La Mano spietata della legge, AKA: The Bloody Hands of the Law (1973)

Directed by: Mario Gariazzo
Starring: Philippe Leroy, Silvia Monti, Klaus Kinski

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The Police Chief: I know one thing... this latest event has created an atmosphere of sheer terror in public opinion. There's not a single person who isn't asking himself 'What the Hell are the police doing!?' And frankly in this instance I find the question more than justified. For the second time a suspect in our custody has been killed!

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A mob informant is killed in his hospital bed by a killer dressed in a police uniform. Over the course of the next few days all witnesses to the crime are killed, and all suspects in the murder are whacked while in police custody. Frustrated at his inability to get the confessions he needs, Police Detective Gianni De Carmine (Philippe Leroy) convinces his boss to lift all restrictions on the use of force in interrogations. But will the ability to meet violence with violence help De Carmine win the war against corruption? Or will it destroy him?

The Bloody Hands of the Law is an amazingly obscure slice of Euro Crime, especially considering that features two of the giants of 70's Italian cinema: Philippe Leroy and Klaus Kinski. Leroy is great in this film as a disillusioned detective who has begun to see violence as the only way to get results. The irony of his position is apparently lost on him, as he routinely does things like brutally slamming a dirty cop's head against the wall while screaming "It's animals like you that make people think cops are no better than criminals!" Later, as he's beating another suspect he's asked:

Suspect: What if I'm not a murderer?
De Carmine: I hate making mistakes. But just to be sure, I'm not pulling any punches.
Suspect: What chance have we got against police who don't care how they operate?
De Carmine [Tossing down his badge]: Don't consider me one of the police.

Klaus Kinski has a small role as mob assassin Vito Quattroni. Interestingly, Kinski is completely silent for the entire film. It takes a special kind of actor to pull off a non-speaking role like this. Oates did it in Cockfighter. Gromit pulled it off in Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And its no surprise that Kinski is as good in the 'silent psychotic assassin' role as he is in the 'sputtering maniac nut-job' role. Plus, you haven't truly lived until you've seen Klaus Kinski burn a guy's nuts off with a welding torch. Puts Reservoir Dogs and Michael Madsen to shame. Kinski is one tough bastard in this one... at one point his car gets run of the road and rolls 3 or 4 times down a sharp embankment. Eventually the car comes to a rest on its side, and Kinski's gun immediately darts out the window and starts firing shots at his pursuers.

My favorite scene comes when De Carmine finally gets Quattroni alone in an interrogation room. Its the quintessential 'Immovable Object Meets the Irresistible Force' scene, as the man who's convinced violence can make anyone talk runs up against the man who seemingly never talks. De Carmine violently tosses the handcuffed Quattroni around the room as Quattroni does nothing but stare, mockingly, at De Carmine. Its one of the all-time great Kinski scenes, helped immeasurably by Leroy's intensity.

People who have seen this movie ultimately end up remembering it as being a fairly violent film, while in reality, there's very little on-screen violence. The few people who are killed are done so off-camera, and when they are shown, there is usually very little blood. However, there are several interrogation scenes that are quite brutal... the kind of scene where you're pretty damn sure some actor lost a tooth or two. Bloody Hands of the Law is a dark movie that is ultimately more about the toll the increasing violence takes on De Carmine than it is on the criminals he is tracking. You can get this one at Xploited Cinema.

Trivia: Writer/Director Mario Gariazzo went on write and/or direct soft-core movies like The Coming of Aliens and Homo Eroticus under the name Roy Garrett.

- Micah