Un shérif à New-York

Coogan's Bluff ranks as one of my favorite Eastwood films. Partly because of the time period & location which the story takes place. It's an excellent period piece. Late 1960's New York city in all it's Glory. I live in NYC and it's was nice to see the Pan Am Building in the backdrop. It's now the Met Life building. The Pan Am building was also the location of the final scene where the helicopter takes off.

The other reason I like this movie is that Eastwood is essentially playing Dirty Harry before Dirty Harry. Coogan is just like Harry Calahan without the 44. magnum. The story is solid but it's the locales and the situations that Coogan finds himself in that sell the movie. Who cares of it's dated? Of course it's dated but that's part of the experience. Actually most movies made more than 20 years ago (or less) are dated. If you look at it in the context of the time it was made then you'll enjoy it. Ignore the negative reviews and check it out.

The film borrows from the older city crime dramas adding a new twist, Eastwood's character, a police lieutenant from Arizona who will use any means to apprehend his prey. This film, shot on a relativley tight budget in New York City, captures the dark side of New York City in the late 60's, amidst the "free love" atmosphere. Particularly notable are the sharp fight sequences, the amazing sequence at the "Pidgeon Toed Orange Peel" dance club, and the chase sequence at the Cloisters. This film inspired the "Dirty Harry" series, and also paved the way for cowboy in the big city flicks such as "Midnight Cowboy" (and there are a few interesting resemblances). An overall exciting picture that should keep your interest.

It would be easy to dismiss this movie as lightweight entertainment however this is a much more interesting film if for no other reason than it is the first pairing of Siegel and Eastwood one of the most interesting partnerships in cinema that between 1968 and 1971 produced four good movies and at least one classic, "Dirty Harry". In this film Clint forged a bridge between his cowboy persona and the contemporary characters that he went on to play. While it was released to theatres the frame compositions look better in 4;3 TV ratio suggesting that like another Siegel film, "The Killers" this was produced with TV in mind and released to cinemas when the quality of the piece became apparent. I think this might explain why it has taken so long for a 1.85 transfer to be released and why the quality of the DVD is so poor, full frame prints look fine. Also the use of what looks like pre-standing sets gives it a low budget TV feel. With "Play Misty for me" Clint became a director and Siegel appeared as an actor thus the partnership was ended, the pupil became the master. Clints style as a director owes much to Siegel and he still has the economy which was a hallmark of Siegels work. Another partnership that began in this film was with actor Albert Popwell who went on to appear with Clint in the first four Dirty Harry movies,portraying a different role in each film. So as an Eastwood or a Siegel fan this is a must see pivotal movie and contains much of their trade mark craft even on a low budget. Don Stroud is as ever a bonus as is Susan Clark.

Here Clint Eastwood gets to bring a little of the Western into an urban jungle, playing the title character, an Arizona deputy with his own way of doing things. His sheriff (Tom Tully) is tired of him, but assigns him the task of extraditing a criminal named Ringerman (Don Stroud), who's being held in NYC. Disgusted with the amount of red tape that he's obliged to wade through, Coogan obtains Ringerman through false pretenses - and then the young mans' associates get the drop on him, and Ringerman escapes. However, Coogan isn't about to let a little wounded pride get to him, as he continues to frustrate police lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb) with his methods of tracking a wanted man.

Clint is a lot of fun to watch, showing off that natural screen presence that made him a star. He makes the most out of what many people agree to be a predecessor to his iconic screen role of Dirty Harry. The movie itself, produced & directed by Clints' frequent collaborator Don Siegel, works as a "fish out of water" type of story in which different approaches to law enforcement clash, and where the environment has a pivotal part to play. Use of various NYC locations is great, and Lalo Schifrins' music score is excellent. The climactic motorcycle chase is reasonably exciting, but the most striking scene of all has to be when Coogan tails Ringermans' lady friend Linny Raven (Tisha Sterling) to a nightclub. Among the images on the big screen there is a shot from "Tarantula", in which Clint had a small uncredited role.

There's a great sexual chemistry between Clint and well-meaning probation officer Julie Roth (sexy Susan Clark); he also works well with Sterling, who's a delight as a cheery hippie chick. Stroud unfortunately doesn't get a lot to do, the way that the story is written, but the supporting cast, led by the always solid Cobb, includes familiar faces such as Betty Field, James Edwards, David Doyle, Louis Zorich, Seymour Cassel, Albert Popwell (who would go on to appear in four of the "Dirty Harry" movies), and Conrad Bain.

A well paced and consistently entertaining movie, "Coogan's Bluff" later evolved into the 'McCloud' TV series with Dennis Weaver.

Seven out of 10.

In this breakout year when films could dump most of their restrictions, this inspiration for the hit television series McCloud, dumped a couple and went the low road on a few things.

The language still was pretty tame but it had a big-time sleazy atmosphere with a bunch of unlikeable characters. Susan Clark played a lot of these kind of roles in the late '60s to about 1980. Clint Eastwood and Don Stroud are the male leads and Eastwood fits the mold as a tough Arizona lawman going to New York City to bring back an escaped convict. This kind of set of the stage, I think, for his Dirty Harry series which began a couple of years after this.

The story moves well and has some good action scenes, but, man, you can tell it is the late '60s and no longer the "classic era" in Hollywood with the nudity and no one with any moral standards.