Silent Action

I jumped back into the shadowy world of Poliziotteschi movies, this time with Silent Action (1975). The original title is La polizia accusa: il Servizio Segreto uccide, which means; the police accuses, the secret service kills.

The story starts with some arranged suicide/accidents followed by the murder of a master electrician who lives way above his means in a nice big house. The man in charge, Inspector Solmi smells a rat and he's right. A fairly normal murder investigation turns into a maze of conspiracies that includes murdered army officers, oil barons, the secret service, more murders, kidnappings and more. As usual, I won't spoil anything but there are enough twists and turns to satisfy anyone as long as you can follow the plot, which is a little bit tricky.

When Silent Action is good it is great but it has a few problems. On the good side we have solid actors, an interesting plot, an amazing car chase, some snappy dialogue and an overall great atmosphere. It is also fun watch an Italian thriller that isn't centered around the Mafia.

On the bad side we have several odd plot holes, some strangely clumsy foot chases, some needlessly convoluted plans by the bad guys and a truly unfortunate haircut.

The biggest problem is the runtime of the movie. Even though it is an hour and 48 minutes long, conspiracy stories take time to tell properly. A secondary smaller problem is that one really need a fair grasp of Italy at the time. Between fascists, communists, the mafia and corporate interests, Italy was a corrupt mess and it must have taken balls of steel to be an honest cop back then. Fascinating stuff though.

As I mentioned in my post about The Boss (1973) this story really needs a short TV series to really work. I really wish that someone at HBO or Netflix would take a look at some of these wonderful Italian movies and make a True Detective style show. One where every season is a separate story. Then you could get these things done properly.

As it it, Silent Action is a mixed bag for me. A fan of the genre or the time period should watch it, but I think most casual viewers might get bored. The ending is in my opinion the weakest part of the movie, even though it wasn't bad in any way. I don't know if they ran out of time or money, but it needed something extra, and it didn't get it.

Do I recommend it? Yes, with a maybe, as stated above. I enjoyed myself but was left wanting more.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!