| Convoy Busters | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Stelvio Massi |
| Screenplay by |
|
| Story by | Danilo Massi [1] |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Sergio Rubini [1] |
| Edited by | Mauro Bonanni [1] |
| Music by | Stelvio Cipriani [1] |
Production company | P.A.C. - Produzioni Atlas Consorziate [1] |
| Distributed by | P.A.C. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes [1] |
| Country | Italy [1] |
| Box office | ₤989.391 million |
Convoy Busters (Italian : Un poliziotto scomodo) is a 1978 poliziotteschi film directed by Stelvio Massi and starring Maurizio Merli.
Convoy Busters was filmed on location in Rome and Civitanova Marche. [1]
Convoy Busters was distributed theatrically in Italy by P.A.C. - Produzioni Atlas Consorziate on 23 December 1978. [1] It grossed a total of 989,390,960 Italian lira on its domestic release. [1] Italian film historian and critic Roberto Curti stated that this gross was no par with Maurizio Merli's previous films noting that his star power was beginning to fade at this point. [2]
The film released by NoShame on DVD in the United States. [1]
Curti stated that the film was "unusually well-received by critics", including Vittorio Spiga who praised the film as Massi's best work, referring to Massi as managing "to renew the genre somehow: by borrowing the style of the Italian Western, its violence and characters, while taking the spectacular angle and the fast pacing from American cinema." [2] Tom Milne of the Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "Although Stelvio Massi places numbing reliance on the zoom lens, it is competently enough done, with a sound performance by Maurizio Merli in the Eastwood role." [3] Milne also commented on the dubbing, declaring it "horribly dubbed and stultifyingly tedious." [3]
In a retrospective review, Curti declared the film to be "perhaps Stelvio Massi's best effort, and one of the better late Italian poliziotteschi " [2]
Poliziotteschi constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as polizieschi all'italiana, Italo-crime, spaghetti crime films, or simply Italian crime films. Influenced primarily by both 1970s French crime films and gritty 1960s and 1970s American cop films and vigilante films, poliziotteschi films were made amidst an atmosphere of socio-political turmoil in Italy known as Years of Lead and amidst increasing Italian crime rates. The films generally featured graphic and brutal violence, organized crime, car chases, vigilantism, heists, gunfights, and corruption up to the highest levels. The protagonists were generally tough working class loners, willing to act outside a corrupt or overly bureaucratic system.
Maurizio Merli was an Italian film actor and a star of many Italian police thrillers.
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Werewolf Woman, also known as The Legend of the Wolf Woman, is a 1976 Italian horror film directed by Rino Di Silvestro.
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Stelvio Massi, sometimes credited "Max Steel", was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer, best known for his "poliziotteschi" films.
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Il commissario di ferro (transl. The Iron Commissioner is a 1978 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Stelvio Massi.
Cross Shot is a 1976 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Stelvio Massi.
Mark il poliziotto spara per primo is an Italian poliziottesco film directed in 1975 by Stelvio Massi. It is the sequel of Mark il poliziotto.
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Hunted City is a 1979 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Stelvio Massi. It represents one of the few negative roles for Merola.
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