Enrico Maria Salerno (THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE) is well cast as the ageing hero, a cop with heart problems troubled by the lack of morals he sees everywhere around him. Inevitably it's a downbeat story, but there are nevertheless some highs, especially a uniquely original climax – I haven't seen the like anywhere else in this genre, and it's a good one. Yet, on top of that, there's a main story of how vice, sleaze and corruption are rife in the city of Turin, and which shows how a middle-aged cop and his reporter friend attempt to clean up the rackets and get to the bottom of things. These are all filmed perfectly well and give the film a classic '70s feel. Sure, it has all of the required trappings present in these filthy little crime films: there are rapes, violent robberies, shoot-outs, hostage situations, suicides, drugs, orgies, prostitutes, and squad cars racing down the streets with their tyres squealing and their horns blaring. CITY UNDER SIEGE is something of an atypical entry in the Italian polizia genre.