This review is based on the horrendous video released (as Ring of Death) by Congress Video Group and apparently culled from an original theatrical print, complete with MPAA rating. This choppy, washed out, and badly mastered tape also features the world's laziest telecine work, as even modest pan and scanning is avoided in an effort to repeatedly keep speaking characters out of frame. As for the film itself, it's mildly diverting at best. Franco Nero stars as Belli, an immoral and brutal detective trying to get to the bottom of the murder of a man named Romanis. There are plenty of suspects: was it glamourpuss English model Sandy (Delia Boccardi)? Jealous young Mino (Maurizio Bonuglia)? How about Mino's frosty stepmother (a gaunt looking Florinda Bolkan)? Ultimately, you won't really care, but you'll wonder why the filmmakers chose to under utilize Adolfo Celi, who plays Mino's dad in the early going and then disappears until the last reel. Perhaps a DVD restoration would restore cut footage as well as the film's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, but it could just as easily expose the film to be a disappointing and overlong police procedural (the tape version feels long and clocks in at a mere 91 minutes).
Review of Detective Belli
