The best Maurizio Merli’s action movies

Maurizio Merli

Maurizio Merli

08/02/1940- 10/03/1989
Today we present the best Maurizio Merli’s movies. If you are a great movie fan, you will surely know most of them, but we hope to discover a movie that you have not yet seen … and that you love! Let’s go there with the best Maurizio Merli’s movies.
Year:

Rome, Armed to the Teeth

Rome, Armed to the Teeth
6.9/10
  • Genre: ActionCrime
  • Release: 10/10/1976
  • Character: Commissioner Leonardo Tanzi
A tough, violent cop who doesn't mind bending the law goes after a machine-gun-carrying, hunchbacked psychotic killer.

Highway Racer

Highway Racer
6.4/10
  • Genre: ActionCrime
  • Release: 19/10/1977
  • Character: Marco Palma
Maurizio Merli stars as a hot-shot police driver who has more guts than brains, often landing him in hot water with his middle-aged mentor, who was once a legendary police interceptor responsible for numerous large scale arrests.

The Cynic, the Rat & the Fist

The Cynic, the Rat & the Fist
6.7/10
Luigi "Chinaman" Maietto escapes from prison. As soon as he is free he assigns immediately two henchman to murder the inspector whose testimonial once led to his prison sentence. Inspector Tanzi is left for dead but survives. The local newspapers cover up for him and pretend the assassination had succeeded. When Tanzi gets better, his superior wants him to hide in Switzerland. But Tanzi defies him because he intends to make sure himself that Maietto is put back in prison. He goes for it.

Violent Naples

Violent Naples
7/10
Inspector Betti (Maurizio Merli) is transferred to Naples and immediately after his arrival receives a warm welcome from The Commandante (Barry Sullivan), the city's crime lord. Betti then goes on a personal mission against corruption and organized crime, and tries to force the syndicate out of town with any means necessary.

A Special Cop in Action

A Special Cop in Action
6.6/10
A school bus with young children being kidnapped. Commissario Betti will solve the case. High action is promised, including hostage, bank robberies, car chases, prison scenes and mafia bosses!

Violent City

Violent City
6.6/10
  • Genre: ActionCrime
  • Release: 13/08/1975
  • Character: Commissario Betti
A detective sick and tired of the rampant crime and violence in his city, and constantly at odds with his superiors, is finally kicked out of the department for a "questionable" shooting of a vicious criminal. However, he is soon approached by a representative for a group of citizens who themselves are fed up with what they see as criminals going unpunished, and they make him an offer he may very well not refuse.

Convoy Busters

Convoy Busters
6.3/10
In Rome, a vagrant finds the body of a teen girl, her throat professional slashed. Police inspector Olmi uses his brutal and violent methods to follow a trail that leads him toward high government officials. When his methods leave an innocent bystander dead, the corrupt officials have an excuse to get Olmi transferred to a coastal town where the pace is slow and he has time for a romantic dalliance. Soon, Olmi discovers that fishing isn't the only local occupation, and out comes his gun and his ruthless tactics of investigation.

Hunted City

Hunted City
5.7/10
  • Genre: ActionCrime
  • Release: 27/09/1979
  • Character: Commissario Paolo Ferro
Commissario Paolo Ferro (Maurizio Merli) stars as a (typical) tough cop again. This time he returns to the city of Milan to go after a murder corporation. Acampora (Mario Merola) is believed to be the prime suspect although he later proves to be one of the mafia's targets. As if all that wasn't enough, Paolo has to face his own nephew who seems to be involved in all sorts of dirty business.

Magnum Cop

Magnum Cop
5.6/10
A low-rent private investigator and former cop is sent to Austria on a job, and while there sees a number of seemingly unrelated coincidences that lead him into a strange web of corruption and decadence.

Fear in the City

Fear in the City
5.8/10
  • Genre: ActionCrime
  • Release: 17/11/1976
  • Character: Murri
The film focuses on Murri; the token maverick cop. He is called in after a bunch of criminals pull off a successful prison break and spend the night picking off various informers and people they don't like. Murri investigates; hooking up with one of the criminal's nieces along the way. He uses his own methods; which mostly involve breaking all the rules, and thus comes under a lot of scrutiny from his superiors who don't take too kindly to the cop's way of working.

The Iron Commissioner

The Iron Commissioner
5.8/10
  • Genre: ActionCrime
  • Release: 01/01/1978
  • Character: Commissario Mauro Mariani
Pretty solid Merli/Massi collaboration. The plot is a simple one that centers on various kidnapping episodes. With each scenario, the stakes increase for Merli's character and he must race against the clock to resolve each standoff.

Seagulls Fly Low

Seagulls Fly Low
5.6/10
In this obscure 1978 thriller Maurizio Merli is cast somewhat against type as a professional killer. I say somewhat because, as we soon learn, he's not really a bad guy and more a victim of circumstance: a Vietnam veteran who grew tired of the war and deserted, he found himself in Italy where he was forced into working for businessman-cum-criminal Micheli, played by Mel Ferrer.

Vultures Over the City

Vultures Over the City
5.6/10
Merli, teamed with Mexican star Hugo Stiglitz as his photographer buddy, plays a journalist investigating the shady activities of the local Mafia. Eventually the shit hits the fan, and Merli is cornered and beaten for sticking his nose to close to the action. After his girlfriend is raped, Merli dishes out some vigilante justice and punches, shoots, and bitch slaps his way through the Mafia ranks.

The Rebel

The Rebel
5.9/10
  • Genre: ActionCrime
  • Release: 01/01/1980
  • Character: Nick Rossi
"Poliziotti solitudine e rabbia" or "Ein Mann namens Venedig" (A Man called Venice), as it was called in Germany, is an Italian-German crime drama co-production from 1979, filmed mainly in the snowy winter of bleak West-Berlin. Italian cop Nick, played by gangster movie veteran Maurizio Merli, goes to Berlin to find the head of an International European blackmailing gang who has murdered several people. He investigates undercover as a contract killer for the gangsters, but of course becomes immediately the target of his enemies and has to fight hard to save his life...

Covert Action

Covert Action
5.4/10
  • Genre: ActionCrime
  • Release: 03/03/1978
  • Character: John Florio
Janssen plays an ex-CIA agent who has become an author, writing both non-fiction exposes (Phillip Agee was in the news at this time) and fiction spy novels. The CIA is on his case, in the person of Arthur Kennedy, CIA chief in Athens, where Janssen is staying. Janssen is pursuing a case that interests him, while dodging the traps set for him by Kennedy and trying to help Maurizio Merli, a former colleague with personal problems.

Related actors