Detective Belli (1970)

Thanks for the memories!

Pretty Good

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Brutish and corrupt detective Stefano Belli (smoothly played by the always reliable Franco Nero) finds himself up to his eyeballs in murder, deceit, and deadly double crosses after he decides to investigate a black mail case for prominent lawyer Avvocato Fontana (a fine performance by Adolfo Celi).Director Romolo Giurriera keeps the complex and compelling story moving along at a constant pace, maintains a hard-hitting gritty tone throughout, and throws in some exciting rough'n'tumble fisticuffs and a smidgen of bare female skin for good measure. The intricate script by Massimo D'Avak, Alberto Silvestri, and Franco Verucci provides a few neat twists and builds to a surprise grim ending which packs a startling punch. Nero's assured and charismatic presence ensures that Belli is a continually interesting, if not especially likeable and appealing main character. Moreover, the bevy of beautiful women in colorful supporting roles certainly doesn't hurt matters in the least: Florinda Bolkan makes for a sultry and intriguing femme fatale as Fontana's duplicitous spouse Vera, Delia Boccardo registers well as classy British model Sandy Bronson, and Susanna Martinkova vamps it up with delightfully saucy aplomb as decadent tart Emmanuelle. Roberto Gerardi's vibrant cinematography gives this picture an attractive stylish look. Fred Bongusto's groovy jazz score hits the swinging spot. A worthwhile film.

A man is shot in the head in his apartment in Rome and corrupt cop Franco Nero ends up trying to solve the murder. There's a list of suspects including fashion models and photographers, a torn photograph may hold the secret to the case, and the murderer starts killing people in order to cover their tracks. Nero's journey to the truth takes him through the garishly coloured twilight of Rome's counterculture. That's a giallo plot, right?Let's try again, look at this plot:A man is shot in the head and corrupt cop Franco Nero gets caught up in the case due to taking bribes to carry out tasks for the rich of Rome. Nero finds that there are limits to his own corruption as he gets caught up in a never ending cycle of blackmail and deceit while clashing with the local police and trying to get answers his own way, which means heavy handed violent confrontation and terrifying some of the suspects. Will he find redemption or will his own greed be his undoing? That's a polizio plot, right?This film is both but concentrates nearly 100% on Nero's investigation, as he runs from suspect to suspect accusing them of murder amongst other things. The whole reason he ends up being drawn in is that the murdered man is connected to a couple that Nero is asked to break up by rich Adolfo Celi (underused here, but still great). Adolfo doesn't want his son getting mixed up with some English chick, and judging by what Nero uncovers, he's right, as everyone Nero meets is a free living drug fuelled hipster, this being nineteen sixty-nine and all.Florinda Bolkan plays Adolfo Celi's second wife and stepmother to the son in question, and it turns out her own sister's death may be part of the mystery. There's a lot of dialogue in this one and very little action, so once again the actors carry the film, even if in the end things do become a bit dull. Until the ending, anyway.Romolo Guerrieri does however try and keep things interesting by way of very quick edits and a really stylish world for the actors to dwell in, but those expecting high-octane action or cheesy giallo murders will be let down. Another good but not great one.

The film came out as "Detective Belli", starring Franco Nero, then a European heart-throb when the movie came out. Nero plays against type as an unrepentantly corrupt police detective. During the course of the investigation of a murder, Det. Belli makes his way through the upper society of Rome. Amazingly, he begins to develop a conscience and decides to "do the right thing" and find out who the real murderer is. Like all sentient males, he is attracted to Florinda Bolkan who looks fantastic in this film, having also shared the screen with Michael Caine in another movie around this time. The upshot--in a reprise of the famous ending scene in the Maltese Falcon, Nero confronts Bolkan in a graveyard and, although attracted to her, confronts her with the fact that she is the murderer. She tries to bribe him, alluding to a life together. Det. Belli is intransigent. But then, in a very atypical ending, she shoots him and he dies and she gets away with it. A very twisty thriller when it first came out. I enjoyed it and remember the surprise ending to this day.

This review is based on the horrendous video released (as Ring of Death) by Congress Video Group and apparently culled from an original theatrical print, complete with MPAA rating. This choppy, washed out, and badly mastered tape also features the world's laziest telecine work, as even modest pan and scanning is avoided in an effort to repeatedly keep speaking characters out of frame. As for the film itself, it's mildly diverting at best. Franco Nero stars as Belli, an immoral and brutal detective trying to get to the bottom of the murder of a man named Romanis. There are plenty of suspects: was it glamourpuss English model Sandy (Delia Boccardi)? Jealous young Mino (Maurizio Bonuglia)? How about Mino's frosty stepmother (a gaunt looking Florinda Bolkan)? Ultimately, you won't really care, but you'll wonder why the filmmakers chose to under utilize Adolfo Celi, who plays Mino's dad in the early going and then disappears until the last reel. Perhaps a DVD restoration would restore cut footage as well as the film's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but it could just as easily expose the film to be a disappointing and overlong police procedural (the tape version feels long and clocks in at a mere 91 minutes).