Svegliati e uccidi

Directed by a genuine Red, during an era on the cusp of Italy's Years of Lead (a component of NATO's Gladio operations to wield repressive terror against the people), it is superficially a very modest crime drama that is really a wide-ranging police drama. Or rather, if indirectly, a movie about the repressive apparatus of the capitalist state, the press, and the source, function, and use of crime, and use of the criminal as cause célèbre. Very good crew which includes Fraticelli as editor.

This predates the wilder poliziotteschi films with Nero, Merli etc. by some years and is tamer by comparison, but still pretty extreme for mid-60's film. It's much bigger in scope than I imagined; spans many European cities and spends time to deepen the characters - especially Lutring's wife. The 2h runtime was a bit too much and starts to get repetitive. The very end feels abrupt at first, but makes total sense and underlines the purgatory that Lutring's life has become.

None of it is very original but it's a high quality script and very well made, with an especially great character in Candida, Lutring's woman.