual in many other Italian productions, plays an unscrupulous mafia killer. Venantino Venantini, an excellent comic actor in many other Italian or French films, plays a small mafia middleman, Mancinelli. Daniel Gélin, father in real life of the beautiful actress with a tragic destiny Maria Schneider, plays the mafia boss Brera, who is executed at the end of the film, in an ingenious and original way by Sironi. The film's music is composed by the gifted Luis Enrique Bacalov, author of many excellent soundtracks from Italian cinema. Excellent scene from min. 14.08, when Commissioner Sironi punches an informant, Barone, played by the natural Memmo Carotenuto, so that he will not be suspected by those in the antechamber of the police station that he denounced. Director Romolo Guerrieri did a very good job.