This film slots into the Italian 'Polizi' genre, although it's something of a black sheep as the focus is not on police officers or police procedure. The film is still similar to other genre entries, however, and although the lead character is a private detective; he's not really far away from being a police officer. Fearless is directed by Stelvio Massi who previously made the disappointing Polizi flick Emergency Squad with Tomas Milian and went on to make the decent Convoy Busters with the star of this film; Maurizio Merli. The plot in this one focuses on Merli's private detective character who is put on the trail of a missing girl in Austria. After the investigation goes pear shaped, he finds himself on another case; this time revolving around a dead girl and by chance realises that the two are connected. His investigation leads him into the underworld of Austria which is inhabited by several very shady characters and he soon discovers links between the girls he's investigating and a prostitution racket.
The biggest draw of Fearless is undoubtedly the presence of the great Maurizio Merli; he may be just slightly ridiculous, but he has a great screen presence and while most of his screen roles are more than a little bit similar; in this film, he actually gets a chance to show that he has some range and overall it's one of the best performances I've seen from him. The film also stars Joan Collins in her only Polizi flick role as a seductive femme fatale. She looks good and fits into the role well, although it's disappointing that she obviously refused to do a nude scene and the edited nude sequence towards the end is not convincing. The plot itself moves at a steady pace and while it does get a little muddled and hard to follow at times; it manages to remain entertaining throughout, which is to its credit. The film doesn't completely take itself seriously either, and there's plenty of comedy thrown in - particularly during the first half of the film, which actually creates a bit of an odd mood when the film turns darker later on. Fearless is topped off by an excellent score and overall this is a well done and entertaining Italian thriller.
