Movie Type: Action Thriller, Police Detective Film
Themes: Flight of the Innocent, Miscarriage of Justice
Main Cast: David Janssen, Ed Begley, Sr., Keenan Wynn, Sam Wanamaker, Lillian Gish
Release Year: 1967
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
LAPD detective Sgt. Tom Valens (David Janssen) is a ten-year veteran of the force who has had more than his share of hard luck lately -- his marriage is a wreck, and he hasn't fully recovered from a serious wound suffered in the line of duty a year ago. He and his partner, Sgt. Ed Musso (Keenan Wynn), are working a stakeout one night at the Seascape Apartments, in hope of catching a killer who has already claimed three victims in that part of the city, when he confronts a man seemingly trying to sneak off the premises. The man tries to run, stops when ordered but starts to pull a gun, and Valens shoots him dead. The deceased turns out to be Dr. James B. Ruston, a well-known humanitarian and pillar of the community -- worse yet, the police can't find any trace of the gun Valens says he saw Ruston pull. Valens' nightmare builds gradually, as he's first assigned to a desk, then hung out to dry by an indifferent coroner (Carroll O'Connor) at an inquest, suspended from the force, and then indicted for manslaughter by a crusading prosecutor (Sam Wanamaker) with a personal ax to grind. Villified in the press and by protesters in the street, Valens has few even slightly sympathetic ears around him -- his partner, his captain (Ed Begley Sr.), and his soon-to-be-ex-wife (Joan Collins) -- and even fewer allies. The one attorney (Walter Pidgeon) with enough juice to fight the case on an even footing with the DA says he would only plead him guilty and try for a deal, based on his understanding of the law and of juries; and the one public pundit (Steve Allen) who takes his part is doing so for the most cynical of reasons. Valens realizes that the only way to save himself is to first prove that the so-called victim wasn't quite the candidate for sainthood that he seemed -- why did he run? -- and to find the missing gun. To do all of that, he's got to confront the victim's aggrieved patients (Lillian Gish), his alcoholic widow (Eleanor Parker), and his employees (Stefanie Powers), all of whom have every reason to hate Valens. He starts to dig into the doctor's finances and finds some anomalies that no one can explain (or wants to look at -- they'd rather hang Valens), and as he puts together the pieces of the puzzle, helped by a sympathetic tenant at Seascape (George Grizzard), Valens finds himself pursued by the doctor's thug of son and his friends with mayhem on their minds -- and someone else with a deadlier agenda. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
Buzz Kulik's Warning Shot (1967) was, on its face, an attempt by Paramount Pictures and producer Bob Banner to revive the 1940s-style crime drama. There were many such productions during the second half of the 1960s, theatrically from Frank Sinatra (The Detective, Tony Rome, Lady in Cement) and others (Madigan, etc.), and on television in the guise of series such as Mannix and made-for-TV features like Fame Is the Name of the Game. This was one of the best of them, and although there are moments -- especially in the opening credit design -- that make one think of a TV movie, the feature holds up well as a theatrical work. David Janssen starts out pretty dour as a hardboiled detective facing the end of his career and a possible prison term for a shooting that he believes -- knows -- was justified. He opens the movie looking and sounding like an even more serious version of Jack Webb's Sgt. Joe Friday (parts of this movie play like big-budget expansions of a Dragnet episode), and in the course of the plot, he gets pounded brutally, looking much worse for wear than he ever did on The Fugitive. The big-name stars who work with him give what amounts to generous cameo appearances -- the work of George Sanders, Steve Allen, Walter Pidgeon, and Eleanor Parker confined to a single scene each (likely an afternoon's work each). There are all kinds of period details that make this movie especially entertaining to see in the 21st century; Warning Shot came out of the ferment of the mid-'60s, a period in which the public was questioning the role and purpose of the police, and it sings with topicality, in its casting and look, and the Jerry Goldsmith score, a bold, angry-sounding jazz-rock-blues amalgam. Thanks to director Kulik's penchant for lots of odd camera angles and very busy editing, coupled with Joseph Biroc's carefully lit color cinematography, one does get a true '60s analog to the classic 1940s crime film in terms of visual style, and with a considerably greater dose of violence (there's also one refreshingly honest -- though now stereotyped -- depiction of a gay designer, played by Vito Scotti, no less). The movie also tells some sad truths about human nature, both individually and collectively, that more recent incidents of police shootings, in New York and elsewhere, remind us haven't changed in 40 years. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
