When a band of crooks kills a police officer during a daylight robbery, Inspector Tomas Ravelli of Interpol quickly discovers that the gun used by the robbers matches the gun used to kill his wife some years previous. Whether the Italian police want his assistance or not, Ravelli makes it his mission to track down the killers and avenge his wife's death.

It may not be fair, but I can't help but compare all of the Italian cop movies I see with Almost Human (my favorite of those I've seen). And Emergency Squad does not compare favorably. Almost Human was a thrill-a-minute ride with some surprising scenes of brutality. Emergency Squad, on the other hand, is almost a by-the-numbers cop movie that's very nearly bland.

I suppose that my greatest disappointment comes from the fact that I've come to expect more from a cop movie with Tomas Milian as the star. Generally, I really enjoy Milian's work. It doesn't matter if he's playing the cop or the crook, he usually a very entertaining actor with something different to offer in each role. His character in Emergency Squad is the exception. I'm convinced that almost anyone could have played this part as effectively as Milian. He chomps on a cigar, has a perpetual scowl on his face, and doesn't talk much. He's just not a very interesting character.

I realize that most of what I've written would seem to suggest I didn't enjoy the movie. That's not true - Emergency Squad is a well-made, fairly entertaining movie. While it may not be a new all-time favorite, it's definitely worth a look. But, if you're looking for one of the best examples of an Italian cop movie, look elsewhere.

NoShame has once again delivered a quality DVD for the Region 1 market (I'm starting to sound like a commercial for NoShame). Image and sound are great considering the type of movie we're dealing with here.

Nice outing with Tomas Milian as a two-fisted cop , being well accompanied by a good cast with special mention for Gastone Moschin . Enjoyable Italian Poliziotteschi packed with noisy action , thrills , shooutous , car pursuits and lots of violence . It deals with cop (Tomas Milian), who's usually clashing with his superior (Mario Carenuto), he's consumed with the desire to get revenge on the gangster (Gastone Moschin) who shot his wife to death during a hold-up . The crook in question is nicknamed the Marseilles who is attempting to join his gang (Raymond Lovelock, Leontini , Guerrini , Ilaria Guerrini) to commit another robbery so that he assembles funds for his own retirement along with his girlfriend (Stefania Casini) .

Formula thriller with plenty of action , crisply edition , tension , intrigue , suspenseful , and loads of violence in exploitation style with reminiscent to "Dirty Harry" and ¨Charles Bronson¨ films . A cop movie set in the Seventies , being realized in Italian style , and made by the prolific and cult director Stelvio Massi at his best . Here he delivers frenetic action , thriller and violence enough along the nail-biting flick . There is a good stuntwork with car chases and grisly killings , many of them hardly shot . It belongs to the Italian Poliziesco theme , a cult/exploitation sub-genre , essentially developed in the Seventies and including ordinary trappings such as lasting car chases sequences , virulent fights and a lot of murders executed in cold blood . The film is interesting enough , though it has some flaws , gaps and failures . This Squadra Volante 1974 results to be one of the best among the whole saga of the cops played by Tomas Milian , adding usual seasonings about this particular role . In the end , Ravelli must deal with Marsigliese in a thrilling chase , causing a real pandemonium and including a surprising confrontation at a pier . Stars Tomas Milian dressed in Hippie style and performing on a personal quest for raw revenge against the murderers that killed his wife during their getaway from a bank robbery. Here he plays Ravelli , a tough cop similar to his classic role Nico Gerardi , but Ravelli results to be less humorous than Nico . Milan was a sympathetic actor , well known for his several Spaghetti Westerns . After the tremendous success of Sergio Leone's A Fistful of dollars (1964) starring Clint Eastwood, Milian grubbed up his own image and propelled himself to stardom in similar fashion in such classic "spaghetti westerns" as The Bounty Killer (1966) , A fistful of Dollars (1966) with Lee Van Cleef , Face to Face (1967) , Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1967) and ¡Corre, Cuchillo... corre ! (1968). He later turned to comedy , playing the recurrent characters of petty thief Monnezza and Serpico-like police officer Nico Giraldi a peculiar top undercover cop who often uses unofficial means to track down delinquents without avoiding his attitude of rude man, this is an attractive role who he performed in a variety of crime-comedy pictures playing in the manner of Serpico . Main and support cast are pretty good as Tomas Milian is terrific as the tough police inspector who comes closer to the top of the criminal organization by using expeditive means against delinquents , then his odds of survival decrease . Along with an attractive support cast in which stands out Gastone Moschin as a ruthles mobster , Mario Carotenuto as superior inspector Lavagni , Ray Lovelock , Enzo Andronico, Giuseppe Castellano and gorgeous Stefania Casini playing a blonde and silly bombshell .

It contains atmospheric and evocative cinematography by Sergio Rubini . As well as thrilling and moving musical score by Stelvio Cipriani . The motion picture was well written by notorious specialist Dardano Sacchetti and professionally directed by Stelvio Massi in his peculiar style . Stelvio is considered to be one of the best Italian cameramen , then he moved to directiong , making a nice career, shooting all kinds of genres , such as Thriller : Taxi Killer , Ready to Kill , Balkan Runner , Black Angel . Wartime : Hell's Heroes , War Dogs . And specially Poliziesco : Poliziotto solitudine e rabbia , Dirty Gang, Fearless Fuzz , Commissario di Ferro, Speed driver , Poliziotto va e uccidi , Hunted City , Speed Cross, among othrs . Rating : 6/10 . Decent talian Poliziotteschi/ thriller .

In the wonderful world of Italian Poliziotteschi (a cult/exploitation sub-genre) movies from the 1970s, Stelvio Massi was a director/cinematographer whose name and reputation were rather insignificant compared to some of his more talented and infamous colleagues, most notably Umberto Lenzi or Enzo G. Castellari or Fernando Di Leo, but he did deliver a handful of undemanding & fun films. This "Emergency Squad" is arguably his best work; a rudimentary and derivative but nevertheless blood-soaked (literally) story about an unorthodox copper on a personal quest for raw vengeance against the bastard criminals that killed his wife during their escape from a bank robbery. During his prolific in these euro- crime movies, cult actor Tomas Milian alternately played borderline coppers and psychotic criminals, and this time he depicts the cop. Inspector Ravelli from Interpol is called to the holdup scene where a quintet of criminals inventively pretended to be a film crew and gunned down an unfortunate policeman. Ravelli immediately spots that the bullet shelves on the ground come from the same weapon that killed his wife five years earlier and begins his obsessive hunt. Meanwhile, there's severe distrust and hostility between the crooks. Particularly their leader Marsigliese clearly doesn't intend to share the loot and prefers to get away with his mistress Martha. "Emergency Squad" is memorable to me for three main reasons: the performances of the two lead actors, the extremely violent nature of the gunfights and the fact that approximately 1/3 of the DVD that I own is spoken in its original Italian language without English dubbing subtitles. The latter point is rather bizarre, since the DVD is an official release (yellow box with a drawn picture of Tomas Milian's character in front of a bullseye) and actually quite expensive! Milian's opponent in the film is none other than Gastone Mochin (immortal thanks to the brilliant "Milano Calibro 9) and he portrays a marvelously complex and atypical gangster. Marsigliese is a ruthless thug, but also struggling with his health due to chain- smoking. Last but not least, "Emergency Squad" contains numerous of vile gunfights and executions for which I honestly wonder whether the human blood spillage is anatomically correct or not… Whenever someone is shot, admittedly always with heavy artillery and at extremely close range, his/her clothes are immediately drenched in blood. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen bigger bullet wounds or more massive bloodshed in any other movie in my life. Of course I never witnessed an execution in real life, but I do suspect that director Stelvio Massi exaggerated a tad bit with the blood spillage in order to make his film more sensational and more appealing to fans of the Poliziotteschi genre … And it worked, too!