Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Monday, Aug. 19 - The Big Racket

The Big Racket (1976) Il grande racket (original title)

Nico Palmieri is a police inspector who battles a criminal gang terrorising a sleepy Italian town, extorting cash from the local merchants. With the threat of violence, no one dares to act, except for a restaurant owner who is forced by Palmieri to tell the truth. As a result, the owner's young daughter is raped, and the violence continues. Discovering that the gang is associated with drug dealers, Palmieri is forbidden to continue investigating his case by his superior - so he takes matters into his own hands. Palmieri recruits a couple of men who have become victims of the gang and sets out for a bloody revenge.

When a powerful gang of extortionists forces the businessmen of an Italian city to pay for their protection, the tough Inspector Nico Palmieri (Fabio Testi) investigates the case; however he is surprised by the racketeers and ends seriously injured. When he is discharged from the hospital, he joins the victims of extortion trying to find a witness to testify in court since the mobsters are always released by the Attorney Giovanni Giuni (Antonio Marsina). Only the restaurant owner Luigi Giulti (Renzo Palmer) accepts the burden; but his daughter is brutally raped by the gangsters and commits suicide later. Nico is pressed by his superiors to drop the case but he invites his friend Pepe (Vincent Gardenia) to help him using illegal methods believing that the end justifies the means. There is a war between the criminals and the police with tragic consequences, and Nico is fired from the police department. Nico decides to join Luigi; Pepe; a marksman that saw his wife being raped and burned alive; the owner of a nightclub that must wear a metal brace for the rest of his life; and a felon that wants a passport and destroy the gang in a battle that becomes bloodshed between vigilantes and criminals.

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