Review by planktonrules

In the 1980s, Robert Mitchum's film career was still going. I can't say 'going strong' because too many of these films were simply dreadful...especially his made for TV movies. Of course, there were a few exceptions, such as "A Killer in the Family"...but most were pretty bad. One other thing many of these films have in common was that they were a nepotistic group of films...with Mitchum's brother, sons and even grandson in the films. In the case of "Jake Spanner", you once again have a bad movie along with the usual family connections. In this case, it's based on a novel, "The Old Dick".

The film begins with an aging old gangster (Ernest Borgnine) approaching the aging detective Jake (Mitchum) about a case. It seems that the gangster has had a family member kidnapped and he wants Jake on the case. The story that follows is really strange...especially when Jake learns that this gangster is supposed to be dead! It also includes dealing with one of the silliest lady villains in screen history.

This movie, apart from Mitchum's usual nice acting, is terrible. Sure, you get to see a lot of old time movie and TV stars, which is nice...but the rest of the movie stinks...especially every second the villainess (Laurie Lathem) appears. She makes a Matt Helm villain seem subdued and subtle by comparison. Overall, a nice job by Mitchum but pretty much awful otherwise.