The Mediterranean Vigilante... We have a classic, or in other words, standard, criminal detective. Philippe Labro, like his friend Jean-Pierre Melville, was an ardent fan of American cinema. That’s his film, he shot in a manner more typical of American police thrillers. From the choice of theme (namely, the literary basis in the face of the American novel “Ten plus one” by Ed McBain) to large pistols, killers and other details, such as that (the blinds in the American manner in the inspector’s office, the same technique was usually used by Melville). By the way, to me, the picture in some ways resembled the released in the same 1971 cult film “Dirty Harry”.
At first, the plot is really twisted. Especially given the effect produced by Ennio Morricone's beautifully selected music here. She emphasizes drama at the right moments, skillfully whipping up an atmosphere of fear in the face of a threat from an unknown killer. But somewhere in the last half an hour, the tension drops sharply, given the appearance in the plot of an unexpected, if not quite banal, turn. As they say, the box just opened. But the viewer will find out only after watching the film to the end. So we have an average movie, no more and no less. But with a good cast and skillful editing and directing.
Apart from the Ennio Morricone soundtrack mentioned above, the absolute plus of the picture is of course the list of performers. What is only a powerful ensemble of Franco-Italian beauties? Here and the star of Italian erotic cinema Laura Antonelli (although here the then girlfriend of Bebel, never stripped), and quite popular at the time Italian Karla Gravin (who starred in the next film Labro “Heir”), and the young, but already known for the films of Bertolucci and De Sici, French Dominique Sanda (in “Conformist” by the way, she also played with Trentignan). Well, it is impossible to ignore the attention of the brilliant Jean-Louis Trentignan, who perfectly portrayed a slightly non-standard police inspector, with his petty quirks. This was later the commissioner from another film by Philippe Labro "Crime" performed by Claude Brasser.
8 out of 10