Fabio Testi (of the excellent Revolver) plays a narc named Fabio (which for some reason made this reviewer snicker to himself) who finds himself having to go undercover for Interpol to expose an international heroin smuggling operation. The only man who knews of Fabio's identity and intent is his boss, a British Interpol agent named Mike Hamilton (David Hemmings of Argento's Deep Red). The two set up a bust that's to go down at a fancy hotel in Rome but it gets botched and a large shipment of heroin hits the streets.

In order to increase the heat on the dope dealers, Hamilton decides that Fabio should pose as a criminal in prison so that he can get closer to Girro, a drug dealer with friends in high places. He finds himself in the big house and soon is able to win Girro over as a confidant. From there, he gets the information that he needs and plans to help him escape. Once they're on the outside, Girro helps Fabio make some contacts with prominent drug lords around the area, effectively completing his plan for him. Things are looking up for Fabio's work until his cover gets blown wide open and he finds some pretty heavy criminals out for his blood. Hamilton finds out that Fabio's been exposed as the narc he is, and he's coming to help with reinforcements in tow, but it's going to take him a while to find his co-worker and until he does, Fabio's going to have to fend for his life against the ruthless mobsters all by his lonesome.

The movie starts off with a montage set to music (courtesy of Goblin) in which we learn just how expansive the drug dealing operation that Interpol are after really is. We see it in effect from Europe to Asia to America so that we can really get a feel for how intense Fabio's task is going to be as well as the importance of what he is doing. It might prove to be a little tough to follow at first, but bare with it, things clear up soon enough and from there the movie is perfectly coherent in spite of a few sub-plots that don't really go anywhere or get resolved.

Testi is likeable and charismatic in the lead, while Hemmings makes a good sidekick of sorts. They've got a good on screen chemistry and while it doesn't reach the levels of intensity that Testi's work with Oliver Reed in Sollima's Revolver did, you can't hold that against it – few can compare to the intensity that Oliver Reed brought to the screen, especially in that role. Fabio cruises through the film with believable enough swagger and charm that we can understand him and accept him in the part, we can see how the drug dealers might be lead to believe he is one of their own and let him in on a few of their secrets – he fits the part well.

While the action takes a little while to get moving, the last half hour or so of the film is pretty much a roller coaster ride. Once Fabio's exposed, the movie kicks into overdrive and as he races for his life, Castellari's takes us along for the ride in an absolutely fantastic chase scene from the city outwards. Castellari's has always had a keen eye for framing action set pieces in truly exciting ways and in using slow motion effectively, and the last chunk of The Heroin Busters demonstrates that as well as anything he's done save for maybe the infamous tumbling car scene from his masterpiece, The Big Racket.

Part drama, part actioner and just as much a condemnation of the drug trade (there are some truly harrowing depictions of junkies and how low they will stoop in this film), The Heroin Busters is a stylish and genuinely grim crime thriller that builds to a completely satisfying conclusion and which demonstrates Castellari's considerable skills as a director. The exploitation elements one would expect from this type of film are there – completely unnecessary female nudity, bloody shoot outs, extreme close ups of intravenous drug use – but the performances and the climax place this one a notch or two above your standard Italian cop film.

The Heroin Busters comes to NTSC DVD in a nice progressive scan 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. The colors look nice and bold throughout save for a few scenes where things are obviously supposed to look bleak, the black levels stay strong and deep from start to finish, and the flesh tones look lifelike and natural. There is some mild edge enhancement present in a few scenes and some line shimmering in the usual places like on the front of a car grill or along the sides of a building but there aren't any mpeg compression artifacts worth noting nor is there much in the way of print damage aside from the odd speck or two – the image is consistently clean and very nice looking throughout. Some mild grain is present as is the odd scratch here and there, but that's to be expected. Overall, the film looks really good on this DVD. The image isn't flawless, but for an older low budget action movie, it holds up well.