NNN = Stephanie Beacham is nude a lot
G = Typical Italian crime gore - lots of people getting shot
FFF3/4s = the most fun I've had with an Italian Crime film since Castellari
Massimo Dallamano will always be pretty ace in my book for the amazing giallo, What Have You Done to Solange? He's racked up another notch for his very entertaining corrupt cop film Superbitch.
Here Dallamano plays up the Dirty Harry/undercover narcotics cop Yojimbo storyline to the max. I never realized how much Ivan Rassimov made me think of Clint Eastwood until watching this film. Sure, the voice actor who gave his Inspector Cliff a proper American accent sounds almost identical to Eastwood, but the addition of the attractive Rassimov as a no-holes barred go-it-alone undercover Narc gives Dallamano's entertaining drug bust flick a playful tone.
Cliff inserts himself into Morell's London escort service as a "specialist" (read hired killer.) Morell has his team film wealthy clients doing some pretty wonky things in order to have them smuggle drugs out of Europe. Morell's top gal is Stephanie Beachum's almost constantly naked Joanne. Joanne and Cliff become something of an item as Cliff wrenches himself inside Morell, Marco and Mama The Turk's drug rings.
A bit about Mama the Turk - ridiculous mustache twirling is just the tip of the iceberg with this old drug smugglin' marm who keeps a band of counterculteresque rogues as her inner circle. These younger folks can be quite amusing if not as laughably bad as Mama The Turk. Only Cliff's counterpart, Gambol, can be taken seriously in the dubbing/acting and menacing departments.
At any rate, the pace is fast, fun and there's a lot of humor and charm to break up an otherwise serious film about undercover cops pitting one drug family against another. Everyone calls Cliff a Bastard (hence the original title: Who's a Bigger Bastard than Inspector Cliff?) The ending has a neat twist too. Besides Rassimov's spot on performance, Riz Ortolani's catchy jazz score hits all the right notes. And Morrell's office complete with the wonky curved chair and quasi-psychedelic slides on the projection screen are pretty damn cool too. If I ever go back to a multi-region player, the Arrow version has a lot of juicy extras I wouldn't mind seeing (particularly the interview about the late, great Rassimov.)
If you can take your Yojimbo storylines with tongue-hanging-out-cheek baddies and a lot of early 70s style and humor, Superbitch deserves a look. It is one of the more entertaining and all around fun eurocult films I've seen in the last two years.
I definitely smell a double feature with Castellari's The Heroin Busters.
