Overnight, in Rome, 12 (!) criminals escape from prison and 4 police informants are brutally murdered. The DA reluctantly calls upon Commissioner Murri, who previously was suspended due to his unorthodox methods and "shoot-first-no-questions-asked" mentality. In between shooting gangsters in the back, Murri discovers that mob-boss Lettieri led the escape, and that one of the convicts was an elderly man who only had 40 days of his sentence left to serve. He was probably forced to join, and Merri gradually finds out why via his gorgeous niece Laura.
My fellow reviewers around here, some of them guys I usually always agree with, have referred to "Fear in the City" as a lesser Poliziotesschi outing and one of the weakest crime thrillers in which Maurizio Merli plays the heroic copper. Yours truly begs to differ. Well sure, if you watch "Fear in the City" straight after "Rome Armed to the Teeth" and right before "The Cynic, the Rat and the Fist", it'll definitely be the weakest link. But, as a stand-alone, this is a highly entertaining and action-packed thriller. It has brutal executions, bank robberies gone wrong, car chases, motorcycle chases, vigilante action and a virulent climax at the railway station. The best scene involves a nasty assassination attempt at a cemetery. James Mason stars as the obligatory prominent Hollywood star-on-his-return, but he clearly wasn't too enthusiast. Raymond Pellegrin and Fausto Tozzi, on the other hand, are excellent in their supportive roles, and the heavenly beautiful Silvia Dionisio decorates the film with her natural charm and her ravishing naked body.
