Marino Girolami's "Roma Violenta" aka. "Violent Rome" of 1975 is a good, though not exceptional Poliziottesco that is very memorable for several reasons. This was the first of three films in which Maurizio Merli played the rough and ready copper Commisarrio Betti, the other two being Girolami's own "Italia A Mano Armata" (aka "A Special Cop In Action") 1976, and the great "Napoli Violenta" ("Violent Naples"), also of 1976. This is not the best of the films in which Maurizio Merli played unorthodox cops (of different names, but basically the same character), but it was the first one. The sequel "Napoli Violenta" is superior, and Merli's all-time highlight is "Roma A Mano Armata" (directed by Umberto Lenzi), but "Roma Violenta" is the film that made him one of the greatest stars in Italian Crime/Cop cinema. Furthermore this is the last film ever to star the great Richard Conte known for many films including "The Godfather" and Fernando Di Leo's Italian crime masterpiece "Il Boss" (1973).
As the title promises, the film takes place in Rome, and a violent city it is indeed. Comissario Betti (Maurizio Merli) is a tough, mustached copper whose unorthodox methods make Dirty Harry look quite clean. Betti is fed up with criminals getting away with their crimes, and he expresses his opinion both verbally and by his tough methods of crime-fighting... As most good Poliziotteschi at the time, "Roma Violenta" is very gritty, violent and delightfully politically incorrect. It seems as if Maurizio Merli was born to play super-tough unorthodox cops, and the role of Comissario Betti fits him like a glove. Good supporting performances come from Richard Conte, Ray Lovelock and especially John Steiner, who plays a ruthless criminal. Regular Genre bit-part actor Luciano Rossi is also typecast as a sadistic small-time crook. The film is full of action-packed car chases, violent shootouts and scenes of genre-typical brutality, all stylishly shot and accompanied by a nice score by the De Angelis brothers. As mentioned above "Violent Rome" is no particular highlight of Poliziotto-cinema. It is not quite as stylish as some other specimen of the genre, and it lacks the charismatic and diabolical main villain of films like "Milano Odia - La Polizia Non Può Sparare" (aka. "Almost Human", 1974) or "Roma A Mano Armata". It is a good example for the genre, however, and a highly influential one too, as it basically made Maurizio Merli THE unorthodox copper in Italian cinema. All things considered, "Violent Rome" is a film that I highly recommend to any of my fellow fans of Italian genre-cinema. My rating: 7.5/10
