Fabio (The Heroin Busters)

  * Real Name: Fabio

  * Occupation: Undercover Narcotics cop

  * Eyes: Brown

  * Nationality: Italian

  * Age: Probably early 30s

  * Hair: Unkempt, medium length dark brown hair, with stubble this shy of a full beard.

  * Appearance: Looking every inch like the criminal he's pretending to be, Fabio exudes 70s drug culture with his choice of thin, almost see through t, grungy demin jacket, worn jeans. This topped off with an Apollo flight baseball cap (a multi-lingual code for purchasing Horse (heroin)). His more stylish disguise consisted of a velvet coat psychedelic ensemble (complete with John Lennon style glasses).

  * Personality: Very, very smart. An intelligent rogue who manages to talk his way out of trouble for two-thirds of the movie. His scuzzy charm wins over the people he will arrest or destroy. An extremely good liar, his flaws are his cockiness and his inability to get a gossiping house frau off the phone. A growing unease in the world he's become a part of spurns his desire to close this bust quickly. This charming man of action can only view so much pain and suffering before wanting to do something about it.

  * Weapons: Mind, Guns, fists, feet, mouth.

  * Skills: An experienced pilot, marksman, cyclist, con man, excellent hand-to-hand combatant, thinks very fast on his feet.

  * History: Watching this guy work, you get the feeling that his street smarts were honed at a very young age. This narc talks the talk and walks the walk. Whether or not the line about his baby sister's watch is true, Fabio is compelled to clean up his beloved city even if it means his life. How long he's been working as an undercover cop is unknown, but this man knows his beat all too well.

Dialog:

"Whom do you work for. Whom..." - correcting Marc Hamilton

"Know why the pigs are mean? Because they're under paid." - Fabio to Guillo the dealer.

"Show's over Gianni. You're lucky, at least you get a nice finish. You get to die center stage." Fabio as he kills his main contact in the drug ring.

This was the movie that awakened me to the talents of Fabio Testi. My first experience with him was in the dire Lucio Fulci western Four of the Apocalypse, and despite his outward beauty, I just wasn't convinced. Seeing the Italian print of The Heroin Busters (La Via Della Droga) changed all this. Suddenly, here was an actor whose charm and wit radiated off the screen. I loved the way he rolls the R's off his tongue, RRRRRRRRoma!. In The Heroin Busters as in The Big Racket here's A thespian so deep in character it was a joy to watch him in this increasingly insane scenario. Fabio plays the narc just right: a mix of no-nonsense cop and Erol Flynn-like rogue. He is utterly fascinating: whether he's trading comedic barbs with peer David Hemmings or bull shitting the drug lords he intends to bring down.

He is very, very physical: running, punching, kicking, jumping. All the while you really start wondering if this cop is gonna get out of this not-so-fine-mess.

I enjoy his performance both trading quips with Hemmings and Sinclair, as well as the aggressively physical challenges his character must battle through. Fabio propells the film through a slick sort of seedy reality, through his character's eyes, we see just how messed up the drug culture is. We're also glad he's on our side.