Poliziotto senza paura

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with Huo Yuanjia fighting and defeating three Westerners: a British boxer, a Belgian lancer and a Spanish fencer. While waiting for the fourth match to begin, Huo remembers his father Huo Endi teaching martial arts. The story is then told in an extended flashback. Watching his father fight, the young Yuanjia wants to participate, but his father is concerned about his asthma. Yuanjia sees his father in a leitai match with Zhao, who won the fight dishonourably by retaliating when Huo Endi held back what would have been a fatal blow. Humiliated by his father's defeat, Huo Yuanjia vows to regain the Huo family's honour and pride. He practices martial arts behind his father's back. As the years pass, Huo Yuanjia defeats several opponents in leitai matches and becomes a famous martial artist in Tianjin. As he becomes successful, he becomes arrogant and ruthless towards his opponents, compared to his late father who advocated showing mercy to opponents.
When a rival martial arts master named Qin Lei injures one of his followers, Huo feels insulted and confronts Qin at a restaurant owned by Huo's childhood friend, Nong Jinsun. After failing to talk his friend out of fighting and fed up with his ruthless behavior, Jinsun ends his friendship with Huo. The confrontation escalates into a fight between Huo and Qin, in which Huo emerges as the victor by killing Qin with a fatal blow. Qin's godson seeks vengeance and kills Huo's mother and daughter in retaliation. Huo goes to Qin's house, where Qin's godson admits to the murders before killing himself. Huo learns that it was his follower who had insulted and provoked Qin, which prompted Qin to beat him.
Wrecked with guilt, Huo flees Tianjin, and wanders aimlessly for many months. He nearly drowns in a river, but is saved by Granny Sun and her blind granddaughter, Yueci. They bring him back to their village. Huo, guided by their kindness, begins to learn the value of compassion and mercy.
In 1907, Huo returns to Tianjin and sees the changes that have taken place. He apologizes to Qin's family and reconciles with Jinsun, who is now a businessman. He challenges the American wrestler, Hercules O'Brien. Prior to the match, Huo requests that he and Hercules fight with honor and civility to which the Announcer, taking advantage of the language barrier, deliberately mistranslates Huo's request to "He wants to kick your butt". During their match, Huo saves O'Brien from being impaled on some nails and wins the gratitude of O'Brien, who names Huo the victor. Huo's fame spreads with successive bouts against other foreign fighters. In 1909, with funding from Jinsun, he founds Chin Woo Athletic Association in Shanghai.
The members of the foreign chamber of commerce fear that Huo's victories might fan anti-foreign sentiments among the Chinese people and thus become a disadvantage to them. They propose a match between Huo and four foreign champions. Huo takes up the challenge, even though he will have to fight four bouts in a row. Before the matches, Huo meets the Japanese champion Tanaka for tea and strikes up a friendship.
The film then returns to the competition shown in the opening scenes. On 14 September 1910, Huo, after defeating the European challengers, faces Tanaka. In the first round, they fight with their weapons of choice. Huo uses a sanjiegun while Tanaka uses a katana. In the heat of the fight, they accidentally exchange weapons. However, Huo is able to handle the katana proficiently, while Tanaka fumbles with the sanjiegun. Huo offers to exchange weapons with Tanaka, and the first round ends in a draw. Before the next round, Huo unknowingly drinks tea poisoned by the members of the foreign chamber of commerce. In the second round involving unarmed combat, Huo has difficulty breathing and begins to lose his strength. He collapses and starts coughing blood, the result of arsenic poisoning. Tanaka and Huo's supporters demand that the match be halted and postponed, but Huo wishes to continue, since he is going to die in any event. Huo is dominated by Tanaka but manages to deliver a blow to Tanaka's chest, using the same technique that killed Qin. He then collapses. Tanaka, aware that he would have died had Huo used more force, declares Huo the victor as Huo dies.
In the epilogue, Huo's spirit practices Wushu on a field while Yueci observes him. Huo turns to her and smiles, indicating a lovers' reconciliation.

Tags: violence, murder, romantic

Review:
exciting Maurizio Merli euro-crime entry, with Joan Collins at her sexiest!.
The late Maurizio Merli was a staple in many excellent Italian crime films of the 1970's, reminding me at times of both Franco Nero and Chuck Norris (!!!).
FEARLESS (as the US video of this is known) is an exciting Italian police film, largely shot in Austria (which looks beautiful!), with Merli as a low-rent private investigator and former cop who 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.
But at the forty-minute point, the film enters a new sphere with the arrival of JOAN COLLINS, looking incredibly sexy, doing a striptease in a club, and giving the film a wonderful shot in the arm.
This film was made right before her "comeback" with the films THE STUD and THE BITCH, based on literary works by her sister Jackie.
I've always admired Ms. Collins and the way she took charge of her career and showed the world how sexy an over-35 lady can be.
The crime elements of the film work well, Merli is exciting and witty (as he usually was), and Joan Collins is a seductive femme-fat ale in a role that her fans simply must see.
I've watched this film a number of times over the years, and I can't recommend it highly enough...an exciting 70's Italian crime film with the added attraction of Joan Collins at the height of her powers is a dream come true for this viewer!.
Excellent Italian crime thriller!.
This film slots into the Italian 'Polizi' genre, although it's something of a black sheep as the focus is not on police officers or police procedure.
The film is still similar to other genre entries, however, and although the lead character is a private detective; he's not really far away from being a police officer.
Fearless is directed by Stelvio Massi who previously made the disappointing Polizi flick Emergency Squad with Tomas Milian and went on to make the decent Convoy Busters with the star of this film; Maurizio Merli.
The plot in this one focuses on Merli's private detective character who is put on the trail of a missing girl in Austria.
After the investigation goes pear shaped, he finds himself on another case; this time revolving around a dead girl and by chance realises that the two are connected.
His investigation leads him into the underworld of Austria which is inhabited by several very shady characters and he soon discovers links between the girls he's investigating and a prostitution racket.The biggest draw of Fearless is undoubtedly the presence of the great Maurizio Merli; he may be just slightly ridiculous, but he has a great screen presence and while most of his screen roles are more than a little bit similar; in this film, he actually gets a chance to show that he has some range and overall it's one of the best performances I've seen from him.
The film also stars Joan Collins in her only Polizi flick role as a seductive femme fatale.
She looks good and fits into the role well, although it's disappointing that she obviously refused to do a nude scene and the edited nude sequence towards the end is not convincing.
The plot itself moves at a steady pace and while it does get a little muddled and hard to follow at times; it manages to remain entertaining throughout, which is to its credit.
The film doesn't completely take itself seriously either, and there's plenty of comedy thrown in - particularly during the first half of the film, which actually creates a bit of an odd mood when the film turns darker later on.
Fearless is topped off by an excellent score and overall this is a well done and entertaining Italian thriller..
Needed More Moustache Action.
It was hard for me to adjust, but I finally managed to cope with the fact that Maurizio Merli is not playing a cop in the film.
He's playing a private detective who used to be a cop.
After some therapy, I was able to cope with this cataclysmic change and watch the film.Merli doesn't seem to be that great a PI either.
He's totally broke and lets his sidekick Vinnie (Massimo Vanni) deal with all the debts.
When trying to mooch a meal in a restaurant, Merli gets a big break - someone in Austria is looking for their daughter and it's up to Merli to track her down.
This opens up a whole can of worms that leads Merli to Vienna and a Massimo Dallamano giallo-style plot involving school girls.Merli hooks up with Gastone Moschine in Vienna and gets caught up trying to solve a different case involving the suspicious death of a minor that leads him to hang around in a car outside of school asking a young girl if she'd like to go for a ride with him.
He hasn't got sinister motives though, but icy-eyed Werner Pocath might have, and where does Joan Collins fit in with all this?
Don't ask me - ask her boobs!Look, i'll level with you.
This isn't the greatest Stelvio Massi film, nor is it the best Maurzio Merli film (although he's a charmer as usual).
It takes far too long for an actual plot to emerge from all the comedic bits at the start of the film (Vanni moaning about not getting paid, annoying the cops, pretending to Gastone that he's a rich James Bond type) and when it does the teenage-prostitute angle doesn't quite fit with the funny bits.
About half and hour from the end things get more violent and one character is run down by a car in a scene that's shocking in its abruptness, but it's too little too late..
Maurizio Merli plays a small-time private detective hired to find a missing girl.
His hunt leads him to Austria and the case of a dead girl that he's sure is connected to the girl he's looking for.
He learns that the girls were involved with a gang dealing in child prostitution.
Merli has to get act fast if he's to save the life of the girl he's looking for.The more I see of Maurizio Merli, the more I enjoy his performances.
After my first experiences with him, I saw Merli as little more than a pretty-boy, Franco Nero wannabe.
But recently, I've begun to see he's got a lot to offer of his own.
He's as good in the action scenes as Nero and probably better at the more comedic moments.
He shows both in Fatal Charm.
Whether it's taking out the bad guys or pulling a scam on the local police, he's got real screen presence and a definite charm.Fatal Charm (aka Fearless, aka Poliziotto senza paura, aka Magnum Cop) could have been so much better had the plot not been so muddled and confusing.
Part of it may be due to the dubbing, but the film definitely goes off in tangents that would have been best left alone.
It seems to take forever for Merli to get to the bottom of things.
For example, there's a whole series of scenes with Merli playing up his operations to an Austrian detective.
It's pointless and doesn't really work.
A tighter script would have served Fatal Charm well.My copy of Fatal Charm gives top billing to Joan Collins.
And while her scenes are memorable (she gets naked for God's sake), she only has about 15 minutes of screen time.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but more Joan would have also been a plus for the film..
I can't believe I'm saying this, but more Joan would have also been a plus for the film..
Nothing Memorable.
Franco Nero look-alike actor Maurizio Merli stars as an agile private eye in "Emergency Squad" director Stelvio Massi's "Magnum Cop" with Joan Collins.
Although Merli did his share of Italian 'Polizi' films as a "Dirty Harry" style inspector, he plays an ordinary gumshoe, Walter 'Wally' Spada, in this yarn about betrayal and blackmail.
Somebody is running a blackmail and prostitution ring and Joan Collins has a hand in it.
She shows up 41 minutes into the action when our hero heads off to Vienna to do his sleuthing.
Collins works in a night club as a stripper and she bares all.
She is shown nude in the final quarter-hour.
Nothing memorable but nimble enough to be distracting.
There is nothing really cool here.
You could go your entire life without watching this atmospheric thriller and not feel like you have missed anything.
Merli is his usual charismatic self.
Spaghetti western villain Franco Ressel plays a mustached coroner in Vienna who is in league with Collins.
Predictably, complications ensue, one involving a wealthy businessman whose daughter has been kidnapped and held for $ 5-million ransom..
Conventional Italian crime.
Here's a fairly typical Italian crime film, partially shot in Austria to make the locations more authentic and interesting.
Like most Italian films it's poorly dubbed as usual, with no attempt to make the voices sync with the lips, and some of the dialogue hasn't translated well either.
Saying that, FEARLESS FUZZ (gotta love that retitling) has a great, jazzy soundtrack to recommend it, a complex plot with plenty of twists and turns you won't see coming, and I guess the sheer rarity of it makes it more interesting too.Things open with a hilarious slow-motion action scene involving Merli shooting two would-be kidnappers.
The police force aren't too happy about this but Merli manages to avoid them by pretending to give them publicity!
Other than that he hangs around in his dirty office while his partner in crime pretends to be Robert De Niro.
Eventually Merli receives a cheque in the post from a rich Austrian businessman to track down the man's daughter, so he's on the case.Merli's case takes him to Austria, where he is repeatedly attacked, beaten and nearly killed by a gang of hoods and thugs (one of whom is the German guy from Thunder Squad).
He discovers an English stripper (Joan Collins) called Brigitte who initially helps him out before leaving him to be killed.
In the mean time, he investigates the disappearance of a school girl and discovers a secret child prostitution ring.
After many double-crosses and murders, Merli solves the case.Well what can I say?
A tape that's almost impossible to find today, I managed to pick up a copy on the scarce Hokushin label from a market, sadly it was growing mildew on it though!
Some might say that this movie is deservedly obscure, being as it is a conventional crime thriller that doesn't really offer much originality or moments that make you sit up on your seat.
I'm sure that there are loads of similar films like this made in Italy which have never been released in this country; the only reason that this one was is the participation of Joan Collins playing a topless stripper!
Merli himself is pretty good as the Franco Nero lookalike tough cop; likewise the supporting Italian cast are quite memorable in their varied roles - I especially like the Austrian detective bloke who doesn't seem to do much!
Sadly most of the action and chase scenes take place at night-time, so it's actually fairly hard to make out what's going on.
Funnily enough, the Hokushin tape has a PG rating, although I find it hard to believe that a film containing lots of nudity and violence could seriously get a PG certificate this day and age.
Other than the distinctive music score and the interesting location work, FEARLESS FUZZ is a conventional crime thriller only of note to those who are fans of the genre.