mrpoizun

This is an extremely well-crafted movie. The production, the direction, the cinematography, the acting... I can't fault any of it. I couldn't believe it when I saw on this page that it only grossed $1.6 million at the box office. I'm so old I saw it in the theater when it opened. Everyone I knew loved it, although I hated Blake's line about hating his motorcycle- that dumbfounded me since it wasn't obvious he felt that way until he said it. Blake was a motorcycle rider so he looked perfectly natural riding his police motor. Maybe if more people had seen the movie, Jeanine Riley's career would have taken off. She is outstanding in her part as a bitter, disillusioned beauty working in a cop bar. Most of the other featured players went on to long, notable careers, but Riley never seemed to get the kinds of parts she deserved.

The story is a murder mystery, combined with Blake's own frustration with not getting a promotion to detective and his disillusionment when it finally happens. There's also an anti-establishment theme that was typical of many youth-oriented movies in the seventies. But it's all very well done and very entertaining. Just an excellent movie.

I saw this movie in Scottsdale, Arizona when it first came out, while I was vacationing in the desert in 1983. I'm sure I was in a happy, relaxed mood because I liked it. It was far above Norris's previous movies, none of which I had ever seen more than short portions of on TV. But let's face it, that's not saying much. I liked that the film featured desert scenery, high-powered, scoped rifles, Smith and Wesson N-frame double action revolvers and four wheel drive pickups and SUV's. I enjoyed the fact that Norris drove a beat-up Dodge Ramcharger, lived in a shack off a dirt road out in the desert, and didn't like authority. I liked that he was bearded, scruffy and dirty, lived in a dump out in the desert and had a Pearl beer on hand at all times, as opposed to his clean-cut, clean living persona in all his previous roles. Norris' acting was much better than his previous efforts, mainly because he wasn't required to do much of it, as he was playing a strong, silent type. But he was still better than pretty much everyone else in the movie. The acting of all the females in the movie was utterly execrable. Many of the characters didn't seem to be actors at all. Even somewhat established actors like Barbara Carrera, Robert Beltran and Leon Isaac Jones deliver lines that are just unbelievably wooden. LQ Jones is just playing this as a goof. And the action sequences are unrealistic in every way.

So if you can enjoy it for what it is, and I still can, go for it. But don't kid yourself that this is a well made, professionally produced movie.

This is one of so many incredible movies of the fifties, with great performances from every single cast member. Burl Ives, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor and Tony Franciosa turn in fine performances. The story keeps your interest throughout, but therein lies the problem with the movie. The book the movie is based on, by Tennessee Williams, fills in the blanks, but the Hollywood moguls felt that, due to the ridiculous prudishness of mid- twentieth century America, the issue that causes the conflict that drives the entire movie can never be revealed to the movie audience! Even as a callow youth, I was aware that something very important was missing from the movie, even as I was slavering over Miss Taylor at her most beautiful.

I wonder if I should rate it lower, but the performances and the fact the movie does hold your interest until the end tends to make me feel charitable.

I'm chuckling to myself as I write this when I realize I'm trying not to reveal a spoiler that wasn't even in the movie! And realizing just now that maybe it WAS in the movie because I only saw this on TV! Better find the theater version and watch it!