The Heroin Busters

Original title: La via della droga

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

987

YOUR RATING

An Italian policeman goes undercover to break up an international heroin smuggling ring and butts heads with a hot-tempered Interpol agent assigned by his agency to do the same task.

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Action Crime Thriller

An Italian policeman goes undercover to break up an international heroin smuggling ring, and butts heads with a hot-tempered Interpol agent assigned to the same task.An Italian policeman goes undercover to break up an international heroin smuggling ring, and butts heads with a hot-tempered Interpol agent assigned to the same task.An Italian policeman goes undercover to break up an international heroin smuggling ring, and butts heads with a hot-tempered Interpol agent assigned to the same task.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

987

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
An abandoned spaghetti factory was used as a location for one of the shoot-outs in this film.

Goofs
In the last long action sequence, Fabio pulls a clip from his pocket to reload an automatic. There's no reason he would have had that. He started the encounter with a revolver, dropped it and snatched the automatic from a bad guy.

Quotes
Hamilton: Sit down.
Fabio: Yes, Sir
Hamilton: Alright, so who do you work for and who were you bringing the stuff to?
Fabio: Why do you guys choose a place like this? It's so depressing here.
Hamilton: I don't have any time to waste so I'm going to ask you the question again; who do you work for and who were you bringing the stuff to?
Fabio: Whom do you work for. Whom. Nobody. I work for me.
Hamilton: Three kilos?
Fabio: I thought I'd stock up. They told me this stuff was kinda hard to find in Rome. You know, the police, they're so smart.
Hamilton: Yes. They're also good-natured, cultured, patient, and they're all-enduring. So we'll start again. Now, who, whom do you work for? And whom were you bringing the stuff to?
Fabio: I told you; it was for my personal use.
Hamilton: [hitting him and grabbing him by the collar] You defiant, little bastard. Now, you listen to me: I'm quite sure you don't want to end up in one of our jails any more than the next man and I can tell you it's absolute hell in there. Now, you're officially free. You saw me sign that paper. As a matter of fact, you don't even exist. You never have. But you believe me, if you don't decide to talk, I will make it my personal business to see you don't leave here alive. You understand me?

Connections
Featured in Ultimate Poliziotteschi Trailer Shoot-Out (2017)

User reviews24

Review

Featured review

9/10

starts off slow, but this Fabio Testi/David Hemmings euro-crime film eventually delivers the goods

When I first saw this film many years ago, I was put off by its slow and fragmented first ten minutes, featuring scenes of (gratuitous!) drug use in various parts of the world. Also, I had just seen David Hemmings' other Italian crime film from this year, SWINDLE with Tomas Milian (directed by Bruno Corbucci), which was INCREDIBLE, and this did not seem as good. However, once the film kicks into gear after fifteen minutes or so, it is quite good and features some incredible stunt work, imaginative action sequences, exciting guitar-driven music from Goblin (not as repetitive as some of their work), a wonderful over-the-top performance by David Hemmings as an interpol narcotics investigator, and a cool, smoldering performance by Fabio Testi as an undercover cop out to bust the international drug trade. As a later 70s product, this film features unnecessary closeup shots of drug use and some gratuitous nudity (a lesbian scene presented as a FANTASY of a minor character!), but there's not enough of either to derail what becomes a nail-biting action film. The final fifteen to twenty minutes of HEROIN BUSTERS are incredible--the motorcycle chase in the subway, which leads into an outrageous airplane chase--some of the most interesting and daredevil action-film stunt-work I've seen in a while. The film also has nice bursts of humor here and there (such as when Hemmings, chasing a crook, gets a ride from a young lady on a motorcycle and has to grab on to her breast to hold on!) and was quite satisfying on all levels. It does start slow, however, so don't give up on it (or fast forward through some of the initial scenes). What a "golden age" of Italian crime films the 1970's was--even a standard genre entry turns out to be a gem, the likes of which would NEVER be made today.