Maurizio Merli

Acting

Maurizio Merli

Born — Died

1940-02-08 — 1989-03-10

Place of birth

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Known for

Acting

Credits

33 titles

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)

Known for

Film credits

1980s · 5 titles

Priest of Love poster
5.0

Following 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

The Rebel poster
4.8

"Poliziotti solitudine e rabbia" or "Ein Mann namens Venedig" (A Man called Venice), as it was called in Germany, is an Italian-German crime drama co-production from 1979, filmed mainly in the snowy winter of bleak West-Berlin. Italian cop Nick, played by gangster movie veteran Maurizio Merli, goes to Berlin to find the head of an International European blackmailing gang who has murdered several people. He investigates undercover as a contract killer for the gangsters, but of course becomes immediately the target of his enemies and has to fight hard to save his life...

The Rebel

1980

Vultures Over the City poster
6.2

Merli, teamed with Mexican star Hugo Stiglitz as his photographer buddy, plays a journalist investigating the shady activities of the local Mafia. Eventually the shit hits the fan, and Merli is cornered and beaten for sticking his nose to close to the action. After his girlfriend is raped, Merli dishes out some vigilante justice and punches, shoots, and bitch slaps his way through the Mafia ranks.

Vultures Over the City

1981

Spy Connection poster
7.0

Musante 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

Blue Tango poster
6.0

Tango 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

1970s · 20 titles

Convoy Busters poster
5.5

In 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

A Special Cop in Action poster
6.1

A 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

Rome, Armed to the Teeth poster
6.6

A 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

A Man Called Blade poster
6.4

Maurizio 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

Highway Racer poster
5.5

A 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

The Cynic, the Rat & the Fist poster
6.6

A 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

Violent Rome poster
6.1

A 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

White Fang to the Rescue poster
5.7

Set 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

The Iron Commissioner poster
5.7

Commissioner Mariani investigates a group of kidnappers.

The Iron Commissioner

1978

Hunted City poster
5.4

Commissario 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

Violent Naples poster
6.4

Inspector 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

From Corleone to Brooklyn poster
6.3

Maurizio 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

Sexy Sinners poster
4.7

During 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

Covert Action poster
6.0

Janssen 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

Fear in the City poster
5.2

The 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

Philadelphia Story poster
NR

Italian made-for-TV movie remake of the 1942 Philadelphia Story, also based on the 1939 play by Philip Barry.

Philadelphia Story

1974

Chains poster
7.0

Catene is a 1974 Italian melodramatic film directed by Silvio Amadio. The film is the re-make of the 1949 top grossing film with the same title by Raffaello Matarazzo. It was a commercial failure, grossing about 60 million lire.

Chains

1974

Le mille e una notte all'italiana poster
3.0

Two young friends - one poet, the other a sculptor - have fun conquering the wives of others.

Le mille e una notte all'italiana

1972

Magnum Cop poster
5.1

A 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

Seagulls Fly Low poster
5.7

An ex-Vietnam vet is forced to become a hit-man and gets caught in the middle of a conspiracy.

Seagulls Fly Low

1978

1960s · 5 titles

Series credits