1970s
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THE LAST RUN (Dir. Richard Fleischer, 1971, US)
* * * I must have TCM’s greatest hits on speed dial. Howard Hawks is probably a major link when it comes Michael Mann’s proletariat time obsessed professionals and potentially Melville’s polar films but George S Scott’s Harry Garmes, an ex-driver for organized crime and modelled on Bogart, seems to be a notable precursor to Continue reading
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THE DON IS DEAD (Dir. Richard Fleischer, 1973, US)
* * Richard Fleischer’s The Don is Dead (1973) may have been one of those projects that was greenlit into existence on the back of the unprecedented box office success of The Godfather. Unlike The Godfather which weaves a narrative about the corporation through family, Fleischer’s instincts are somewhat different, shining a light on arguably Continue reading
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MAN ON A SWING (Dir. Frank Perry, 1974, US) – Trust in Me
* * * Since the 1970s American film canon is so rich, much has slipped through, which makes discovery altogether more pleasurable. The work of director Frank Perry is a major blind spot for me. I think the only film of his I had seen was The Swimmer (1968), a counter culture work which stars Continue reading
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THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN (Dir. Stuart Rosenberg, 1973, US)
* * * When a gunman opens fire on a late-night bus in San Francisco, establishing the idea of a killer on the loose in a city one would naturally assume this is going to be the first of many brutal public executions. I blame Siegel’s Dirty Harry (1971), which was released a few years, Continue reading
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THE OUTFIT (Dir. John Flynn, 1973, US) – ‘The Good Guys Always Win…
* * * * Flynn’s The Outfit, based on the prolific crime writer Donald Westlake, followed on the heels of Peckinpah’s The Getaway which was released a year before in 1972. In fact, if one was going to cite a key film in terms of attempting to contextualise a kind of cinematic lineage then it Continue reading
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