The Italian film industry cranked out an astounding number of kickass movies during the 1960s and 70s: spaghetti westerns, giallo horror, brutally violent crime films.  One thing they all had in common was the terrific soundtrack work.  Most people are familiar with Ennio Morricone but there were several other great composers working in Italian film at the time: Riz Ortolani, Stelvio Cipriani, Goblin and my personal favorite, Franco Micalizzi.

Micalizzi’s best work was in the poliziotteschi genre, the renegade cop movies inspired by Dirty Harry.  When you’ve got an out of control cop butting heads with the police bureaucracy while still kicking ass and bedding the fine ladies you need a soundtrack that drives home the inherent machismo and no one was better at this than Franco Micalizzi.

From Italia a mano armata (aka Special Cop in Action):

La Banda del Gobbo (The Band of the Hunchback) featured the great Tomas Milian in a dual role as a hunchback crimelord and his useless brother (complete with ridiculous afro wig).  Here’s maestro Micalizzi himself conducting a live version of the theme: