Le Fauve

This film is worth viewing just for the pantomime Reynolds does during the opening credits; some really funny stuff. I also liked the fact that an old Twilight Zone alumnus, Buzz Kulick, directed. Reynolds is not a great actor and he knows it. He tends to play the same character in every film he appears in. The one exception is of course the masterpiece Deliverence, where he plays the stoic man of action to the hilt. Shamus is a fast breezy piece of work that is fun to watch and it appears that Burt Reynolds had fun making it. Reynolds also has a tie to The Twilight Zone. In an episode called The Bard, playing a method actor called Rocky Rhodes, Reynolds does a hilarious parody of Marlon Brando.

The story of Shamus seems to be loosely based on Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep. Burt Reynolds is in the Humphrey Bogart role, and he acquits himself well playing the Philip Marlowe of the chewing gum generation. He doesn't take himself too seriously, is less sarcastic than the forties version and there are quite a few good laughs to be had.

Shamus is remarkable for reflecting the period it was shot in. The directing and the cinematography are very good. I also liked the musical score. There are quite a few nicely stylized action scenes on real locations in dock areas. Dyan Cannon gives her usual solid performance and wears clothes today's fashion designers will be very interested in. Her character's apartment in a high rise on East River must be the "dernier cri" of 1973‘s interior decorating: prints of Vasarely and Miro, steel frame chairs with white leather cushions, lamps with huge chrome bowls etc. etc.

This movie, a bright child of its time, is well worth preserving.

Burt Reynolds feels like he's shot back into the 1940s with this old-fashion, if chaotically bold crime caper story of the 70s and consisting of its era's brutality, as he plays private eye McCoy who is hired on to recover stolen diamonds and find a murderer for a rich eccentric, but what he digs up is something much more dangerous and heavy than simple diamond theft. Pretty much it's a Reynolds starring vehicle (and boy doesn't he test out his pain threshold with the constant beatings, running, tumbling and an almighty tree fall), but the support cast are just as serviceable. A radiant Dyan Cannon is quite fun as McCoy's love interest. Capable show-ins by Joe Santos, Larry Block, Ron Weyand, John P. Ryan and also Kevin Conway along with John Glover has minor parts. The gaudy New York locations are an important character to the film's make-up, as being shot on location helped with its authentic rough and tumble nature. Watching Reynold's going around gathering information, moving from one scene to another in doing anything to get his job done, was always quite amusing. From those hardily slam bang action sequences to chatting up the women and then of course spending quality time in his apartment with his cat. Reynolds uses that ruggedly laid-back charm to good affect and is quick with a smart quip. The narrative is rather crafty in its chain of events, being rather unpredictable and manipulative making out there's more to it than you are originally to believe. Still when comes to its closing, it does feel short-changed. Jerry Goldsmith contributes a playfully breezy music score. An enjoyably offbeat and assured 70s crime joint that's similar in style to the Charles Bronson's "St Ives".

"You're going to beat the sh!t out of me, right?"

I just watched "Shamus" for the first time, ever. I mainly wanted to watch it for two reasons, one being I like early Burt, and also that it was filmed (the Brooklyn scenes) just blocks from where I grew up. I guess that I like early 70's NYC films as well.

Truth is, I did make it through the movie, but it's not really that good of a movie. Actually, I pretty much have absolutely no idea what it was about. Something about some stolen diamonds, guns, and shady people but it all just got lost to me. The main fun is watching 70's superstud Burt do his private-eye thing, which is mainly smoking cigarettes, acting cool, throwing around witty one-liners, getting chicks to go to bed with him, and punching guys out. Hey, good enough. What was that plot again? Funny scene in a bookstore where Burt walks in and decides he's gonna sleep with the hot intellectual chick in there, and of course he makes her melt with his ultra-coolness and smooth lines. Burt smooth-talks the gorgeous Dyan Cannon too, who kinda underacts here, like she's half asleep.

There are a lot of familiar 70's faces in this. But maybe best of all is Morris The Cat, who I guess earned the role from his rave reviews as 9-Lives spokescat (he was also in the movie "The Long Goodbye"). Morris earns raves as he uses his cool cat skills to, well, be a cool cat when things are happening around him. Morris gets fed a few times and we don't see the brand, 9-Lives definitely missed on some early product placement.

But Burt is good, as he participates in a lot of fighting, loving, swearing, and he even drives a huge stolen army vehicle throughout town with no police interference. The movie has an odd ending, maybe Morris should have helped that out. If you can watch Burt do his thing without caring too much about the mixed up plot, "Shamus" is good for a viewing.

In "Shamus," Burt Reynolds is a New York private eye afraid of big dogs and keeps a beautiful ginger cat…

He lives in a single room and sleeps on a pool table… He is quite capable of pushing a heroin addict's face into the garbage… He is certainly the 1970's version – almost in comic-strip – of the private investigator…

Reynolds lives cheaply, yet is hired to pursue a theft of diamonds; he is big and sexy, and the gorgeous Dyan Cannon is only too happy to dally with him at the drop of a clue; and he is apparently so tough that he can take all manner of beatings and emerge unscathed…

It is doubtful if he is the sort of man one would want to introduce to one's maiden aunt (the one with all the money), but he is certainly a character to fulfill all the audience's fantasies of violence, sex and thrills