O Agente 711 Pede Socorro

David Janssen stars in what might be described as a "mid-'60s sun-baked L.A. neo-noir meets Dragnet-esque police procedural". This was probably Janssen's best big screen role of his career, although the film did still overall have the production values and feel of a made-for-TV movie. I thought director Budd Kulik did well with his blocking and the pace of the film.

Janssen, in his usual low-key but effective manner of acting, plays LAPD Sgt. Tom Valens who is accused of the wrongful shooting of a respected Beverly Hills doctor during a late night stakeout. Later, unable to locate the gun he claims the doctor had pulled on him, Valens is first relieved of duty and then must face a grand jury hearing after which the prosecutor played by Sam Wannamaker expresses his delight in "putting bad cops in their place". With all the evidence pointing to Valens' guilt and with few if anyone believing his story, he sets out for himself in search of evidence to prove his innocence. (sound familiar, fans of his most memorable television role?)

A number of well known and respected actors and actress of the time would make what could basically be called long cameos throughout much of the movie, as it does seem a bit episodic in some parts. Among those familiar faces would be Ed Begley as Valens' LAPD superior, Lilian Gish as a sweet but forgetful elderly lady, Stefanie Powers as a sympathetic nurse, George Sanders as an investment banker, Eleanor Parker as the decedent's less-than-grieving widow, Joan Collins as Valens' soon-to-be ex-wife, Steve Allen as a blowhard television commentator, Carroll O' Connor as the grand jury judge and George Grizzard as a playboy airline pilot.

The ending is a bit weak in regard to a somewhat illogical aspect to it, but overall it is worthwhile.

It's a definite cult classic - that's all that I can say. But it does have an incredible cast, filled with once and future stars. The direction is quite stylish, and the theme is still timely. In many ways, _Warning Shot_ is rather like a film-noir shot in color. Like DOA, there's the theme of one man against the entire world - and the forces of time, also. There is emphasis on his need to prove himself - because he is a man. Like all noirs, the actual plot is irrelevant, although Whit Masterson (Touch of Evil) did think up some good twists. It's the atmosphere that you take away with you from this one.

Despite making a few lousy films, such as DONDI and THE GREEN BERETS, I've always liked David Janssen. He was a pretty good actor and I like seeing movies featuring relatively unattractive people because they are much more like us, the average viewer, than the more glamorous stars.

WARNING SHOT is just one of the movies Janssen did that I really like. It's a seemingly ordinary story about a police shooting but it is so well-written and realistic that the film sucks you inside and keeps your attention. It has the look of a TV movie (with its production values) that is written for a thinking audience who doesn't just want to watch shoot outs and fights.

You can take Buzz Kulik's Warning Shot one of two ways. It's either a crackling good cop show, filled with procedure and great pacing, and David Janssen at his most heroically pathetic (and empathetic) as an LAPD detective facing a manslaughter charge or the movie is an over-clichéd snapshot of forced topicality in the Mirandized late '60's. It's really your call.

I'd like to think of Warning Shot as both, the way The Detective and Madigan mixed the vulnerable with the vulgar. After about the fourth time Janssen's character, Tom Valens, gets abused or beaten or gassed by the well-to-do slimeballs he's sworn to defend, you might start to notice how he'd probably be better off copping a plea for shooting a philanthropist doctor. Instead he swears grimly that he's going to defend his own honor to the bitter end (and repeatedly almost gets his way).

Warning Shot is packed with cameos, people who were legends when I was a kid, and now, forty years after its release, most of the performers are unrecognizable, which makes the story more accessible and less of an exercise in "Hey, look--it's . . . "

What makes the movie work is that David Janssen, looking ten years older than 35, is so very real as a man of good character with no excess intelligence, just grim determination.

A key figure in the story refers to Valens as "Sgt. Gumshoe" or something like that. It fits. Janssen's Valens is ordinary and vulnerable to the hyperventilating police-haters all around him. He can't do much more than reel and lurch from one disaster to the next, while awaiting his guaranteed-to-be-convicted trial. At one point, he gets the stuffing kicked out of him and doesn't even lay a finger on his attackers.

His ex-wife (played by the reptillian Joan Collins) tries to screw him while busting the very organs she's depending on for their quickie. The District Attorney (the equally scaley Sam Wannamaker) announces to Valens that he likes to crush solid and stolid cops whenever possible. By the end, Janssen has no one to turn to for even the most rudimentary support, not even a union rep (a very young and lovely Stephanie Powers, the dead doctor's nurse, can do no more than cluck over his sincerity and give him a ride home).

Nobody can help this poor shlub except himself.

Which brings me back to why Warning Shot is a mixture of reality and topical paranoia. Often, in crisis, people have to revert back to their core values to save themselves. Either they don't have anyone to help them or they don't trust anyone and decide to go it alone. Janssen's Tom Valens does just that.

Yet, at one point, he's told that his career is through no matter what happens. You can see the pain of this reality on Janssen's face as he surveys the damage he's done at the end of Warning Shot. He tosses his piece on the hood of a police car (no gun love here--it's just an ugly tool he wants out of his hand) and looks almost ready to cry from frustration and exhaustion. Like Frank Sinatra's Joe Leland and Richard Widmark's Dan Madigan, Tom Valens needs to get as far away from police work as possible.

Warning Shot is a good film with an excellent all star cast. The story has an interesting plot. A cop is falsley accused of murder and he goes around trying to find a way to get his job back and clear his name. David Janssen is the cop, Ed Begley is the boss who gets mad when things go wrong. The cast and a jazzy

score by Jerry Goldsmith makes this film worth watching. It may not be the best movie in the world nor the best mystery but it's worth watching. *** out of ****