'Milan caliber 9'; also released as The Contract[4]) is a 1972 Italian poliziottesco film written and directed by Fernando Di Leo and starring Gastone Moschin, Mario Adorf, Barbara Bouchet, Philippe Leroy, Frank Wolff, Luigi Pistilli, and Lionel Stander.

[7] After a stint in prison, small-time Milanese gangster Ugo Piazza is immediately harassed by his old associates, led by a powerful American launderer known simply as "The Americano" (or "The Mikado" in the English dub), who believe that he stole 300,000 US dollars during a handover, shortly before his arrest for robbery.

His girlfriend, go-go dancer Nelly Bordon, also believes he stole the money, as does the police commissario, who unsuccessfully attempts to turn him informant.

The exchange is crashed by a mysterious assailant in a white scarf (who has been stalking Piazza since his release), who kills their client and steals the brown leather bag containing the money.

The Americano sends Rocco and Piazza to kill the men he believes responsible, but when they arrive they're revealed to be Chino and Don Vincenzo.

Piazza travels to an abandoned church off Milan and retrieves a blue bag with the $300,000 - revealing he had stolen the money from the Americano years ago and orchestrated everything to get him killed.

Credited as being based on Scerbanenco's 1969 short story collection Milano calibro 9, the script is largely an original work, although it was partially influenced by three of the book's stories: its depiction of an exchange of two packages between a series of couriers, culminating in both packages simultaneously exploding upon reaching their final destination, is taken from "Stazione centrale ammazzare subito", while minor references are made to "Vietato essere felici" and "La vendetta è il miglior perdono".

[8] While discussing Caliber 9 years after its release, Di Leo regretted not deleting the scenes between Frank Wolff's right-wing Police Commissioner and his left-wing colleague Fonzino/Mercuri, played by Luigi Pistilli, believing that their inclusion hampered the film's pacing and diverged from its focus on the criminal characters.

[9] The soundtrack for the film, Preludio Tema Variazioni e Canzona, is a collaboration album between Luis Enríquez Bacalov and the Italian progressive rock group Osanna.

The review noted that the film "announces a number of themes-the crime syndicate's big business connections, the Melvillian respect shared by the two professionals Ugo and Chino-without developing any of them satisfactorily", and criticized Mario Adorf's portrayal of Rocco as "often verg[ing] on caricature".

The film was referenced in Kobe Bryant's Nike Italia advertisement campaign short entitled "Milano Kalibro Kobe", and featured Italy international footballers Giampaolo Pazzini, Gennaro Gattuso, Alberto Aquilani, Claudio Marchisio and Marco Materazzi, Dutch international footballer Wesley Sneijder and Italian NBA star Marco Belinelli in parodies of the original characters.

[17] The cast stars Marco Bocci as Fernando Piazza, the son of Moschin's character, with Barbara Bouchet reprising her role as Nelly Bordon.