What was the deal with perms for men in the 1970s? Who thought this was a good idea? I’m trying not to be judgmental. After all, I’m a Curator of Schlock. Let your freak flag fly as far as I’m concerned, but did you ever think of the consequences? I’m sure Bob Ross thought it was a good idea, but that frizzy perm never left him as he painted those happy  trees well into the 1980s. It’s just something that should not exist like plastic Slinkies or the McRib sandwich.

Tonight’s movie is 1976’s Free Hand for a Tough Cop from Director Umberto Lenzi. The Italian title is The Numbskull and the Cop and Tomas Milian is playing the numskull this time around.

His hair in this movie should have its own zip code. I just want to yank those black curls off his head because I’m convinced it’s a wig but imagine my horror if it turns out to be real. I know I just have to get used to it, but every time he opens his mouth, I keep thinking about his hair and I can’t follow the plot!

Our movie begins with a bunch of inmates watching a spaghetti western during a prison movie night. One of the inmates, Sergio (Tomas Milian), goes back to his cell only to be knocked out by a police inspector named Commissioner Antonio Sarti (Claudio Cassinelli) knocks him out and manages to carry him out of the prison without alerting any of the guards. These guards are overpaid. 

Commissioner Sarti needs Sergio’s knowledge of the criminal underworld to locate a kidnapped child named Camilla. She’s being held for ransom and her rich father had better pay up. Again, with the kidnapping! It’s even worse this time around as Camilla has bad kidneys and if she doesn’t get to hospital soon for treatment, she’ll be dead. 

Our villain of the story is Brescianelli (Henry Silva), a criminal who recently had plastic surgery so he can’t be recognized by those on either side of the law. I think the little girl mentions how she needs to get to hospital and Brescianelli just cusses her out. Commissioner Sarti gets Sergio to recruit some other criminal associates to help with finding out the whereabouts of this child, but they’re a bit unscrupulous, killing other criminals who might have an idea where the kidnapped girl is. 

During one of the side plots of this movie, there are a couple of young hooligans   who rob people by bashing them in the face with a brick. You see, one of them has a box of tissues and is always blowing his nose, but unbeknownst to his victims, there’s a brick inside the tissue box that he whacks right in their face. Commissioner Sarti wants to chase after them, but his cover with the criminals will get blown if he does. 

I suppose Free Hand for a Tough Cop is somewhat mild for a Poliziotteschi film, but there’s still plenty of violence to be had. At least it doesn’t have a downer ending like so many of them. Now if I can just get the image of Tomas Milian’s perm out of my head.

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode 284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443, episode 444, episode 450, episode 477, episode 491, episode 492, episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643, episode 644, episode 645, episode 670, episode 686, episode 687,  688, and 689) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.