THE .44 SPECIALIST (1976) - Kino Lorber / Kino Raro

The .44 Specialist (a.k.a. Mark Strikes Back)
Kino Lorber / Kino Raro

Original Release Date Oct. 26th, 1976 (Italy)
Written by Dardano Sacchetti story by Lucio De Caro
Directed by Stelvio Massi
Starring Franco Gasparri, John Steiner, Marcella Michelangeli, John Saxon
Language Italian (English subtitles available)

Buy it HERE from Kino Lorber, or HERE from Diabolik

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

The Movie: Average

I am by no means an expert in Italy's Poliziotteschi crime subgenre. I really only discovered it on a previous Disc Dispatch (1976's Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man) and I was cautiously optimistic. I mention this only to say that The .44 Specialist didn't really blow me away like that previous film did, and to couch this in: maybe there's something about it that is intrinsically Poliziotteschi that I'm just not getting.

We're introduced to undercover cop Mark (Franco Gasparri) hanging around a cafe, acting as bait to infiltrate the criminal underworld. He provokes a fake arrest in order to come in for a debriefing without blowing his cover. Luckily, this false arrest brings him to the attention of just the people he was debriefed about: terrorists Paul (John Steiner) and Olga (Marcella Michelangeli). In the film's opening scene, we witness them, along with sniper Hans (Claudio Zucchet), execute some dignitary while riding in his car, despite a police escort. They managed to escape, though Hans was gravely injured.

This is where Mark comes in. Initially brought on by Paul and Olga to care for the obviously dying Hans while they conduct other illicit business around the city, before long Mark is hired as Hans' replacement, a decision underlined by Paul unceremoniously executing Hans (which itself leads to an hilarious bit of Weekend at Bernie's-esque shenanigans a full 13 years before Bernie's hit theaters!). Then we're off on an international terror spree.

My issues are manifold: first, and maybe it's just that I missed something, but I had NO IDEA this was the third film in what is known as the Mark the Narc Trilogy (after Mark the Policeman a.k.a. Blood, Sweat, and Fear and Mark the Policeman Shoots First, both from 1975). This technically doesn't matter, as the story is stand-alone, but I never felt like I had any idea who Mark was as a character. Perhaps there is more to him established in the first two films or perhaps not, but importantly: I just can't know.

Relatedly, stuff just seems to happen to/for Mark that doesn't have anything to do with his police prowess or any notable skills. In one instance, he's picked up by hot lady stranger Isa (Malisa Longo) while trying to hail a cab and taken back to her apartment for casual sex. This delay means he is not in his hotel and thus avoids being killed in some vague ambush bloodbath. Similarly, he sees his car being towed just before he enters a clandestine meeting, and again narrowly avoids being murdered along with everyone else, both times purely through chance.

None of this is any fault of Gasparri's. He's incredibly naturally charismatic in the role, but the character is a cipher, and a phenomenally lucky cipher at that. Now, if that was a trait of Mark's that was previously established in the two earlier films, then so be it. I might still be somewhat annoyed by it, but maybe it would have grown on me. Here, it just means I have no real reason to care about what's happening because Mark will be fine and without even engaging with the danger in any meaningful way. Like a virile, laid-back Mr. Magoo.

The Packaging: Average

This is a bare-bones Blu-ray through-and-through. It's the usual slim, blue case, includes no booklet or anything, and features a single-sided cover. The illustration features Mark with his era-appropriately large hair and larger bell-bottoms, falling backwards firing his gun on the tarmac of an airport (a moment that, unless I missed it, does not happen).

It's fine, but not especially attention-grabbing.

The Audio + Video: Good

On a technical quality level, The .44 Specialist is more than adequate. Though it's obviously a product of its era, with regards to film grain and sonic fidelity, I always find that those minor "imperfections" add to a film's charm unless they're so egregious that they distract from the finished product. That's not the case here at all. Aside from arguably looking a little overcast visually sometimes, I had no issues with the look.

From an audio standpoint, my only complaint is that the film's main bit of score largely doesn't work. It sounds very reminiscent of the theme from TV's Taxi (1978-1983) and works perfectly well for when Mark arrives in a new location and we're treated to some casual sightseeing. It does not, and in fact could not, also work when Mark goes for a meeting with his handler Altman (the great John Saxon) whom Mark thinks might be setting him up. The tones of these two scenes are just too different for one piece of music to work equally well in both. Composer Stelvio Cipriani (Piranha II: The Spawning [1982]) is incredibly prolific, and he did a fine job on this piece of music, but it should not be used in all of the places that it is.

Special Features: Bad

The only special features aside from the commentary track from film historian Rachael Nisbet are two movie trailers, one of which is for this very movie, and neither of which is for any other films in the trilogy. While Rachael Nisbet delivers a very informative commentary track, as she normally does, I was pretty underwhelmed with these features.

• Trailers
• The .44 Specialist (3:22)
• Body Puzzle (1:12)

In Summary: Snag it at a yard sale

As a film The .44 Specialist is fine but not especially memorable. As a disc, it feels incomplete. This should really have been packaged and released with the other two Mark the Narc films, had a couple of special features exploring the franchise, its crew and its cast (Franco Gasparri's story for instance, is akin to a Poliziotteschi Behind the Music) and really just given the fans or any curious parties their money's worth. The film may stand on its own without any direct ties to the previous two, but the disc most definitely does not.

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man (Kino Raro)

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man

Kino Raro

The Stats
Video: 1080p High Definition
Audio: DTS-HD Master 2.0 mono (on both the original Italian and English dub tracks)
Subtitles: SDH

Buy it HERE from Diabolik or HERE from Kino Lorber

by "Doc" Hunter Bush,
MovieJawn Staff Writer & Podcast Director, cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man comes to Blu-ray from Kino Raro. Directed by the occasionally controversial Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust), the film is a blast of juvenile impulse without a thought for consequence. The excellent visual and audio transfers on this Kino release more than make up for the slightly underwhelming array of special features.

The Movie: Excellent / 4.5 star

Let me just say that the title Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man is one of the craziest, best titles I've heard and it's been rattling around in my head all week. With that out of the way, we can get down to business: this flick is nuts (complimentary)! Gleefully violent and oddly lighthearted in equal measure, LLACDLAM feels like an afternoon playing cops 'n' robbers in the imaginations of two children.

Alfredo (Marc Porel) and Antonio (Ray Lovelock) are two slender, casually stylish, devastatingly handsome Special Force cops in Rome who spend their time riding around on one motorcycle together, sexually harassing the Special Force secretary Norma (Silvia Dionisio), and casually killing anyone and anything that gets in their way. Director Ruggero Deodato's (Cannibal Holocaust) dark sense of humor is present throughout, adding to the dizzy, pleasantly chaotic feel of events. There is an overarching plot about the culmination of a three-year sting operation to bring down a crime boss known as Bibi (Renato Salvatori), but it's honestly barely a concern beyond acting as a framing device for the shenanigans of Alfredo and Antonio, or as I think of them: The Crime Bois!

This isn't a unique structure. Most people remember the action sequences from their favorite films over the actual plots, and with LLACDLAM, it's easy to see why. The production really makes the most of its modest budget. One of the most famous aspects of the film was its opening motorcycle chase through Rome, which famously they did not acquire permits for (à la The French Connection), and features one of if not the first instance of a motorcycle popping a wheelie in a feature film! The chase crosses the city, with our Crime Bois riding individual motorcycles, weaving through traffic to capture two purse snatchers who inevitably end up dead. According to the supplemental materials, obtaining permission would have cost $3-4 million, plus two weeks' worth of insurance costs, so they did it guerrilla style, and anytime the cops showed up, they would all simply move to a new location, which ends up giving the chase a wide variety of locales that I suppose they wouldn't have had otherwise.

Porel and Lovelock make for a fantastic and fascinating on-screen pair. Though they're both in almost every scene, they remain ciphers. At some point in the commentary track from film historian Rachael Nisbet, she mentions that supposedly one of them was playing the hot-head and the other the more reserved one, but even she seems skeptical about these supposed archetypes. As depicted, they're foppish goofballs who dump copious amounts of sugar in their coffee, roll around in a loose dirt culvert shooting target-practice at each other, and sexually tag-team the (I should emphasize: very willing) crime boss' daughter Lina (Sofia Dionisio) when they go to her place for information.

This film falls into the Italian Poliziotteschi subgenre, which I was only intellectually familiar with before now, and is written by one of its giants: Fernando Di Leo, whose shadow looms large across the special features. But I have no idea if this is a good entry point to the genre or not. It was well received, there were even talks of a sequel but Porel's on-set behavior made Lovelock hesitant to be put in a situation where he would have to rely on Porel, which amongst other factors like a producer deciding he would direct it instead of having Deodato return, lead to a sequel never materializing. That said, I can't imagine the silliness present here to be indicative of the genre as a whole, can it? If so, I might have found my new hyperfixation.

The Packaging: Average / 3 star

In the film, Antonio's bedside table has three items: an alarm clock, an ashtray, and a full-size silver skull. This release is a little like that: minimalist, but a perfect indicator of what you’re getting into bed with. The cover is an illustration of Alfredo and Antonio posed as they do on their shared motorcycle, both pointing guns, with a smaller illustration of the pair of fleeing purse-snatchers on their own motorcycle. It also advertises that this is the 4K restoration, and that it's from Ruggero Deodato above the original Italian translation of the title: Uomini Si Nasce, Poliziotti Si Muore (which more literally translates to Men Are Born, Cops Die). There's nothing especially noteworthy about the packaging here, but that's perfectly fine.

The Video: Good / 4.5 star

From what little I knew about this film, I was expecting it to be much rougher-looking than it is. I knew that most of the Poliziotteschi films were shot sort of on-the-fly, and I knew Ruggero Deodato's background of having perfected his craft under Roberto Rossellini. I figured that the resulting film would have a real run-and-gun quality to it that might very well extend to the visual fidelity. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be a fair assessment.

To start with, there is some film grain present here, but not nearly as much as I'd have expected. The colors are well-balanced enough, if maybe a touch washed out, except for the fire, which really calls into contrast how cool-toned the rest of the visuals are. Turquoise, blues, blacks and tans monopolize the film's palette, but even the Coke machine visible in a late scene isn't as candy-red as I know it should be. None of this detracts from the film's overall quality, to be clear, instead working in a way similar to sepia tone, to cast Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man as something from a bygone era.

The Audio: Good / 4.5 star

Famously, Italian productions from this era didn't really record live sound often, which lead to the whole 'Spaghetti Western' phenomenon, at least as far as it allowed for the casting of recognizable actors from multiple markets and countries, regardless of how well they all spoke any given language, since they'd all have to be dubbed anyway. As a result, LLACDLAM has that ADR sound to it overall; the quality of having been recorded in a studio divorced from the various locations and moments. Like certain aspects of the visuals mentioned above, this doesn't detract from the experience for me.

Quality wise, my soundbar is of the three-channel variety and this stereo mix sounded perfectly fine. If your ideal audio experience involves multidirectional sonic immersion, this probably won't cut the mustard for you, but you will be able to hear and appreciate everything easily.

One fun thing is comparing the Italian and English dubs: They're not drastically different viewing experiences, plot and tone-wise, but the language is sometimes very different in really interesting and amusing ways. For instance, when the Crime Bois show up for their usual playful harassment of Norma, in the Italian language version she greets them by calling them "Hotshots!" while in the English dub she says "My dear cocksmen!" Wild stuff. Gotta love it.

The Special Features: Good / 4 star

I would like there to have been more about the writer, and perhaps godfather of Poliziotteschi (is that fair to say?) Fernando Di Leo since the trailers are for some of his other works. There's a nice chunk of the commentary about him, but I'd like to have come away from this with a more concise idea of where this sits in both his oeuvre and Poliziotteschi as a genre and maybe a fuller watchlist? But that's just spitting into the wind.

As for what's here, the commentary by Rachael Nisbet was very informative and helpful. For instance, I was initially a bit put off by the sexism with regards to how the Crime Bois treat Norma, but Nisbet seems to feel that the movie is laughing WITH Norma and not AT her, which eases my conscience a bit. I also really dug the included documentary, which gives great insight to the production of the film. Deodato's included commercial spots are interesting as well, but could ideally have been placed in a wider context.

• Audio commentary with film historian Rachael Nisbet
• Archival documentary Violent Police
• TV spots directed by and with commentary from Ruggero Deodato
• Trailers
• Milieu Trilogy rerelease trailer
• Caliber 9 (1972)
• The Italian Connection (1972)

In Summary: Grab it on sale / 4 star

Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man is a giddy sugar-high of a crime film. The pacing, characters, and filmmaking all present the indelible energy of youth and an equally immature outlook: these Crime Bois are impervious to harm either physical or emotional, and beyond consequence for their actions. They kill with a casualness that would be chilling if this felt like a real world. Luckily, for us as much as for them, it does not.

I won't spoil the finale for you, but trust me when I say LLACDLAM ends with a gloriously violent shrug from our leads that left my jaw on the floor. If you compare Alfredo and Antonio to other so-called "loose-cannons" from similar cops and criminals films, the Crime Bois come out, as they always do, on top. A trail of bodies and numerous exploded vehicles in their wake, without a scratch on them. Fans of action and genre cinema will want to make space for this release on their bedside table. Right between the ashtray and the life-size silver skull.