Synopsis
Rome, Italy. After committing a heinous crime, a senior police officer exposes evidence incriminating him because his moral commitment prevents him from circumventing the law and the social order it protects.
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Cast
- Gian Maria VolontéDottore
- Florinda BolkanAugusta Terzi
- Gianni SantuccioPolice Prefect
- Orazio OrlandoBiglia
- Sergio TramontiAntonio Pace
- Arturo DominiciMangani
- Aldo RendineNicola Panunzio
- Massimo FoschiAugusta's Husband
- Aleka PaiziGoverness
- Vittorio DuseCanes
Recommendations
- 100
Variety
Balkan probably gives her best performance to date to create a woman tormented by instability, sexual drive and psycho demons -- disjointedly portrayed in the script. - 100
Time Out
A paranoid police procedural, a perverse parable about the corrupting elements of power, and a candidate for the greatest predated Patriot Act movie ever, Elio Petri's stunning thriller makes no attempt to hide the culprit behind the film's grisly murder. - 90
Village Voice
Petri's visually flamboyant film turns into a heady mix of Marx, Freud, Wilhelm Reich, and Brecht, with a bit of Dashiell Hammett thrown into the blender. - 90
L.A. Weekly
The movie survives beautifully both as an elegant thriller and as a study of the twisted infantilism that shapes the fanatic heart. - 90
Los Angeles Times
A provocative political thriller that is as troubling today as when it came out in 1970. Maybe more so. - 90
The New Yorker
The film may have dated as a cautionary left-wing tale, yet it has stayed fresh as a study in the minutiae of power. [1 Oct. 2012, p.85] - 90
The New York Times
Although Mr. Petri quite consciously makes movies about ideas, he has, in his "Investigation," made a movie in which the ideas, and the man who seethes with them, have the shock and impact of the most fundamental kind of melodrama. - 80
TV Guide Magazine
A piercing satire of Italian investigative techniques, and an interesting meditation on the relationship between class and guilt.
