''Killer Cop'' (, literally ''the police's hands are tied'') is a 1975 Italian

poliziottesco ''Poliziotteschi'' (; : ''poliziottesco'') constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as ''polizieschi all'italiana'', ''I ...

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

directed in 1975 by

Luciano Ercoli Luciano Ercoli (19 October 1929 – 15 March 2015) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, producer and unit production manager. Ercoli's career spanned approximately two decades before his retirement in the late 1970s, and saw him direct se ...

. The film's plot reprises the

Piazza Fontana bombing The Piazza Fontana bombing () was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (the National Agricultural Bank) in Piazza Fontana (near the ''Duomo'') in Mil ...

which happened in Milan in 1969. The gun in the umbrella used in the movie is similar to a

Bulgarian umbrella A Bulgarian umbrella is an umbrella with a hidden pneumatic mechanism which injects a small poisonous pellet containing ricin. Recorded usage Such an umbrella was used in and named for the assassination of the Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi ...

used in London in 1978 to kill Bulgarian dissident

Georgi Markov Georgi Ivanov Markov ( ; 1 March 1929 – 11 September 1978) was a Bulgarian dissident writer. He originally worked as a novelist, screenwriter and playwright in his native country, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, until his defection in 196 ...

Cast

Claudio Cassinelli Claudio Cassinelli (13 September 1938 – 13 July 1985) was an Italian film, stage and television actor. Life and career Born in Bologna to Giuseppina Tafani and Antonio Cassinelli, a well known opera singer, he had two sisters, Paola Cr ...

as Commissioner Matteo Rolandi *

Arthur Kennedy John Arthur Kennedy (February 17, 1914January 5, 1990) was an American stage and film actor known for his versatility in supporting film roles and his ability to create "an exceptional honesty and naturalness on stage", especially in the origi ...

as Armando Di Federico *

Franco Fabrizi Franco Fabrizi (; 15 February 1916 – 18 October 1995) was an Italian actor. Life and career Son of a barber and a cinema cashier, Franco Fabrizi started his career as a model and an actor in fotoromanzi. Fabrizi also starred on several re ...

as Luigi Balsamo * Sara Sperati as Papaya Girotti * Bruno Zanin as Franco Ludovisi *

Valeria D'Obici Valeria D'Obici (born 17 April 1944) is an Italian film, stage and television actress. Life and career Born in Lerici, D'Obici studied at the drama school of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, and made her professional debut at the same theatre. Be ...

as Falena * Enzo Fisichella as Francalancia *

Paolo Poiret Paolo Poiret (29 September 1945 – 1 November 2015) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Poiret began working on stage in 1972 and entered a career of film, television and voice acting in 1975. He was mostly active as a voice dubbe ...

as Rocco Altieri *

Giovanni Cianfriglia Giovanni Cianfriglia (5 April 1935 – 30 October 2024), also known as Ken Wood, was an Italian film actor and stuntman. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1958 to 2000. Life and career Born in Anzio, Cianfriglia debuted as the body doub ...

as Hitman *

Jack Lemmon John Uhler Lemmon III (February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001) was an American actor. Considered proficient in both dramatic and comic roles, he was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in comedy-drama films. He received num ...

as Narrator (voice, English version)

Production

''Killer Cop'' was shot in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. ''Killer Cops plot is influenced from the

s. The funerals seen in the film on a television screen are actual footage of the funerals of the victims of the bombings.

Release

''Killer Cop'' was released in Italy on 27 March 1975 where it was distributed by Prouzioni Atlas consorziate (P.A.C.). It grossed 854,798,250

Italian lire The lira ( , ; : lire, , ) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually fo ...

. ''Killer Cop'' has been released on DVD in Italy by

Cecchi Gori Cecchi () is an Italian surname derived from the given name Cecco. Notable people with the surname include: * Alberto Cecchi (born 1943), Italian rower * Alessandro Cecchi Paone (born 1961), Italian television presenter, journalist, radio and telev ...

with a running time of 92 minutes and 58 seconds.

Footnotes

References

External links

* 1975 films Poliziotteschi films 1975 crime films Films directed by Luciano Ercoli Films scored by Stelvio Cipriani Films shot in Milan 1970s Italian films Years of Lead (Italy) films 1970s Italian-language films {{1970s-Italy-film-stub