Pendulum

Peppard is ideally cast as inflexibly hard-nosed cop who gets sucked through the looking-glass when indicted for his cheating wife's murder. Charles McGraw and Richard Kiley are both magnificent in the key supporting roles. Dana Elcar and Isabel Sanford also add poignantly amusing support. Director George Schaeffer's pacing and choice of score is perfect for the genre. And, many of the key ironies are even more appropriate today than when the film was made. Very highly recommended.

I had never heard of "Pendulum" before and as shocked how good the movie was. It's definitely among the best films of the 1960s even though it's a rather obscure movie.

George Peppard stars as Captain Matthews...a decorated cop who recently arrested a murderous psychopath. However, two things happen that will become important. First, Matthews' wife is cheating on him and he is beginning to suspect the truth. Second, due to a technicality, the psychopath has been released even though everyone knows he is guilty. How do these two things work together to REALLY impact on the Captain? See the film.

George Peppard is really good here. The other actor who was a major standout is Robert Lyons as the psychotic murderer and rapist. He's quite smug and chilling! Now one part of the film MIGHT seem like a cliche that isn't is when the Captain escapes from custody after he's arrested (yes, he ends up being arrested for a double murder). Normally, this is a bad plot element...the notion of an innocent man escaping in order to prove he's not guilty. Here it's handled well...as it's obvious that for political reasons the Captain is assumed to be guilty and the cops aren't even considering other options. In a case like this, you can understand Matthews' actions.

Overall, a very exciting, taut and suspenseful film...well worth seeing because it is so intelligently made from start to finish. So good, I nearly gave this one a 10....and I almost never do that!

Just saw this movie again after 39 years. Well-acted period piece. Out-dated by today's standards, but still a decent night at the movies. What really caught my attention was how George Peppard chained smoked throughout this film. The guy burned one in every scene. Aside from that, he did give a creditable performance, but nothing to write home about.

Jean Seberg looked beautiful. She was a rare beauty and very talented as well. She is wasted here, but her brief time on scene does capture your attention.

The supporting cast of veteran actors do a professional job. The only real problem is that the film drags at times and lacks any real action. The ending was typical, but this was 1969, so don't expect too many surprises.

Peppard is frank matthews, who has just left his job as a cop to work for a senator. When someone close to him is knocked off, he's the lead suspect! So now he's got to find the real killer before he gets locked up.. or even gets the death penalty. Lots of talk about one's rights when someone is arrested. The miranda warning had just been instituted in 1966. A fair amount of suspense. First, matthews keeps meddling in the investigation, and might screw up his own defense if it goes to trial. Then, later, it looks like matthews really has done the murder himself. It's pretty good! Nothing too new or earth shaking, but it was during the era of discussions of civil rights. Keep an eye out for isabel sanford as the maid; she will play louise in "the jeffersons". Peppard made this after tiffany's and crossbow, but just before banacek. He was nominated for a bafta for "home from the hill." directed by george schaefer. Story by stanley niss. He died young at 53, soon after this film was released. It's good!

I readily admit that I know very little about Director George Schaefer, who appears to have done more TV film than cinema.

The title PENDULUM comes from the words of a circuit judge reluctant to release on technical grounds proven rapist cum murderer Sanderson (coyly played by Rpbert Lyons, with typical connection to Mom Madeleine Sherwood).

The movie opens with an interesting relationship between police captain Matthews (Peppard) and cheating wife Jean Seberg, looking somewhat plumper than nine years earlier in Jean-Luc Godard's A BOUT DE SOUFFLE but still extremely gorgeous in her 1960s attire, and in her translucent gowns. You know instinctively that her deception will not last and that Sanderson, who Peppard put behind bars, will seek revenge.

That part of the movie is engrossing. The part of Peppard being immediately found guilty by his own copper colleagues, escaping, and using the street phone booth to gain access to Sanderson at his mother's place beggars an excessive amount of suspension of disbelief.

In any event, PENDULUM remains quite watchable. Seberg comes across as a charming cheat, Richard Kiley does well as lawyer Woodrow Wilson King (familiar names, ain't it?), interesting to see Charles McGraw as deputy police chief (up from police detective in the great B picture, NARROW MARGIN, of 1952) and cinematography by Lionel Lindon is quite professionally done. 7/10.