Review of The Heroin Busters

Brash cop Fabio (a sturdy and charismatic performance by Fabio Testi) goes deep undercover to take down an international drug syndicate that specializes in trafficking heroin. Things are complicated when volatile Interpol agent Hamilton (robustly played with fierce no-nonsense intensity by David Hemmings) joins the investigation. Director Enzo Castellari, working from a compact and complex script by Galliano Juso and Massimo De Rita, relates the absorbing story at a brisk pace, maintains a tough, gritty, and cynical tone throughout, further spruces things up with amusing moments of cheeky humor, and stages the action set pieces with considerable rip-roaring brio (a daring robbery in a police station as well as the shoot-outs in a chemical plant and at a construction site all rate as definite exciting highlights). Testi and Hemmings both excel in the lead roles; they receive sound support from Joshua Sinclair as smooth head dealer Gianni, Wolfgango Soldati as twitchy addict Gilo, Sherry Buchanan as Gilo's concerned girlfriend Vera, and Romano Puppo as a brutish enforcer. Giovanni Bergamini's glossy cinematography provides an impressively slick and stylish look. The pulsating score by Goblin hits the funky-throbbing spot. An on the money item.