The Case Is Closed, Forget It

Franco Nero stars as an architect thrown in jail for a misdemeanour. Inside, he sees the grim reality of life behind bars, faced with corrupt guards and a prison yard ruled by the mafia. Damiano Damiani continues his exploration of mafia stories with this gritty prison drama. Nero gives a sympathetic performance as the honest man, while support is given by noted character actors including Riccardo Cucciolla as another innocent and John Steiner as a psychotic killer. With Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion and Damiani’s own Confessions of a Police Captain, this exploration of authority and corruption was as critical as the era’s finest work and ranks alongside the best Italian genre films of the 1970s. (Radiance Films)