Giallo godfather Umberto Lenzi energetically pulls out all the cops to deliriously deliver one of his most bullet-blazingly iconic, street tough, gallopingly great, genre-inspiring poliziotteschi classics with his bravura B-Movie bonanza 'Free Hand for a Tough Cop'. The J&B-fuelled action is relentless, with screeching hordes of pell-mell, tarmac-melting Fiat's rarely slipping into neutral, and visually astute action maestro Lenzi excitingly makes the most of the film's lean and mean kidnapping plot, brusquely taking the dazed poliziotteschi fan onto a rollicking roller-coaster ride deep into the seamy underbelly of a grisly Italianate 70s crime spree, and it's amusing to see the iconic 'Almost Human' roles reversed, with stern, stone-faced Henry Silva playing sinister, bullet-mean killer Brescialli, and luminously charismatic, scene-stealing star Tomas Milian unleashing the entirely loveable big-haired rapscallion 'Monezza' on an appreciative audience! I have always admired Claudio Cassinelli acting, and the witheringly handsome, cucumber cool Cassinelli is on utterly sublime form as maverick, Thug-trashing Inspector Sarti, desperate to rescue the terminally ailing kidnapped girl from the nefarious clutches of Brescialli's mercenary hoods, he must riskily resort to a controversial methodology that almost pushes him to breaking point! The blazingly entertaining 'Free Hand for a Tough Cop' is a consistently thrilling, full-throttle'd Euro-crime action masterclass and the recent HD remaster only increases the landmark film's fascination! Lenzi Lives!!!
