I suppose you'd have to call Cop in Drag a part of the Eurocrime genre, just because it's Italian and the main character is a cop...but to be honest, calling it a send-up of the genre would be a more accurate description. The film appears to take influence from William Friedkin's crime flick Cruising, as both feature a plot involving a cop investigating a murder at a gay club; although this film is not nearly as controversial, just because it's impossible to take it seriously. The plot really is nonsense and is just an excuse for lots of humour. We focus on Inspector Nico Giraldi; a cop that instructed to go undercover in a gay club to try and find out who murdered successful transgender singer Nadia. He was chosen because his boss believes he is 'attractive to men'. The inspector soon gets to work; setting up home with a friend in town and then picking up a drag queen at the bar. Meanwhile, nothing else happens with regards to the murder and the inspector goes off on various tangents until the murder plot is eventually picked up again later in the film.
Despite its many drawbacks, I would still hesitate to call this a bad film. In its favour, the film is very fun to watch and many of the jokes actually are funny. Then there's the fact that it stars the great Tomas Milian, in a role that really allows him to ham it up to the max. The fact that the plot is nonsense does get in the way somewhat; the murder plot is completely forgotten about for most of the film, and I was left wondering what the point of it was. There's a lot of filler in the film too; including a lot of boring/irritating dance numbers. The film is very low quality also and it's clear that director Bruno Corbucci didn't have a great deal of budget to work with. It really feels like a TV movie. There are a handful of good set pieces in the film; a sequence that sees the inspector chasing a car in a horse drawn chariot while dressed as a Roman gladiator is a highlight. The murder plot is eventually picked up towards the end and by then I'd pretty much forgotten all about. The ending is fitting in that it's pointless and stupid. Still, I did have a ball watching this and I'm sure most trash fans will enjoy it. As a disappointing side-note; the title is misleading...Tomas Milian does not appear in drag at any time.
