Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Notable Cast: Fabio Testi, Vincent Gardenia, Orso Maria
Guerrini, Glauco Onorato, Marcella Michelangeli, Romano Puppo, Antonio Marsina,
Salvatore Borgese, Joshua Sinclair
Within the confines of Italian genre cinema, particularly
the boom of exploitative work from the late 60s through the 1980s, there are a
handful of directors that repeatedly pop up as some of the cornerstones. Enzo
G. Castellari is one of those. Although I have yet to fully explore his works
with full gusto, the films that I have seen can range so wildly in quality that
it makes him one of the more fascinating artists to explore.
When Arrow Video decided to drop a double-feature box set of
two of his works from the poliziotteschi genre (or fringing on it), it was high
time to explore some new Castellari films. Entitled Rogue Cops and
Racketeers: Two Crime Thrillers The Big Racket & The Heroin Busters from
Enzo G. Castellari, in all of its long winded glory, the set features those
two films and a slew of new special features for fans and collectors to
enjoy.
The first film featured in the set, The Big Racket,
could be considered a big surprise. To me, at least. Although the film
regularly hits many of the tropes of the crime films of the era and industry,
it’s a remarkably intense flick and plays its story and characters like a much
larger crime epic. It’s a meticulously pieced together slice of crime cinema
loaded with a slew of fun side characters, a handful of intense crime and
action sequences, and a finale that features a body count Rambo would be
impressed with. The Big Racket not only rests as one of the best
Castellari films, but perhaps one of the most entertaining Italian crime films of
the period.