
Acting
Maurizio Merli
Born 1940-02-08 · Rome, Lazio, Italy
Maurizio Merli (8 February 1940 in Rome – 10 March 1989) was an Italian film actor. Merli got his first lead role in 1974 in the film White Fang to the Rescue due to his resemblance to the highly popular cult actor Franco Nero, who played the lead role in the first two films. Merli later became one of the most prominent actors of the poliziotteschi genre by starring in almost a dozen films. He died in 1989 of myocardial infarction after a tennismatch. (source Wikipedia)
Acting credits
7.7As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.
The Leopard
1963
6.6A tough, violent cop who doesn't mind bending the law goes after a machine-gun-carrying, hunchbacked psychotic killer.
Rome, Armed to the Teeth
1976
5.0Following the banning and burning of his novel, "The Rainbow," D.H. Lawrence and his wife, Frieda, move to the United States, and then to Mexico. When Lawrence contracts tuberculosis, they return to England for a short time, then to Italy, where Lawrence writes "Lady Chatterley's Lover."
Priest of Love
1981
6.4Inspector 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.
Violent Naples
1976
6.6A vengeful criminal targets the inspector who put him away, but the inspector survives and fakes his death. Ignoring orders to flee, he sets out to bring the fugitive back to justice.
The Cynic, the Rat & the Fist
1977
5.2The 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.
Fear in the City
1976
5.0A 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.
Magnum Cop
1978
4.4Franco Adami injures a condescending prostitute to photograph her, but escaped from guilt, causing her death by bleeding.
Raptus
1969
4.7During the early Italian Renaissance and the Black Death epidemic, a group of young men and women, seeking refuge in a secluded villa just outside the city of Florence, shares different stories of adultery and forbidden love.
Sexy Sinners
1972
5.5A hot-shot police officer has more guts than brains, often landing him in hot water with his middle-aged mentor, who was once a legendary cop responsible for numerous large scale arrests.
Highway Racer
1977
6.6Maurizio Merli stars as a hatchet-wielding bounty hunter with a dark past and an even more desperate future. But when he disrupts the balance of power in a corrupt mining town, he unleashes a firestorm of brutality, betrayal and cold-blooded murder. Now, one man stalks a savage land where justice walks a razor and no bullets slice deeper than vengeance. He is A MAN CALLED BLADE.
A Man Called Blade
1977
6.1A 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!
A Special Cop in Action
1976
5.8Commissioner Mariani investigates a group of kidnappers.
The Iron Commissioner
1978
5.5In 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.
Convoy Busters
1978
5.4Commissario 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.
Hunted City
1979
6.1A 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.
Violent Rome
1975
5.7Set at the end of the 19th century in Canada's gold rush Klondike area, wolf-dog White Fang teams up with a prospector when his master is killed. Together they try to avenge his death.
White Fang to the Rescue
1975
7.0Janssen 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.
Covert Action
1978
6.3Maurizio Merli takes up a familiar role as Commissioner Berni; a cop who puts his life on the line to transport a witness from Corleone to New York City in order to testify against a mob boss on trial for murder. Along the way, Berni and his prisoner face a series of traps set up by the Mafia.
From Corleone to Brooklyn
1979
6.0Tango blu is a night club in Milan where various bizarre characters meet. Among them a womanizing photographer and a porter who works in a slaughterhouse.
Blue Tango
1987
5.7An ex-Vietnam vet is forced to become a hit-man and gets caught in the middle of a conspiracy.
Seagulls Fly Low
1978
7.0A high level criminal attempts to enslave the world by thought control through TV.
Massacre Mania
1967
4.8A masked superhero searches for a magical golden relic while trying to prevent the plundering of an Egyptian tomb.
Fenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen
1968
7.0Musante plays a man blackmailed and forced to assassinate a highly guarded KGB official. Two British agents have kidnapped his daughter and want him to do what they tell him. Why him? He has the ability to see in darkness and is a sharpshooter. Will he get the job done, get his daughter back, and escape from the Russian and British agents that pursue him?
Spy Connection
1983