Highway Racer

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Highway Racer
Highway-Racer-poster.jpg
Directed by Stelvio Massi
Screenplay byGino Capone
Story byGino Capone [1]
Produced by Giovanni Di Clemente [1]
Starring Maurizio Merli
Cinematography
Edited by Mauro Bonanni [1]
Music by Stelvio Cipriani [1]
Production
company
Cleminternazionale Cinematografica [1]
Distributed by Titanus
Release date
  • August 10, 1977 (1977-08-10)(Italy)
Running time
105 minutes [1]
CountryItaly [1]
Box office ₤1.308 billion

Highway Racer (originally titled Poliziotto sprint) is a 1977 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Stelvio Massi. [2] [3] It was the first collaboration between Massi and Maurizio Merli, who worked together in six titles between 1977 and 1980.

Contents

The plot of the film was partly inspired by the career of Armando Spatafora, an Italian "flying squad" police officer whose patrol car was a Ferrari 250 GTE. Many car chases in the film, such as bank robbers in a Citroen DS as well as cars rolling down the Spanish steps, mirror famous police chases in Rome during the 1960s.

Cast

Production

Highway Racer was the first of six films starring Maurizio Merli that director Stelvio Massi directed between 1977 and 1980. When he was shooting his third film in the Mark the Cop series, Merli met Massi who was busy shooting Special Cop in Action for Marino Girolami. [1] Highway Racer was shot on location in Rome. [1]

Release

Highway Racer was released in Italy on August 10, 1977 where it was distributed by Titanus. [1] The film premiered at the Brancaccio cinema in Rome. It grossed a total of 1.308 billion Italian lira in Italy, which lead to Roberto Curti described as film being a "box office hit" in Italy. [4]

Reception

From contemporary reviews, Italian critics generally gave the film better reviews than the usual Italian crime films, with one critic describing it as "more amiable and astute than other films of its ilk, because it's more spectacular in its 'police and thieves on four wheels' game." [5]

Related Research Articles

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, Euro-crime, Italo-crime, spaghetti crime films, or simply Italian crime films. Influenced 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 and 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.

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<i>Mark of the Cop</i> 1975 Italian film

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<i>Hunted City</i> 1979 film

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<i>Emergency Squad</i> (1974 film) 1974 film

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<i>Gangbuster</i> (film) 1977 film

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<i>Seagulls Fly Low</i> 1977 film

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References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Curti 2013, p. 221.
  2. ↑ Roberto Curti. Italia odia: il cinema poliziesco italiano. Lindau, 2006.
  3. ↑ Enrico Lancia, Fabio Melelli (2005). Spionaggio, avventura, eroi moderni. Gremese, 2005. ISBN   8884403707.
  4. ↑ Curti 2013, pp. 222–3.
  5. ↑ Curti 2013, p. 223.

Sources

  • Curti, Roberto (2013). Italian Crime Filmography, 1968-1980. McFarland. ISBN   978-0786469765.


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