99 and 44/100% Dead!

It's certainly different, but it's not very good. Richard Harris plays a hit-man hired by a mob boss to knock off a rival. Director John Frankenheimer starts things off with a bang with Roy Lichtenstein inspired titles and a pretty fun shoot out/car chase. The film itself is so slow that quirky touches like a giant balloon sculpture, a lesson on cement shoes and an incorporated brothel offer a lot of relief. Harris looks otherwise engaged and Ann Turkel, though gorgeous, isn't much of an actress...and she's certainly too classy to be convincing as a school teacher/dancer named Buffy! A very old and tired looking Edmond O'Brien plays "Uncle" Frankie, the mob boss --- he looks like a puffy Humphrey Bogart and sounds like a near dead Jason Robards. Connors " plays "Claw" and clearly has a lot of fun with his prosthetic. Bradford Dillman is awful as O'Brien's rival...he affects some sort of Brooklyn accent even though no one else does AND the film is set in L.A. Henry Mancini's jazzy score is great, but becomes increasingly intrusive as the film progresses.

Flaws aside, the film is surely a high-water mark in the spotty career of Richard Harris...he went on to star in ORCA, THE CASSANDRA CROSSING, etc.

99 and 44/100ths Percent Dead is the story of a mob war between two rival bosses, Edmond O'Brien and Bradford Dillman and the two hit men working for them, Richard Harris and Chuck Connors. The film is enjoyable but it can't seem to make up its mind whether it's a spoof of the genre or a straight out action film.

Richard Harris is hired by O'Brien to help him in his war with Dillman over the Los Angeles territory. O'Brien needs Harris bad especially since Dillman has Connors on retainer. Harris and Connors have some history with Harris leaving Chuck with a permanent reminder.

Which is in the form of a handy/dandy claw which has various attachments for whatever need you have at the moment. When I saw this in the theater back in the Seventies it was that claw I remembered. Connors who first started in films playing villains like Buck Hannessy in The Big Country went to television and became a hero in The Rifleman and Branded. Personally I always thought Connors was better as a bad guy.

Bradford Dillman though I had forgotten, his was an incredibly hammy performance as the rival gang boss. It would have been appropriate and would have succeeded if the satire that might have been intended had come off.

The film while not memorable in his career did furnish Richard Harris with a wife. Tall and leggy Ann Turkel made her second film and was billed as being 'introduced' here. The old adage about having no attachments is certainly true as the bad guys can get to Harris through Turkel and nearly succeed.

Sadly this was the farewell film for Edmond O'Brien who was another victim of Alzheimer's Disease and spent the last ten years of his life losing his career and memories thereof to that terrible curse. He could have probably done something better, but at least it was no Cuban Rebel Girl that terrible film Errol Flynn capped his career with.

99 and 44/100ths Percent Dead is still enjoyable, but could have been done a lot better by director John Frankenheimer.

The title refers to the now very old Ivory Soap claim of 99 and 64/100% Pure - and there is another "old" meaning for 'pure' that would be known to Frankenheimer and Dillon. It's another word for the material tanners would use in browning leather - dog turds. This should have been a clue to the humor to follow.

This is an interesting and odd film.

Oddball take on the gangster movie courtesy of screenwriter Robert Dillon and director John Frankenheimer. Richard Harris is Harry Crown, a killer in the employ of mob boss Frank Kelly (Edmond O'Brien). Frank hires Harry to rub out Frank's chief rival, Big Eddie (Bradford Dillman), but Big Eddie ups the stakes by kidnapping Harry's new lady friend Buffy, played by Harris's real-life wife Ann Turkel. It takes place in a slightly futuristic milieu, and the fact that it's intended to be a satire and is never exactly taking itself that seriously is its main appeal, with the cartoon opening credits establishing the tone early on. It comes up with some effective images along the way, like the scores of corpses wearing cement shoes that have been dumped into the ocean (accompanied by Harris's narration) and the sight of actual alligators in the sewers. There's also the rousing music score by Henry Mancini to add to the fun factor. The problem is that the movie just doesn't have a whole lot of energy; it falls flat a lot of the time. It plods a little too much and seems longer than it is. In any event, the cast certainly gives it 100 (as opposed to 99 and 44/100) percent, with a droll Harris in the lead, and highly amusing performances by O'Brien and Dillman. Turkel, Janice Heiden as Clara, and Kathrine Baumann as Baby all provide the movie with appreciable eye candy. In fact, Baumann figures in what is one of the better sequences in the movie when Harry is working to prevent a bomb from going off; the sequence has fine tension. A good unlikely chase sequence involves a school bus, but one of the most enjoyable elements is seeing Harry take on Big Eddie's enforcer, Marvin "Claw" Zuckerman, played to the hilt by the wonderful Chuck Connors, so named because he puts claws, guns, and other implements on the end of his arm where Harry had hacked off the real deal some time ago. This could and should have been more fun overall, but it does have its moments. Fans of the actors should be satisfied. Six out of 10.

"99 and 44/100% Dead!" is usually known as one of John Frankenheimer's lesser movies, but it's entertaining enough for its short run. This typical gangster spoof casts Richard Harris as a hitman hired by his uncle due to a challenge by a rival gangster. I moved to Seattle last year, so it was neat to see some of the places where I've been (namely Gasworks Park). They don't say where it takes place, but most of it does appear to be the Emerald City.

Yeah, it was pretty much what I expected: lots of gunfire, hot babes, and cool fight scenes. Frankenheimer later admitted that he didn't really know what kind of movie he was making. I guess that after "The Birdman of Alcatraz" and "Seven Days in May", he felt like he was getting held to high standards. As far as I'm concerned, this movie is all about just being funny, and it is. Good enough.