Semiquincentennial Movie Project #11: Serpico

 

 

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

 

 

Week #10: New York -

 

The state of New York was established on July 26, 1788. 

Details about New York:

 

State bird: bluebird

State flower: rose

State tree: sugar maple

Additional historical trivia:

New York City, in the state of New York, was the nation's first capital; as such it was where the first President was sworn into office.

The state plays host to the "World's Largest Pancake Breakfast", due to the fact that the world's largest pancake griddle is in the state (28 feet in diameter... I'm hungry, but not THAT hungry...)

The 85 mile Delaware aqueduct is the longest tunnel in the world.  

New York City, of course, has many numerous landmarks and sites for pilgrimages. I won't inundate you with a lot of them, but Grand Central Station, Central Park, the United Nations and the Dakota (site of the killing of John Lennon) are among the "must-see" places in NYC.

Seven of the US Presidents can claim the state of New York as their birthplace, including the current one (as of this writing...)

As well as the many politicians you have heard of, the state was also the birthplace of numerous other celebrities: Carl Sagan, Mark Zuckerberg, Mike Tyson, Martin Scorcese, Robert DeNiro, as well as numerous bands that got their start in New York.... (for example: ever hear of KISS...?) 

Serpico (1973): 

 There are some interesting little tidbits of information revolving around the film production of "Serpico", based on the life of Frank Serpico as related in the book by Peter Maas, who was writing about a real police officer who fought against corruption in the NYPD back in the 60's. One of the most intriguing casting possibilities had Robert Redford and Paul Newman, fresh off of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, with Redford as Serpico and Newman as his cohort in the endeavor to eliminate the corruption. I think it's a good thing that Frank Serpico made an effort to dissuade the producers, otherwise we might not have the pair in their second iconic pairing, The Sting.

Also, originally there was an effort to try to get Sam Peckinpah to direct the picture. We might have had an entirely different picture if that had happened. Sidney Lumet was brought on board, a decidedly better director to portray the intrigue of the investigation, without the Peckinpah tendency towards violence. Also, Pacino as Serpico might not have happened because he was also considering taking on the role of Lenny Bruce in Lenny. 

Several fairly familiar faces made their roles in the film. Jack Kehoe, familiar to many as The Erie Kid in the aforementioned The Sting, played Tom Keough, one of Serpico's partners on the force, and his first introduction into the corruption in the department. Also John Randolph and Biff McGuire played Serpico's superiors. And don't miss James Tolkan, Principal Strickland in the Back to the Future films, (with a full head of hair, no less), made one of his early meatier appearances in film.  

The story, of course, follows Frank Serpico (Al Pacino) from a new recruit to his later career as an undercover cop. Early on he is under some pressure to get a haircut and a shave to make him look more like the standard cop, but he insists that his look makes him more readily fit in with the criminal faction if he keeps it.

 

His first introduction into some of the less than reputable side of the department involves him being with his first partner as a patrolman, and at a diner he finds that some of the public has been giving out free perks, in this case food, but instead of going with the flow and taking what the proprietor is willing to serve the pair for free, he insists on getting what he really wants to eat, and (ye Gods!) actually paying for it.

His first job as an undercover cop involves being given a bribe to basically look the other way at some crime. Serpico is a morally straight character and refuses to go along, and reports the bribe to his superiors. His insistence on following the legal path serves to make him a less than desirable member of his fellow police officers community, however.

He begins to fear for his life from said fellow officers, especially when he keeps trying to report the corruption. He transfers to another department and finds that the corruption is still prevalent in his new position. He makes several attempts to try to get the problem solved through the normal channels, but continually finds himself rebuffed and ignored, even by the commissioner. He pairs up  with a fellow straight-laced cohort, Bob Blair (Tony Roberts), who tries to help using his own connections. But blockades to his efforts keep cropping up, especially since even some of the higher-ups are in on the corruption.

 

The idealistic Serpico gradually becomes more jaded as the efforts to clean up the police force meet with resistance. Plus, he gradually becomes a persona non gratis among his fellow officers as he continually refuses to play along with the standard norm of operations. Eventually his efforts do garner some success, but at the cost of his having to appear as a witness on a grand jury investigation, which he initially doesn't want to have anything to do with.

The ultimate outcome is Serpico is shot while trying to perform a drug bust, and there is some evidence that the cops he was partnered with had some involvement in it.  Serpico does survive and the movie ends with a note that he subsequently resigned from the police force and moved to Switzerland.

 

As usual, I relate some of the details about the reception of the film. Rotten Tomatoes currently ranks the film as being 93% Fresh. It made a decent profit, having a $3.3 million budget, but bring in about $50 million at the box office in US and worldwide ticket sales. Pacino garnered an Oscar nomination for his performance, but as I have said in other reviews, Jack Lemmon's role in Save the Tiger took home the statuette. I don't think the Academy got it right on this one, although as I have also stated, I would have given Robert Redford in The Sting the award. Pacino was a loser along with Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail and Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris to Lemmon, either of which was better.

Serpico also got a nod for Best Screenplay from Another Medium (Maas' book). Here too it lost, this time for The Exorcist (book by William Peter Blatty, and there's a film I have never worked up the courage to watch..). Also in competition for the Award were The Last Detail (book by Darryl Ponicsan; a great story, check it out!), The Paper Chase (book by James Bridges) and Paper Moon (book by Alvin Sargent). 

The film is a dramatic portrayal of a real person, and thus an intriguing look at the persistence of one man to buck the system. I doubt I would have had the courage to go through the lengths that Frank Serpico did to get the system exposed, although I have to say I would be just as reluctant to dirty myself and my personal commitment to not delve into the seamier side of the office politics.

So, I say Serpico is well worth a look. Especially if you are as big a fan of Pacino the actor as I am.

Well, folks, this review came in a bit late, but I still made it under the wire of the week. Almost didn't. Had some health issues earlier. Also, a note, next week's review won't be up Sunday, either. But I hope to get back on track by the following week.

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

 

Wayne Got His .44 Magnum After All

 

 

 

John Wayne had a career that spanned decades. He began with bit parts in the late 20's, until his first real meaty part in The Big Trail (1930). Then he wallowed in "poverty row" westerns (cheap B movies cranked out by such studios as Monogram and Liberty, with budgets lower than even the quality) until John Ford rescued him and gave him what is referred to commonly as his breakthrough role as "The Ringo Kid" in Stagecoach (1939). Over the next 40 years, Wayne's name became a drawing factor in dozens of movies.

Admittedly, he was involved in some clunkers over that span. Not too many would disagree that probably his worst was when he tried to play Genghis Khan in The Conqueror (1956).(Wayne as a Mongol warrior? See the link to see what I thought of that decision). A lot of those poverty row westerns rank pretty low on a list of Wayne movies, too, and admittedly, to me at least, most of them could be confused with each other, because they all basically had the same story.

Personally, I think Wayne was at his best when he stayed with the westerns genre.  My personal favorites in this category are El Dorado, The Horse Soldiers, The Shootist, The Sons of Katie Elder, Stagecoach, The Train Robbers, The Undefeated and The War Wagon, all of which I have reviewed elsewhere on this blog. You can also add a few that I haven't gotten around to reviewing (yet): Chisum, Fort Apache, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, Red River, The Searchers and True Grit. I also like Rio Bravo, but not nearly as much as I like the remake, El Dorado.

When Wayne tried to branch out from his western hero mold, at times he came across as a western cowboy in a role that was decidedly not a western, but many times did a good job at it anyway. As jingoistic as they come across, both Sands of Iwo Jima and The Green Berets are still standout Wayne performances. But both of those are war movies, and cowboys and soldiers are not all that far apart, at least in the Hollywood tradition. You could have transplanted both of those in the realm of the Civil War and made him a Union officer leading troops and they still would have been mostly the same.

In my opinion, however, when Wayne tried to play modern day characters outside of the war and western pictures, his films were not all that great.  Circus World, Jet Pilot and even Hellfighters are probably some of the worst films my admitted movie hero ever made.

Two movies Wayne made just prior to his last, and one of his greatest, films, The Shootist, rank among those that many Wayne fans are not overly fond of.  Both, I think, were made in response to Dirty Harry (1971) and involved him playing modern day detective/cop characters. In McQ (1974) and Brannigan (1975) Wayne played the rogue cop role already made famous by Clint Eastwood, and followed by such TV shows like Baretta. Of course, in McQ Wayne's character quits the force and takes on the role of private investigator to complete his goal, but he starts out as a sort of Harry Callahan character at the start.

It's not that Wayne is absolutely horrible in these two. The fact is, being an avowed Wayne western aficionado, I myself just had a hard time with accepting him playing the gritty modern cop character. Now it must be said, Wayne had been approached to play Harry but turned it down, and admitted later that he thought he had made a mistake. So his taking on these two roles probably had a lot to do with that decision. 

Contrary to the title of this blog entry, Wayne's gun(s) in these films is not a .44 Magnum as Eastwood uses in Dirty Harry. In Brannigan his preferred weapon is a Colt Diamondback, and in McQ, it is a SW Model 10, but I couldn't resist the title, given that these two films were basically knockoffs of the Eastwood film.

Both films have something to keep the interest of people. There is a little bit of film noir running through each, what with a lot of surprise double crosses, and a few "didn't see that coming" twists, but in my opinion, Wayne was the fly in the ointment here. Clint Eastwood was 40 when he made the first Dirty Harry, and as such somewhat believable as the rogue cop with some vigor still in his body. Wayne, on the other hand, was in his mid-60's when he made these two, and even taking the cancer that was starting to take toll on his body by this time, just didn't have the oomph to look like he could still hang with the big guys. 

 

 

 

 

Brannigan (1975):

Jim Brannigan (John Wayne) likes doing things his way, regardless of what objections the bosses might have. He is hot on the trail of a mobster named Larkin, and he'll stop at nothing to get him.  But Larkin is no longer in America.  He is currently in London, where the Brits have offered to extradite him to the Americans, and the powers that be send Brannigan to collect him. But basically Larkin is walking around free until at such a time. That's because the Brits have some "by the rules" laws, which includes the fact that he could go on bail.  Not to worry, however, Jimbo, they have him "under surveillance". Jolly good, eh, what? 

 

Larkin has a hit out on Brannigan, and has hired a hit man to eliminate him, this despite the fact that even if he succeeds the Americans will just send another man.  But Larkin doesn't like Brannigan very much, so he has his sights set on just the immediate future. 

 

And he has one of the best hit men in the world on the pay roll, Gorman (Daniel Pilon). He also has no intention of taking the advice of his "lawyer" , Fields (Mel Ferrer), to skip town through a bit of subterfuge because Larkin really likes London and wants to hang around.

 

Brannigan is met at the airport by a police officer, a woman (bit of a change from his last stint in London during the war.) Det. Sgt. Jennifer Thatcher (Judy Geeson) escorts Brannigan to meet with the head honcho in Scotland Yard, Sir Charles Swann (Richard Attenborough), who assures him they can pick up Larkin any time Brannigan is ready to do so.  But there is a fly in the ointment.  While Larkin was at a men's club getting a massage, he is kidnapped, and now even the Yard has no idea of his whereabouts.

 

Brannigan gets off to a bit of a bad start with Swann over his insistence to wear his firearm, which, although regulatory by American standards is against British law.  "When in London, do as the Londoners do" is not a part of Brannigan's repertoire, however. Despite many demands put on him by Swann to turn over his weapon, he refuses to do so.  Which decision comes in handy quite often over the course of the film.

 What keeps this movie from becoming an unintentional farce like the Conqueror is the fact that the action gets gritty enough to hold your interest.  And the chase scenes through the London streets are exceptionally well paced.  I am especially grateful for the fact that when, in the inevitable scene in which Wayne is forced to take the wheel in one car chase, the film didn't sink into the "fish out of water" driving I half expected: that of Wayne, being American, driving the wrong side of the road or some such ridiculousness.  At least they kept that joke out of the picture.

There is some very interesting twists going on, and Brannigan seems to think that maybe, just maybe, that kidnapping of Larkin isn't as on the up-and-up that it would seem to be.  Although you might think it was given the fact that one scene involves the "kidnappers" sending the police one of Larkin's fingers as proof they mean business. Which just goes to show how committed some people can be in hoodwinking others.

Over the course of the film there is always that hit man working his way into the objective, and in one scene, the female detective almost buys it just because the hit man mistakes her for Brannigan.  Fortunately she is saved, because that would have been a very serious letdown if she had died.  I liked the girl playing her.

The final shootout with the bad guys goes pretty much as you would expect.  But wait! Remember the hit man?  He is still determined to finish his assignment. OK, so this movie (and as you will see, the other one) are not really horrible. And with a younger guy than Wayne, these movies both might have been good moneymakers, whether or not a star name was in the title role. 

 

 

McQ (1974):

 

The beginning has a guy driving around the city where he kills two uniformed police officers.  One is a guy on early morning patrol checking locks when he sees the car and investigates.  The driver shoots him and speeds away.  But not very far because he shoots another a few blocks away.  Then he goes to a diner where he stashes the gun in a satchel.  And we find out that he is a police officer himself... He takes the satchel outside and throws it in a car that pulls up, but as he is walking away, the driver of that car shoots him. It turns out that the original shooter was a Det. Sgt. Boyle, who was a partner and friend of Lt. Lon "McQ" McHugh (John Wayne). 

 

It's a bad morning for McQ. Not only does he learn that his partner and friend has been shot, but when he goes outside, he finds some guy trying to hijack his car.  He yells at the would-be thief  who runs away, but someone has been lying in wait for him and tries to shoot McQ.  He dodges the bullets and ends killing his would be assassin instead.  Already, barely three minutes into the picture, we have 4 dead bodies.

In the tradition of film noir, it gets even more complicated as it goes along.  McQ's boss, Capt. Kosterman (Eddie Albert) thinks the whole thing is a plot by radicals. (This being the 70's, liberal anti-war student radicals were often the bad guys.) 

 

But McQ is convinced it is the work of a local drug lord, Santiago (Al Lettieri).  He tries to do his own work in solving the murders (Boyle has in the meantime died), and ends up beating the crap out of Santiago to try to get a confession.

 

 

That doesn't work so well.  McQ ends up in hot water with his bosses and is told to take a desk job pending investigation.  But McQ is in no mood to give up so easily.  He quits the force and then goes to a private detective friend to get hired on as a private investigator. This is just a cover, since McQ's "client" is himself, thus giving him some freedom to operate on the case in another capacity. He still retains a compadre on the inside of the force, however, to help him wangle the necessary information he might need; J.C. (Jim Watkins)

In the process of investigating he finds out from a former snitch, Rosey (Roger E. Mosely), that there is a planned heist, and from another snitch, Myra (Colleen Dewhurst) that the planned heist is going to be from the police department itself.  

 

It turns out that about $2 million worth of drugs is about to be burned, but hoods posing as laundry men, take the drugs.  McQ gives chase but loses them in a confusion during the chase. Capt. Kosterman is none too pleased and threatens McQ with removal of his private license. But McQ is still on the case, with or without his legal license to carry. Ultimately he breaks into Santiago's offices where he finds, conveniently, a desk littered with bags of the "drugs".  But he is caught by Santiago and his henchmen, and finds out that even crooks can be taken for a ride.  What Santiago actually ended up with in his drug heist are bags of sugar. 

You get it now?  There are some police men on the inside who are dirty, taking the drugs for their own profit and basically leaving the real drug dealers high and dry.  McQ suspects that the Mr. Big on the inside must be Kosterman, who, after all, has been doing everything he can to get McQ off this case.  But don't be too sure about that...

Of course, it turns out, as anyone watching must have cottoned to, that Boyle was involved in some dirty dealings, but he had to have a partner in the ring, one who knew all about his dirty dealings, and one who was higher up in the echelon on the inside.  But maybe there were a couple of other partners that were in on it that no one else knew about. And possibly, just possibly, friends that McQ has may not entirely be the friends he thinks he has.

At this point I would normally tell you how it all panned out.  But despite  the fact that I thought Wayne was out of his element in this role, I still liked the double cross the film makers put on the viewing public as to the real solution.  Maybe you will see it coming a mile away, but I was thrown for a loop. Which is why I think this movie is worth watching, at least plot wise. Wayne may not be believable as an obviously aged cop trying to pull off stuff that someone 20 years younger ought to be doing, but the story makes it worth a watch.

One of the important reasons why this film works is that it had a guy behind the camera who knew how to make the action interesting.  John Sturges, the same man who gave us such classic action oriented movies as The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven (and there's a movie long overdo for an appearance at the Drive-In...), Ice Station Zebra and his last film, The Eagle Has Landed knew how to hold the viewers interest. Many of you could name others, I'm sure, but those are the ones that come immediately to mind for me.  

Well, folks, as opposed to most of my Wayne movies, this time I won't have to try to saddle up a horse, although the Plymouth is no match for the kinds of cars Wayne gets to go home in...

(And, in case you missed it a few years ago, for those who might be wondering, I present the Plymouth...)

 

 

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Ho Ho OMG

 

OK, let's settle this argument once and for all.  Die Hard is NOT a Christmas movie. Just because you set a movie at Christmas time, and insert a few genial "Merry Christmas"es into the film, and maybe put a guy in a Santa suit in it somewhere does not automatically give it the status of "Christmas" movie.  

I mean, you've got these lists of so-called "Christmas"  movies, like Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, L.A. Confidential and even Batman Returns, all of which are solid action and/or dramatic movies, but the connection to Christmas is tenuous at best. All of these movies would work just as well if the holiday in question  was Thanksgiving, or Easter or even Earth Day.  Maybe the events leading up to John McClane arriving in California to hook up with his estranged wife would have to be tweaked.  But it wouldn't detract from the actual plot.

I admit there are some good arguments for considering Die Hard a Christmas movie, especially the idea that McClane is solidly tying to promote family values by being present with his family on this hallowed holiday, but those same family values would not be out of place if he showed up on his kid's birthday.  (And the teddy bear he has in tow at the beginning would fit in just as well...)

But this movie was not a Christmas release at the time it came out.  It was firmly entrenched in that classic "summer blockbuster" portion of the Hollywood tradition, having been released on July 15. 1988.  Although, to be honest, 1988 doesn't seem to have been a banner year for that summer blockbuster theme.  Some of the other movies released that summer ( Big, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and Red Heat to name a few), probably would not be considered blockbuster material.  In fact, July 4th weekend saw the release of License to Drive, Arthur 2: On the Rocks and Short Circuit 2, neither of which seems like Hollywood expected 1988 to be a big year for the summer movie goer.

And neither Bruce Willis nor director John McTiernan lay claim to he fact that this is meant to be a Christmas movie. If the two major names behind it deny that it is one, doesn't that seem to imply that people have a wrong idea/? I  mean. if you want to pick this  movie as your go-to Christmas Eve tradition as opposed to, say, Miracle on 34th Street or one of the many versions of A Christmas Carol, both solidly Christmas movies, then go ahead, but trying to justify it by saying it's a "Christmas" movie is pure folly, in my opinion.

Given that, so why am I choosing to do this post so close to the day in question?  Because, despite my reticence to accept it as a "Christmas" movie, it's still a damn good movie.  And  besides, what says Christmas more than a bunch of terrorists being taken on by a one man army...?  All we need is Santa Claus to show up in camo with an army of commando elves.  And to celebrate the victory, a healthy dose of alcoholic beverages by the blazing fireplace afterwards... Ho, ho, ho and a bottle of rum. Then we really could call this a "Christmas" movie.

 Besides Bruce Willis, who was just starting out in his film career, the film does have a cache of great actors in it.  Of course, everyone knows the fabulous Alan Rickman as the head baddie, Hans Gruber, made his first feature film debut.  But additionally we got what I like to call a big trifecta of memorable actors well known for playing "assholes". and/or villains.  

First we have Paul Gleason.  Gleason, of course, is well remembered as Assistant Principal Vernon in The Breakfast Club and Clarence Beeks in Trading Places, neither of which are very likeable characters.  Additionally, there is William Atherton, the jerk who tries to get the Ghostbusters group shut down in the film of the same name.  And Robert Davi, who here is the head of the F.B.I. was memoable, for me, as the villain in the James Bond film, Licence to Kill.

But that's not all.  Reginald VelJohnson, Carl from the TV series Family Matters, is a solid presence as McClane's ground contact during the siege.  Bonnie Bedelia. who I first saw in the 1979 version of 'Salem's Lot, is here as McClane's estranged wife. And one other character, Argyle, the limousine driver, is played by De'vereaux White.  He doesn't have the cache of roles that the others had, but, interestingly enough for me, he was the kid who tried to steal a guitar at Ray's Music Exchange in The Blues Brothers.

Most of the cast of others are of varying degrees of fame, but one other that I wanted to trow in in Al Leong.  Leong is a fixture in the kind of movies I like.  He appears in, among other movies, Big Trouble in Little China, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Lethal Weapon, and The Scorpion King.  He's hard to miss even when he has a brief uncredited role.  He appears here as one of the terrorists (an Asian terrorist in a German terrorist group?  Well, not much less likely than an African American one, and there is one of those too.)

Die Hard (1988):

The film opens with our hero, John McClane (Bruce Willis) arriving at LAX, bound for a reunion with his wife and kids.  We get the meat and potatoes of the situation in bits, since McClane is a man who likes to keep to himself, but apparently his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) has taken the opportunity to expand her own career, despite John's ability to accept it.  She took on a job with the Nakatomi Corporation as an executive, which caused her to move with the kids to L.A. while John stayed behind in New York. (He's a NY cop, and a dedicated one at that.)

 

 

John is met by Argyle (De'voreaux White), the limo driver that Holly has sent to pick him up.  Even though Argyle tries to draw John out he's not very talkative.  Upon arrival at the Nakatomi Building Argyle offers to park the limo in the garage and wait to see how John's meeting with Holly works out, just in case he might need a ride to get a hotel in anticipation of a quick turnaround.

 

 

Fortunately, for those of us with a short patience for matrimonial drama, there is a quick change in scenery. At just a mere 17 minutes into the movie the terrorists invade the building and begin their onslaught.  The first of the victims is the security guard at the front desk, (because, after all, this whole thing can't go down if there is anyone who might throw a wrench into the terrorists' proceedings.)

The terrorists, led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), quickly take over the Christmas party and take all those present as hostages.  He demands the security codes from the president of the corporation, but the man claims he doesn't know.  Whether he really does or doesn't we don't get to find out, because Hans has decided the man is uncooperative and therefore useless.  Victim #2.

 

 

Meanwhile, John, who has been winding down in Holly's office, hears the gunshots and realizes the s**t has hit the fan.  And now, the real meat of the film gets underway.  The third death in the movie, however, will not be an innocent hostage.  John takes out one of the terrorists and announces his presence to the rest of them.

 

 

Too bad that his first terrorist is the brother of one of the others.  That creates a bit of animosity that will crop up now and again over the course of the film.  Although Hans has a desire to take John alive, the brother has other ideas and often puts the entire endeavor in jeopardy.

While one of the terrorists (the electronics whiz) makes an effort to break down the security codes protecting the vault and Hans makes an effort to convince the hostages that he is a suave debonair and not entirely all bad kind of guy, the rest of the group makes an effort to track down this rogue would-be hostage who is making a mockery of them.  And not doing all that good a job of it at that.  There is a disparity of sides however.  The terrorists only have 11 guys to go up against John.  Probably needed to plan ahead a bit more.

Meanwhile, John, for his part is doing his best to get the attention of the authorities that something is not quite right at the Nakatomi Building.  He turns in a false fire alarm, but the terrorists manage to put the kibosh on that.  John tries to use the walkie-talkie he confiscated from the dead one dead terrorist he took out, but the police think it's just some joker.  They do send one squad car, manned by patrolman Al (Reginald VelJohnson)., but he determines there is nothing wrong, since the terrorist who took over the security guard position gives him the old "nothing wrong here" line.  But John manages to get their attention yet again when he shoves the dead guy out the window and it lands on Al's patrol car...  Now, John has their attention...

 

 

In comes the police headed by one of our resident Assholes-in-charge, Deputy Chief Robinson (Paul Gleason).  Robinson thinks he can handle the situation with a full-on raid on the building.  Not his best idea.  When things start to go a little south, the F.B.I. shows up, led by the second of our Assholes in charge, Big Jonson (Robert Davi).  And his ideas aren't much better.

 

 

Meanwhile, the third resident asshole, a smarmy "get the big story no matter what" reporter, Thornberg (William Atherton) is gumming up the works.  He eventually figures out who the fly in the ointment on the inside is, and who his wife is, and goes to try to get some of the story at the source by interviewing the kids of John and Holly.  (Yeah, that's going to put him in good graces with the parents...)

 

 

Of course, most of the movie involves John putting himself in harms way trying to take out the terrorists.  And I'm not exactly sure how many people end up dead in this film.  There are all of the terrorists, of course, and two of the hostages, but it is questionable how many of the police and F.B.I. guys end up dead.  Surely it doesn't come close to the body count in Rambo III (released the same year), but I would hazard a guess that the toll comes in the top 5 of movies released that year.  

Die Hard is definitely worth watching, especially if you like this kind of film.  However, I suggest if you want a family night movie for Christmas Eve, you are probably better off with It's A Wonderful Life.

The Plymouth ain't no limousine, but it is will get me home in style.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

Undead Police Story

 

 

New World Pictures was a production company originally founded by Movie mogul Roger Corman in 1970. Between 1970 and the late 1990's New World Pictures brought out a lot of the type of stuff that made a name for Corman (although with a bigger budget than was the norm during his earlier stint in Hollywood).  Whether Corman had a hand in the day to day production of the movies his company put out or not, the list of movies is a goldmine for great ideas for future reviews.  I got the idea to look at their output after reviewing Hell Comes to Frogtown. 

One of the first ones that caught my eye was this one.  Mainly because we recently lost Treat Williams, but also because his co-star, Joe Piscopo, is one I had been thinking about because of my review of Johnny Dangerously.

Dead Heat is typical of the kinds of drive-in type movies that appeal to someone of my particular bent.  Lots of action interspersed with some witty (and sometimes snarky) comedy.  And to add a little zest, zombies.

Also showing up in this movie is Vincent Price.  Price was reaching the end of his career by this time, but he still brings it to the table (as he always did).  He only made two more movies after this, including his final role in Edward Scissorhands. His role here, as a secondary villain (and recently deceased benefactor) is not his best, but seeing Price in any film is always a treat.

 

 

 

 

Dead Heat  (1988):

The movie opens with a bang.  Two guys (somewhat inept) are attempting to rob a jewelry store. Meanwhile, every cop in the city has converged on the store, ready to pounce on them as they exit the building.  This includes undercover cops (why undercover cops, hell, I don't know), Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo).

 

 

 

Mortis and Bigelow

 

As the thieves exit the building a shootout ensues, with bullets flying everywhere.  The thieves themselves are shot something like 50 times but keep on fighting.  It takes a grenade to blow up one and the other gets trashed when Mortis pins him forcefully between the car he is driving and another car.

The two get called on the carpet by their superior, Captain Mayberry (Mel Stewart).  They have committed numerous infractions of department policy including "unauthorized use of a city vehicle, reckless endangerment of property and lives, use of a non-regulation firearm, disrespectful conduct", and, as if that wasn't enough, "18 parking tickets" (and that's just THIS month... Ye Gods!) 

Mortis and Bigelow are called to the city morgue by resident coroner Rebecca Smythers (Claire Kirkconnell). Rebecca and Roger had a previous intimate relationship, so they know each other. 

Smythers (with Mortis and Bigelow)

 

 

 It seems that the two recently "deceased" criminals had been in her care before. That's right.  They had already been declared dead by her from a previous autopsy.  The surgical scars on their bodies were from the previous autopsy. OK, now we're getting somewhere...

 So, rather quickly, it  comes to light that the corpses have some synthetic compound in their system called Sulfathiozole  (which is actually a real drug used in surgeries to combat infection.) It turns out that a local research company called Dante Laboratories has purchased bulk amounts of this drug, so the two go to investigate.

Where they meet a public relations rep named Randi James (Lindsay Frost), who introduces them Dr. McNab (Darren McGavin) the head of the research facility. 

 

Randi James

Dr McNab

 

 

In the process they are shown a special room that they use to euthanize lab animals, and a secret room that has some high tech gadget they can't figure out.  But someone doesn't want them snooping around and sends a couple of zombies to kill them.

In the process, Mortis ends up in the euthanizing chamber and gets locked in and killed by the secret enemy.  Rebecca shows up after hearing that Roger has died (over police dispatch radio, yeah right...) Not only is she able to figure out that the contraption in the secret room can revitalize dead bodies, she also has the knowledge of how to operate the thing, just on seeing the computer  layout.

Roger is revived, although at the beginning he thinks he just blacked out.  It takes some serious convincing to make him aware that he died and is now a zombie.  With only 10 or 12 hours to live...again.) So Mortis and Bigelow, like the main character in D.O.A.  have a limited time to get to the bottom of the mystery as to who killed Roger before Roger is really dead for good.

Of course, the bad guys don't want the pair to be successful, so several zombie assassins are put in their path.  This coupled with Mortis' rapid deterioration (he is still a dead man, after all) hinders them somewhat.

Along the way, a few more people are killed by the zombies (including Bigelow, but he is revived by the same process that revived Mortis).  That's right, now we have TWO zombie cops on the trail of the zombies and the zombie master, as it were.

It turns out that Arthur Loudermilk (Vincent Price), the benefactor of Dante Laboratories has been behind the development of this contraption for extending lives, although his only motive was to keep rich people (people who could afford his process) alive.  Is he behind the plot to kill Mortis and Bigelow or is he just an innocent bystander?

 

Arthur Loudermilk

 

 

This movie is really good, despite it's rather negative reception by critics and the box office.  I imagine, like the previous review I did for Hell Comes to Frogtown, this one was only in theaters for a limited run, but I honestly did not know it even existed until a couple of weeks ago.  But in retrospect it was well worth seeking out.

Time to fire up the old Plymouth and head home.  Stay safe from the zombies, folks!

Quiggy

Hot in the City

 

 

 

 

 

In the 70's Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were at the top of their game as far as box office draw and popularity.

Clint Eastwood from 1970 to 1980 made Dirty Harry Callahan a household name with Dirty Harry and The Enforcer, as well as one of his classic (in my opinion) westerns, The Outlaw Josey Wales and even his first stab behind the camera (directing himself) in Play Misty For Me.

Burt Reynolds, although not making as big an impact on the critics, was still a big box office draw.  Smokey and the Bandit and the original The Longest Yard made their debut during this period.  He also made one of his most memorable dramatic roles as the lead in Deliverance.

Surely someone in that time period thought "Wouldn't it be great if we could get Eastwood and Reynolds together in a movie?  Well, it took until 1984 for that to happen.  I'm sure the bigwigs in the back room were counting the millions up in their heads that this match-up would surely draw. And on paper, just for the star power, it probably seemed like a sure bet.

The thing is City Heat comes off like a parody, even though I don't think it was meant to be a parody.  Of course, Richard Benjamin, the director, made most of his career as an actor as a comedy actor and his only movie directing output up to that point had been comedies (Where's Poppa?, Racing with the Moon and My Favorite Year).  And the script was written by Blake Edwards who had his finger in the pie in a number of great comedies (The Peter Sellers run of The Pink Panther, S.O.B., The Great Race).  So maybe it was supposed to be a parody after all.

The movie was universally panned at it's premiere. Roger Ebert's comment illustrates the problem that critics had when he wrote "almost every scene in the movie seems to have been a separate inspiration, thrown in with no thought for the movie as a whole. "

My personal opinion is that it is a pretty entertaining movie, even though you can get lost in all the double crosses that is at the center of the movie.  The movie generally appears on lists of the worst movies of all time, probably because of that incoherency. Steve Miller in his book 150 Movies You Should Die Before You See says that we have here is "a convoluted story, flashes of absurdist humor that are out of place, and every actor but Burt Reynolds is underused."

So why should you watch?  Well, because it is Burt and Clint, obviously, even if they don't seem to connect as a pair like you might expect.  It is all you're ever going to get, though, as they never paired together again and Reynolds has gone on to film movies in that great movie studio in the sky.

City Heat (1984):

The film starts off pretty well.  Lt. Speer (Clint Eastwood goes to a diner to get a cup of coffee.  Two thugs show up looking for Mike Murphy (Burt Reynolds), who shows up a few moments later (driving a beat up roadster with no top, in the rain, forcing him to drive while holding an umbrella, one of the funnier parts of the movie.)

 

 

 

Murphy gets into a fight with the two thugs while Speer calmly drinks his coffee, watching as Murphy gets his ass kicked.  That is until one of the hoodlums jostles Speer and makes him spill his coffee.  He then joins the fight.  At this point we discover that Speer and Murphy were once compadres but they don;t like each other much now.  It seems Murphy was once a fellow police officer before he left the force to form a private detective business.

Murphy has a partnership with Diehl Swift (Richard Roundtree) .  Diehl is out on his own, running a scam to make a buttload of money.  Apparently he has come into possession of some ledger books for a crime boss named Coll (Tony Lo Bianco).  He has a deal with a rival gangster Primo Pitt (Rip Torn) to turn over these ledgers for $25,000.

 

 

 

But Diehl is trying to play both ends off each other and tries to make a deal with Coll to give him his ledgers back for $50,000. (What rival gangster Pitt wants with Coll's ledgers is a mystery.  Also why gangsters keep ledgers of their illegal activities is a bit confusing to me.  It was one of the things that brought Al Capone down in The Untouchables but I never really understood it then either.)

Anyway, Pitt gets wind of the double cross and ends up killing Diehl in front of Diehl's girlfriend, Ginny Lee (Irene Cara).  So now Ginny Lee becomes a key in the story.  And Ginny Lee is no idiot.  She's hiding out and no one knows where she is.

 

 

 

So while Speer is seeking Ginny Lee as a witness and Murphy is looking for the ledgers and both Pitt and Coll and their respective henchmen are trying to get their hands on these ledgers we get treated to a couple of (somewhat) humorous encounters.  Twice more Murphy finds himself in a dire situation as the various gangsters zero in on their prey, and Speer, who just happens to be in the neighborhood, sits idly by.  The running gag is Speer is willing to let the hoods have their way until they intrude on his own private space.

One in particular I find hilarious is both gangs end up in a shootout at Murphy's apartment.  Speer sits in his car watching the proceedings until a stray bullet hits his car window.  An angry Speer then grabs a shotgun and proceeds to mow down the hoods while Murphy is trying desperately to hide from the onslaught.

Since a trope of these kinds of movies involves a love interest being put into a dangerous situation, you have Murphy's girlfriend, Caroline (Madeline Kahn) kidnapped by Pitt and held hostage for the goods.  And Murphy's secretary, Addy (Jane Alexander), a would-be girlfriend of Speer, kidnapped and held hostage by Coll.

 

 

 

 The movie is pretty fun, in my opinion, despite whatever flaws the critics might have found in it.  Is it Oscar worthy?  Hardly.  But then, if you have seen most of my posts over the years, you know that Oscar material is hardly a criteria for what I like.

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy