7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Camilla is a little girl suffering with a kidney disorder. Before she can receive her next due treatment, she gets kidnapped. The gangsters intend to blackmail her rich father.
Starring: Tomas Milián, Claudio Cassinelli, Nicoletta Machiavelli, Henry Silva, Robert HundarForeign | 100% |
Crime | 4% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of Severin's Violent Streets: The Umberto Lenzi/Tomas Milian Collection box set.
In one of several worthwhile supplements Severin has aggregated for Violent Streets, commentators Troy Howarth and Nathaniel
Thompson
make the case that director Umberto Lenzi may not have achieved the renown of some of his
contemporaries at least in part perhaps due to the fact that, at least according to Howarth and Thompson, his directorial style wasn't "flashy"
enough, though the fact that Howarth's book about Lenzi includes the word kinetic in its title might subliminally undercut this thesis, one
way or the other.
There is a certain stolid quality to some of Lenzi's work,
to be sure, but
there are also at least moments of flourishes, but one way or the other, when you have a star like Tomas Milián snarling in front of the
camera, how much additional "style" do you really need? Milián is a near feral presence in all five films Severin has aggregated in this appealing
new
collection culled from Lenzi's rather impressively long filmography. Some of the supplementary interviews with Lenzi included on the various discs
in
this set might suggest that his relationship with Milián may not have always been smooth sailing, so to speak, and in a way I was reminded
(perhaps
only due to it very recently passing through my review queue courtesy of a bonus feature on Arrow's release of Black Sunday) some remarks by John Frankenheimer speaking to his evidently
intermittently stormy relationship with Burt Lancaster, another leading man with a somewhat feral presence. One way or the other, much as with
the
Frankenheimer - Lancaster collaborations, Lenzi and Milián formed a viscerally compelling symbiotic unit for whatever reason, and the five films
collected here offer more than abundant proof of the energy the duo brought to some admittedly at times otherwise pedestrian efforts. Severin has
perhaps sweetened the pot for a certain demographic by including soundtrack CDs with some of the films.
Free Hand for a Tough Cop is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Once again Severin doesn't provide a ton of technical information on the transfer, though the back cover states "uncut for the first time ever" (though it's salient to note this evidently has the same running time as the older Blu-ray release from Fractured Visions) as well as a brief comment that this was "scanned in 2K from the original negative". Svet wasn't particularly pleased with the video quality of the Fractured Visions release, and while I haven't seen that version, even a brief glance at the screenshots Svet uploaded to accompany his review show an often kind of sickly green or yellow-green skew that I'm happy to report is missing from this version. And in fact I'd argue that the palette reproduction is one of this presentation's strengths, with some appealingly natural looking fleshtones that admittedly can occasionally flirt with brown territory. Svet mentioned some odd anomalies with grain in the Fractured Visions version, and while I didn't see a ton of fluctuations in this version, I also didn't see much grain, or at least not the at times rather textured and thick layer that accompanies some of the other transfers in this set. As with some of the other titles in Violent Streets, there's some very minor age related wear and tear that can be spotted. My score is 3.75.
Free Hand for a Tough Cop features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono options in either English or Italian. As with all of the titles in the Violent Streets set, while there may be some slight differences between the two tracks, they're pretty minimal in my estimation, to the point that the two in fact may be largely interchangeable. I'd argue that the Italian track may be just slightly hotter, but only by incremental degrees, and both tracks provide more than capable support for dialogue, score and effects. Optional English subtitles for both versions are available.
Considering the fact that Free Hand for a Tough Cop has a mortally ill child who's been abducted, the overall tone in the film is kind of unabashedly bright and even whimsical at times. Milián hasn't quite tipped over into full gonzo comedy mode as he would in some later films, and that perhaps adds a bit of balance to the proceedings. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements very enjoyable. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
Il giustiziere sfida la cittŕ
1975
Il grande racket
1976
La banda del gobbo
1978
Zeroka no onna: Akai wappa
1974
I padroni della cittŕ
1976
縄張はもらった / Shima wa moratta
1968
黑貓
1991
Fango bollente
1975
Shokei yugi / 処刑遊戯
1979
Battles Without Honor and Humanity
1973
Battles Without Honor and Humanity
1974
Battles Without Honor and Humanity
1974
Luca il contrabbandiere | Standard Edition
1980
Gyakushű! Satsujin ken / 逆襲!殺人拳 / Street Fighter Counterattacks! / Revenge! The Killing Fist
1974
1973
Rome Armed to the Teeth / Roma a Mano Armata
1976
フェラーリの鷹 / Poliziotto Sprint
1977
1976
Vinegar Syndrome Exclusive / Limited Collector's Edition / Slipcover in Original Pressing
1974
1987