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The Eurocrime film, or poliziottesco, went through many of the same phases as other trends in Italian cinema. By virtue of necessity, stretching it's boundaries or tooling with the genre was inevitable. Perhaps equally inevitably, given the sheer number of films produced, quite a few fell through the cracks over time. Three rare, distinct features late in the genre's cycle, each retaining the big names associated with it, are collected here. IL GIORNO DEL COBRA (THE DAY OF THE COBRA) Larry Stanziani is a bottom-of-the-barrel private eye in San Francisco, quietly scraping by to make ends meet. But in a former life, Stanziani (Franco Nero) was The Cobra, one of the most capable and deadly secret agents the world had ever seen. Called back into action in Italy after a narcotics agent is killed, Larry uncovers a syndicate that'll attempt every dirty trick in the book to finish him off. But they don't know that The Cobra always stays one step ahead of any double-cross ever invented. Directed by Italo-action legend Enzo G. Castellari (The Big Racket) as a showcase for Nero's range, this cheeky Eurocrime/gumshoe hybrid also stars Sybil Danning (Howling II Your Sister Is a Werewolf), Mario Maranzana (Behind Convent Walls), Mickey Knox (Cemetery Man), and Romano Puppo (The Big Gundown). LA BANDA DEL TRUCIDO (THE RASCAL'S GANG aka DIRTY GANG) Naples is being crippled by crime, and now an important police leader has been assassinated. The grizzled Commissario Ghini (Luc Merenda) is tough enough to tackle the crime wave and is the only one to fill his shoes. Meanwhile, Monnezza (Tomas Milian) has his hands full, too he's running his cheeky trattoria while also teaching a new batch of hapless schemers at his low-rent school for thieves. Balancing Milian's popular comedic chops as a loveable rogue and Merenda's hard-as-nails, stunt-driven performance, director Stelvio Massi (Arab
