The .44 Specialist Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The .44 Specialist Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 5, 2025

Stelvio Massi's "The .44 Specialist" (1976) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critic Rachel Nisbet and vintage trailer. In English or Italian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The specialist

In the 1970s, director Stelvio Massi and Franco Gasparri made three films in which the latter played an Italian undercover cop named Mark. They are Mark of the Cop a.k.a. Blood, Sweat, and Fear (1975), Mark Shoots First (1975), and Mark Strikes Again a.k.a. The .44 Specialist (1976), and among fans of the poliziotteschi genre, these films are known as The Mark Trilogy. However, even though Gasparri’s character remains unchanged in all three, they are not thematically related. In other words, these films do not need to be viewed in chronological order to be enjoyed.

The .44 Specialist has the most complex narrative, which is arguably its biggest weakness. (More on this later). It begins with a hit job. A high-profile target, escorted by the police, is taken out, but the killer, an amateur sniper, is seriously wounded while trying to run away. His partner, who has been observing from afar, manages to help him evade certain death and, soon after, hides him in an apartment somewhere in downtown Rome. Around the same time, Mark (Gasparri), who is on the streets and trying to get closer to a prominent drug dealer, is summoned by his boss, and while improvising to get to him as quickly as needed without blowing his cover, he impresses a beautiful young woman.

A few hours later, back in the same area, Mark is approached by Olga (Marcella Michelangeli), who invites him to her place, where he meets Paul (John Steiner) and the seriously wounded, already unconscious sniper. Instantly connecting the dots, and while pretending to be falling in love with Olga, Mark agrees to work with them. When the unconscious sniper is killed for security reasons, Mark helps get rid of his rather large torso and earns Paul’s respect.

This is where The .44 Specialist reveals its ambition to be something more than a conventional poliziotteschi. It heads to Vienna, Austria, where Paul and Olga, having dropped their masks and revealed to Mark that they are far-left terrorists, begin arranging a series of ambitious hit jobs with the leader of an international revolutionary underground group aiming to destabilize the socio-political order in Western Europe. While trying to identify the shadow figure Paul and Olga are communicating with, Mark reaches out to Altman (John Saxon), a veteran Interpol agent, but it is not long before he discovers that his contact is a chameleon and cannot be trusted.

While an entertaining film, The .44 Specialist is easy to critique because it juggles two incompatible identities with characters that are similarly problematic for both. For example, as a poliziotteschi, it produces enough high-octane action to meet expectations. However, it also repeatedly slows down to convince that its characters can be authentic players in the game of international terrorism. They are not, and this becomes painfully obvious long before they move from Rome to Vienna. As a political action thriller, its grasp of the game of international terrorism is respectable -- in the 1970s, far-left terrorist groups were most active in Italy (and select areas of West Germany), and Vienna had the reputation of an international “nest of spies”, many of whom worked directly with the same far-left groups -- but its characters lack the proper skills, intelligence, and time to expose its nature.

The acting is pretty rough, too. However, a good case can be made that it is what ultimately transforms The .44 Specialist into an entertaining film. Indeed, there is a lot of over-the-top, colorful material oozing unfiltered enthusiasm that can no longer exist in contemporary genre films.

The predictably excellent soundtrack was created by Stelvio Cipriani, who also scored Massi’s Highway Racer, one of the most influential action films of the 1970s.

The .44 Specialist Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The .44 Specialist arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video.

It is pretty easy to tell that The .44 Specialist has been recently remastered. Also, while it is not mentioned anywhere on the cover of this release, the version of The .44 Specialist included on it is a reconstruction job -- it adds footage from the Italian version to the English version, which is the one to view. This is why some of the fluctuations are so obvious and affect density levels, stability, and color reproduction.

I would describe the overall quality of the presentation as good. However, in an ideal world, The .44 Specialist should have been fully restored so that various inherited age-related anomalies are removed. At the moment, there are several sections with rough visuals. A good example is the sequence where John Saxon is taken out. I did not see any traces of problematic digital corrections. Color reproduction is difficult to critique because some of the rougher sections have retained fading that affects color balance. This said, I would rather have the reconstruction presented as is on this release, not digitally repolished and regraded so that the balance appears better. Assuming that there were no sufficient funds to produce a proper restoration job, and some of the aging anomalies were too serious to fully eliminate, I think that the right call was made to present The .44 Specialist as a less-than-ideal reconstruction job. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

The .44 Specialist Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided.

I prefer the English track. However, there is so much overdubbing on both tracks that the Italian track is a decent option as well. The overall quality of the English track is fine. It is uneven in some places, and a bit anemic in other places, but this is how international dub tracks for Italian genre films were finalized between the 1960s and 1980s. This said, I thought that the shootouts and car races sounded very nice.

The .44 Specialist Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this new audio commentary was recorded by critic Rachel Nisbet.

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage international trailer for The .44 Specialist. In English, not subtitled. (4 min).

The .44 Specialist Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

An undercover Italian cop infiltrates a far-left terrorist cell, part of an international revolutionary underground group whose leader is in Vienna, Austria, and begins improvising when he realizes that no one can be trusted in The .44 Specialist. This film is the final of three featuring the same cop, known as The Mark Trilogy, but they do not need to be viewed in chronological order to be enjoyed. I think that The .44 Specialist has multiple flaws, but its roughness, which has a very dated quality, makes it attractive. Raro Video's Blu-ray release presents a fairly good reconstruction of it, and is Region-Free. RECOMMENDED.