Highway Racer (1977)

• Year: 1977
• Released: 10 Mar 1978
• Country: Italy
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076555/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/poliziotto_sprint
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Italian
• MPA Rating: Not Rated
• Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
• Runtime: 101 min
• Writer: Gino Capone
• Director: Stelvio Massi
• Cast: Maurizio Merli, Giancarlo Sbragia, Angelo Infanti

6.4/10

Highway Racer Storyline

A hot-shot police driver 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.

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Highway Racer Movie Reviews

‘Poliziotto Sprint’ is a petrol-headed, tarmac-tormenting, Euro-crime dream!

After only recently pondering the multitude of singularly splendid Euro-crime titles I have seen over the years, I can say with some considerable enthusiasm that ‘Poliziotto Sprint’ (1977) has become one of my all-time favourite Massi/Merli collaborations, well, top 5 at least! My overwhelmingly feelings running somewhat contrary to the few rather lukewarm reviews I have barely endured reading, leading me to strongly question whether or not we have even watched the same action-packed adrenalin-jacked film! As once again, I found hyper-masculine Maurizio Merli’s sans-moustache, speed-demon, douche bag-fragging, joyously hell-raising, J&B chugging copper to be an entirely riveting, hot-blooded creation, and the plentiful, gonzo display of bravura stunt driving is second to none; and if all that exploitation goodness didn’t suffice, we also enjoy a sweetly funky soundtrack by Euro-crime soundtrack deity, Stelvio Cipriani, and I, for one, was left gloriously spent, giddy with unalloyed boy’s own excitement after the experience, and wonder to this very day why on earth this fabulously entertaining actioner remains such a frustratingly obscure title. Personally, I passionately feel that ALL the Merli/Massi collaborations should now be made available in handsomely restored DVD/Blu-ray prints, as Stelvio Massi was always a superior craftsman and Maurizio Merli is the diamond-hard definition of Italian retro, hard boiled, Euro-crime cool, and, hot-damn! He looks deliciously, dangerously dapper in his nifty skinny-fit denim shirt and just snug-enough, bad boy leather-jacket! ‘Poliziotto Sprint’ is a petrol-headed, tarmac-tormenting, Euro-crime dream!

Highway racer

Well the international title already suggests what you will get here – well many times that is. Although there probably are better car chase movies, this can be a lot of fun too. And it is the only way to watch this and be entertained by it.

It has aged quite considerable, but certain themes still remain … interesting and true. Like someone making fun of another mans car and what will come out of it. The masculinity of it all … cliches and action collide … and cars do too. A fun ride, if you’ll excuse the fun, if you suspend your disbelief long enough.

Based on a real car

Armando Spatafora was known as an Italian “flying squad” police officer who drove a Ferrari 250 GTE as his patrol car. That’s because the Alfa Romero cars they were driving just couldn’t keep up with the crooks any more. This fast response unit – known in Italian as Squadra Mobile – was tasked with ctaching cops by any means necessary.

According to Super Car Tribe, Enzo Ferrari was involved with the project because he thought that he could sell police cars to all major cities in Italy. Amongst all the police officers, Spatafora proved to be the fastest and showed so much skill that Enzo offered him a place on the Ferrari factory racing team. Spatafora was loyal to the police force and said no.

This film features several of the real stunts from Sparafora’s police career, such as jumping over the famous Spanish Steps in the center of Rome.

Highway Racer was also the first of six films that Maurizio Merli (The Tough Ones, Mannaja) made with director Stelvio Massi (Mark of the Cop, Convoy Busters). If you’re looking for a high speed Italian crime movie with some out of control stunts, well, you really can’t do much better.