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Madigan

 
Movies:

Madigan

  • Director: Don Siegel
  • AMG Rating: starstarstar
  • Genre: Thriller
  • Movie Type: Police Detective Film
  • Themes: Rogue Cops
  • Main Cast: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore
  • Release Year: 1968
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 101 minutes

Plot

It's a seemingly peaceful spring morning in New York City -- graduation day at the Police Academy -- and Police Commissioner Anthony X. Russell (Henry Fonda) is looking forward to giving a speech to the new officers. But all isn't well: Russell's been given apparently incontrovertible evidence that his oldest friend, Chief Inspector Charles Kane (James Whitmore), is shaking down a bar owner, and a black minister (Raymond St. Jacques) is claiming that his son was brutalized when he was picked up for questioning in a rape/assault case. Then Russell gets a call informing him that two first-grade detectives, Daniel Madigan (Richard Widmark) and Rocco Bonaro (Harry Guardino), allowed small-time hood Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat) to get the drop on them, steal their guns, and escape while they were trying to pick him up for questioning at the request of Brooklyn detectives -- and Benesch is now a suspect in that earlier murder in Brooklyn. Madigan has other problems, including the fact that the commissioner -- his ex-captain -- doesn't trust him, always believing him to be a loose cannon who has taken advantage of the badge in accepting favors and cutting corners where peoples' rights were concerned. Madigan also has a beautiful, upwardly mobile wife (Inger Stevens) who loves him but can't abide all the time his job takes him away from her or crimps her socializing; and he has never fully gotten over Jonesy (Sheree North), a saloon singer he knew before he was married. Madigan and Bonaro are given 72 hours to bring in Benesch and begin beating the bushes for leads. They get help from "Midget" Castiglione (Michael Dunn), a bookmaker and an old enemy of Benesch's, and a nervous, long-haired punk named Hughie (Don Stroud). While the clock ticks away on Madigan's and Bonaro's careers, the commissioner must decide how to deal with Kane, whose father -- also a police officer -- was like his own, and he must also fathom how a four-star chief could be involved with anything as tawdry as pressuring a tavern owner. Russell genuinely believes that there must be "one standard, one rule" for any member of the department, but in the course of this one weekend, he finds this notion shattered by what he discovers about Madigan, King, and himself. Meanwhile, Benesch is still on the loose, acting like a complete psycho and a threat to anyone who crosses his path. Russell's and Madigan's paths finally cross personally, as the detective proves -- and the commissioner discovers -- just how good a cop he is. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Review

Don Siegel recognized gold when he saw it -- he reportedly had misgivings when producer Frank P. Rosenberg first asked for him as the director of Universal's adaptation of Richard Dougherty's novel The Commissioner because the two had clashed in earlier years on the series Arrest & Trial, but the book and the screenplay, written by Howard Rodman (who ultimately took the pseudonym Henri Simoun) and revised by longtime movie blacklistee Abraham Polonsky, offered too good a chance to make an exciting location-based police thriller. Siegel succeeded and then some, creating a movie that functioned on two levels, with two separate but interlocking story lines: a violent story about police officers on the streets of New York, and the drama of senior police commanders and their own life-and-death decisions. The city of New York, as much as the leading actors, was the "star" of the film. Although part of the movie was done on a Hollywood backlot and soundstage, there was enough New York shooting and enough of the pulse and rhythm of those streets to give the movie extraordinary verisimilitude, so that, at times, it feels as if one is watching a documentary. Cinematographer Russell Metty, whose career went back to the 1930s, used the widescreen Techniscope image to brilliant advantage, capturing the constriction of New York's tenements and the wide expanses of skyline with equal facility.

What Siegel and the writers never quite licked was the edict of the studio management that the film focus on Richard Widmark's Detective Madigan rather than on Henry Fonda's Police Commissioner Russell, who was the central character of the book. Siegel put everything he had into Widmark's scenes and embraced a dramatic arc that encompassed Madigan's story, but the unifying element of the movie remained Fonda's character, whose story was as central to the finished film as Widmark's. What's more, Fonda's scenes with Lloyd Gough, Woodrow Parfrey, Susan Clark, and James Whitmore were extremely powerful, a match for Widmark's scenes with Harry Guardino, Michael Dunn, Inger Stevens, and Sheree North. There are also excellent supporting performances by Dunn, Whitmore, Don Stroud, Henry Beckman, Ray Montgomery, and, most surprisingly, Harry Bellaver (best remembered from the TV show Naked City) as an alcoholic tipster. Sharp-eared viewers will be able to pick up little remnants of Polonsky's classic work from the 1940s, especially in the scene in which Whitmore's character is confronted with the transcription of the shakedown. "All the rest is conversation," he remarks, a phrase from Polonsky's script for Robert Rossen's Body and Soul (1947), starring John Garfield. The presence of ex-blacklistee Lloyd Gough (who, in that earlier movie, uttered that line) as Assistant Chief Inspector Earl Griffin, is another "in" reference to Polonsky's past.

Not everything about the movie is perfect. In real life, first-grade detective, the rank held by Madigan and Bonaro, is an extremely elite rank within the NYPD, coming with the equivalent of lieutenant's pay and a lot of respect, and is impossible to achieve without the good graces of the commissioner's office, so it is difficult to believe Russell's antipathy toward Madigan. It's also far-fetched that a pair of such men could make such a botch of a routine job or that the chief of detectives (Bert Freed) would be quick to hang them out to dry. But those flaws (and the fact that Madigan and Bonaro are allowed to confront Benesch without wearing bullet-proof vests) aside, Madigan is a brilliant film. In fact, it ended up being two great movies in one, telling two separate, full sets of stories woven around characters who are only seen onscreen together in the final sequence. Interestingly, in addition to spawning a short-lived series with Widmark in the 1970s, the movie served just as much as the dry run for the series Kojak, another Universal production. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Cast

Susan Clark - Tricia Bentley; Michael Dunn - Midget Castiglione; Steve Ihnat - Barney Benesch; Don Stroud - Hughie; Sheree North - Jonesy; Seth Allen - Subway Dispatcher; Conrad Bain - Hotel Clerk; Henry Beckman - Patrolman Philip Downes; Harry Bellaver - Mickey Dunn; Philippa Bevans - Mrs. Hewitt; William Bramley - O'Brien; Ed Crowley - Man at Precinct; Abel Fernandez - Detective Rodriguez; Bert Freed - Chief of Detectives Hap Lynch; Lloyd Gough - Assistant Chief Inspector Earl Griffin; Virginia Gregg - Esther Newman; Kate Harrington - Woman; Lloyd Haynes - Patrolman Sam Woodley; Albert Henderson - Lieutenant Strong; Pepe Hern - Man; Lincoln Kilpatrick - Patrolman Grimes; John McLiam - Dunne; Dallas Mitchell - Detective Tom Gavin; Ray Montgomery - Detective O'Mara; Richard O'Brien - Det. O'Brien; Bob O'Connell - Man; Woodrow Parfrey - Marvin; Tom Rosqui - Man; Al Ruban - Kowalski; Diane Sayer - Doreen; Ralph Smiley - Captain; Paul Sorenson - Man; Robert Ball - Prisoner; Scott Hale - Man; Raymond St. Jacques - Dr. Taylor; Warren Stevens - Capt. Ben Williams; Rita Lynn - Rita Bonaro; Al Dunlap - Man; Ollie O'Toole - Man; Nina Varela - Woman; Bob Biheller; Gloria Calomee - Policewoman Doris Hawkins; Frank Martin - Lieutenant James Price

Credit

John P. Austin - Art Director, Alexander Golitzen - Art Director, Joe Cavalier - First Assistant Director, Don Siegel - Director, Milton Shifman - Editor, Don Costa - Composer (Music Score), Bud Westmore - Makeup, Alexander Golitzen - Production Designer, George C. Webb - Production Designer, Russell Metty - Cinematographer, Frank P. Rosenberg - Producer, John P. Austin - Set Designer, John McCarthy - Set Designer, George C. Webb - Sound/Sound Designer, Waldon O. Watson - Sound/Sound Designer, Harry Kleiner - Screenwriter, Abraham Polonsky - Screenwriter, Howard Rodman - Screenwriter, Richard Dougherty - Book Author

Similar Movies

The Detective; Dirty Harry; McQ; Bullitt; The Big Easy
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Wikipedia: Madigan
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Madigan
Directed by Don Siegel
Produced by Frank P. Rosenberg
Written by Abraham Polonsky
Howard Rodman
Starring Richard Widmark
Henry Fonda
Music by Don Costa
Cinematography Russell Metty
Editing by Milton Shifman
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) March 29, 1968
Running time 101 min.
Language English

Madigan is a 1968 American crime-drama film directed by Don Siegel and starring Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda.

The screenplay, originally titled Friday, Saturday, Sunday, was adapted by two writers who had been blacklisted in the 1950s, Abraham Polonsky and Howard Rodman (here credited under the pseudonym Henri Simoun), based on a novel titled The Commissioner.

Siegel was a genre director known at the time for taut action films like The Lineup (1958) and Hell Is for Heroes (1962). He later directed six of Clint Eastwood's films, including Dirty Harry.

Contents

Cast

Richard Widmark as Det. Daniel Madigan
Henry Fonda as Commissioner Anthony X. Russell
Inger Stevens as Julia Madigan
Harry Guardino as Det. Rocco Bonaro
James Whitmore as Chief Insp. Charles Kane
Susan Clark as Tricia Bentley
Michael Dunn as Midget Castiglione
Steve Ihnat as Barney Benesch
Don Stroud as Hughie

Plot

In New York City's Spanish Harlem, police detectives Dan Madigan and Rocco Bonaro break into a sleazy apartment and arrest Barney Benesch, a hoodlum wanted for questioning by a Brooklyn precinct. Momentarily distracted by the suspect's nude girl friend, the two detectives are outwitted by Benesch, who escapes with their guns.

When it is discovered that Benesch was wanted for homicide, Madigan and Bonaro are reprimanded by Police Commissioner Anthony X. Russell. Aside from this new problem, Russell is troubled by other matters: his married mistress, Tricia Bentley, has decided to end their relationship; a black minister, Dr. Taylor, is claiming that his teenaged son was subjected to brutality by racist policemen; and proof has been established that Russell's longtime friend and associate, Chief Inspector Kane, has accepted a bribe to protect a hangout for prostitutes.

Irritated by the fact that Madigan and Bonaro broke the rules by working for another precinct, Russell gives the two men 72 hours to arrest Benesch. Despite the deadline, Madigan tries to spend some time with his wife, Julia, who is socially and sexually frustrated as a result of her husband's dangerous and time-consuming job.

The commissioner confronts Kane with the bribe evidence. The inspector was trying to help his son out of a jam. He offers to turn in his badge but resents Russell's outrage at how he could have done such a thing, asking the commissioner what he would know about being a father.

Benesch shoots two policemen with Madigan's gun. The detectives finally get a lead through bookie Midget Castiglione, who puts them in touch with Hughie, one of Benesch's pimps. Tracing the fugitive to a Spanish Harlem apartment, Madigan and Bonaro bring in a police cordon and order the killer to surrender. When he refuses, the two detectives rush the building and break down the door. In the exchange of gunfire, Madigan is fatally wounded before Bonaro can kill Benesch.

Russell tries to comfort Julia, but she accuses him of being a heartless administrator. As the commissioner leaves with Chief Inspector Kane, he is asked about Dr. Taylor's situation and other pressing matters at hand. Russell tells him that these are things they can address tomorrow.

Critical Response

Reviews for Madigan were among the best of any film Siegel had directed. Critics praised its urban grittiness and straightforward style, and audiences responded to its excitement and tautness. Siegel would go on to direct other successful cop movies, including Coogan's Bluff (1968) and Dirty Harry (1971).

Collaborative Clash

  • Serious clashes between Siegel and producer Frank Rosenberg marred the production. Rosenberg was a studio veteran who considered himself the boss of the project; as far as Siegel was concerned, once the cameras rolled, Siegel was boss. The very first day of the shooting schedule set by Rosenberg, for example, called for a highly emotional and poignant scene that comes at the end of the film, in which actress Inger Stevens berates Henry Fonda for the death of her husband. To make things more difficult for Stevens' concentration, she was also scheduled to shoot wardrobe tests throughout the day. Stevens approached Siegel almost in tears. The director apologized, suggesting, "When you're playing this painful scene with Mr. Fonda, think of the loathing you feel for Frank Rosenberg, who is responsible for this ridiculous schedule." In the end, Siegel wrote, "Miss Stevens gave a startling portrayal, truly magnificent and brave."
  • Rosenberg also reportedly interfered in tiny, annoying ways, as in the shooting of Henry Fonda's first scene. The actor walked into a room where Susan Clark was lying on a bed and said, "You can open the other eye now, I made coffee." Siegel said, "Print it," but Rosenberg, who had been watching, demanded that it be re-shot because Fonda didn't say "the" coffee. "It changes the whole meaning," Rosenberg insisted. When an angry Siegel refused to reshoot it, Rosenberg later had Fonda record the "the" and looped it into the final cut.
  • The most significant clash came over the location for the action-packed ending. Most of the picture had been shot on location in New York, but for the finale the company moved to Los Angeles. New York was getting to be too dangerous: Widmark and Guardino's car had been attacked by a gang in Harlem, and the prop man had been mugged. Rosenberg picked a location in L.A. that Siegel found to be unimaginative and virtually unusable. Siegel himself then discovered a location that was perfect and looked very much like New York, but Rosenberg still insisted that his choice be used. Siegel went over Rosenberg's head to Lew Wasserman, the head of Universal. He made his case, showed photos of both locations, and Wasserman agreed that Siegel's choice was best.
  • Henry Fonda echoed these accounts of Rosenberg. Attracted to the project because his part as the police commissioner was so three-dimensional, he found that Rosenberg toned down much of the character's depth in the screenplay. "He just wouldn't listen to anything," Fonda said. "He fancied himself a writer and rewrote scenes which we'd try to change on the set, but eventually he'd make us dub it the way he had written it, putting single words back in. The rest of us on the set got along beautifully. It was still a good picture because of what Don did with it."
  • "Don's tough," said Richard Widmark. "He could have slid over the ending we wanted. He could have said, 'Let's shoot it and get it over with.' It was the end of the picture and we were all tired. But no sir. He fought like a bastard. A director can't operate on the idea that everyone has to like him. If he does, somewhere along the line reality is going to hit." Widmark called Siegel one of the three best directors he ever worked with, along with John Ford and Elia Kazan. "He's efficient, organized, quiet, and in total command. You never feel any loose ends. And he has taste."

Television series

In 1972, Widmark reprised the title role (literally bringing the character back from the dead) for the NBC television series Madigan. The series ran as part of the NBC Mystery Movie series, sharing its timeslot with several other programs. It only lasted a single season, producing 6 episodes.

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