Themes: Fish Out of Water, Nothing Goes Right, Culture Clash
Main Cast: Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Susan Clark, Tisha Sterling, Don Stroud
Release Year: 1968
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
Clint Eastwood stars as Walt Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff who has been sent to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman (Don Stroud). On arrival, he's forced to wait by NYPD detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb), who informs him that Ringerman is recovering from a bad acid trip at Bellevue Hospital. After briefly flirting with attractive probation officer Julie Roth (Susan Clark), Coogan heads for Bellevue, where he's able to con the hospital's staff into releasing the criminal. The cop and the fugitive are on the way to catch a flight back to Arizona, when Ringerman's hippie girlfriend Linny (Tisha Sterling) and a large accomplice spirit the killer away, leaving Coogan unconscious. Luckily, Julie is the girl's probation officer, and Coogan manages to get her address from the woman's files while getting to know her better. He tracks the girl to a popular psychedelic club, whereupon, deciding she likes the deputy, she takes him back to her apartment for further interrogation. The first in a series of films on which Eastwood would collaborate with director Don Siegel, it features a memorable scene in which a battle fought with billiard balls and cue sticks suggests the birth of a new martial art. Although its seemingly innocuous scenes of sex and violence drew criticism at the time, it served as the source for television's considerably more benign McCloud, starring Dennis Weaver as the laconic fish out of water. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Review
While Don Siegel's fish-out-of-water cop film is a stylish action film, it also features a fine understated comic performance by Clint Eastwood. The story concerns a Stetson-wearing deputy who comes to New York in pursuit of an escaped killer (Don Stroud). Apparently the only film Eastwood ever shot in New York, it derives its comic energy from the repugnance with which his uptight deputy regards almost everyone and everything he encounters in the city, from the compassion of social workers for obviously undeserving criminals, to the miles of red tape that tie cops in knots, to the more flagrant antics of the 1968 vintage counterculture. The expression on Eastwood's face as he observes the chemically influenced activities unfolding at a club based on the famed Electric Circus is alone worth the price of admission. More seriously, the casting of Stroud, an actor of limited talent and a physical presence hinting at recent simian ancestry, implies that the criminal is an animal being hunted in a urban jungle. In touching on the frustrations of police bureaucracy, it presages the Eastwood's enduringly popular Dirty Harry series. Aside from the star, Lee J. Cobb is also excellent as a put-upon cop, as is the spirited Susan Clark. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Betty Field - Mrs. Ringerman; Tom Tully - Sheriff McCrea; Conrad Bain - Man on Madison Avenue; Marjorie Bennett - Mrs. Fowler; Seymour Cassel - Young Hood; John Coe - Bellboy; Rudy Diaz - Running Bear; David F. Doyle - Pushie; James Edwards - Sgt. Jackson; Albert Henderson - Desk Sergeant; Melodie Johnson - Millie; Syl Lamont - Manager; James McCallion - Room Clerk; Meg Myles - Big Red; Jess Osuna - Prison Hospital Guard; Albert Popwell - Wonderful Digby; Antonia Rey - Mrs. Amador; Jerry Summers - Good Eyes; Kristoffer Tabori - Elevator passenger; Louis Zorich - Taxi Driver; Don Siegel - Elevator passenger; James Gavin - Ferguson
Credit
Alexander Golitzen - Art Director, Robert C. MacKichan - Art Director, Helen Colvig - Costume Designer, Joe Cavalier - First Assistant Director, Don Siegel - Director, Sam E. Waxman - Editor, Richard E. Lyons - Executive Producer, Lalo Schifrin - Composer (Music Score), Wally Holmes - Songwriter, Bud Thackery - Cinematographer, Don Siegel - Producer, John P. Austin - Set Designer, John McCarthy - Set Designer, Waldon O. Watson - Sound/Sound Designer, Paul R. Baxley, Jr. - Stunts, Dean Riesner - Screenwriter, Herman Miller - Screenwriter, Howard Rodman - Screenwriter
Arizona deputy sheriff Walt Coogan (Clint Eastwood) wearing boots and a cowboy hat is sent to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman (Don Stroud). He is up against the slow legal meanderings of New York when NYPD Detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb) informs him Ringerman is at Bellevue Hospital recovering from an overdose of LSD and cannot be moved until the doctors release him and Coogan has to get extradition papers from the NY State Supreme Court.
He has a flirtation with probation officer Julie Roth (Susan Clark). Then he bluffs his way into Bellevue, tricks the attendants into turning Ringerman over to him, and takes him to the airport to catch a plane for Arizona.
Before he can get out to the airport, Ringerman’s hippie girlfriend Linny Raven (Tisha Sterling) and Pushie the tavern owner (David Doyle) jump Coogan, beat him unconscious, and escape. Coogan tries to find Ringerman's hide out from his mother Ellen Ringerman (Betty Field) and gets Linny's name, and on the way out gets arrested by Sgt. Wallace, Stakeout Cop (James Edwards) for impersonating a police officer. Coogan gets Linny's address from Julie's home files while getting to know her better and while she is making dinner.
He tracks Linny to a psychedelic-themed nightclub called The Pigeon-Toed Orange Peel. There he has a fight with Wonderful Digby (Albert Popwell) at Linny's table; afterwards he makes love to her at her apartment. She then offers to lead him to Ringerman, but instead takes him to a pool hall where he is attacked by Pushie and a dozen men in a bloody battle with pool balls and cues. Coogan holds his own for awhile but is eventually overpowered when several of the men gang up on him. The men take off after hearing sirens and the beaten Coogan exacts justice on Pushie. McElroy finds the bar in pieces, three men dead, and a cowboy hat.
Coogan goes back to Linny's and threatens to kill her if she does not lead him to Ringerman. She takes him to the Cloisters, in Fort Tryon Park, where Ringerman, armed with a gun stolen from Coogan, gets away on his motorcycle. After grabbing the motorcycle of a passing cyclist, who was run into by Ringerman, Coogan gives chase through the park's Heather Gardens and captures him by making a "citizen's arrest" and hands him over to McElroy, who tells him to go to the DA's office, then the State Supreme Court, and let the system handle it. Later, Coogan, with Ringerman in cuffs, takes the helicopter from atop of the Pan Am Building to the airport while Julie is waving goodbye.
