Review of Coogan's Bluff (1968) by Melvin W — 23 Oct 2011
Coogan: All right now, I don't like violence, Mr. Wonderful whatever your name is. You better drop that blade, or you won't believe what happens next, even while it's happening. .
"Before "Dirty Harry"... there was Coogan.".
A pre-Dirty Harry team up of Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood is pretty much what you would expect. It is Clint Eastwood playing his Harry Callahan character even before that character existed. The movie is nothing special, but if you like Eastwood, and you like Siegel; you can't really go wrong with Coogan's Bluff. I liked it for Siegel's cool ariel chase sequences and Eastwood's one-liners. Eastwood's character is a man of few words, fewer rules and many women.
An Arizona deputy comes to New York in order to take a prison back with him. When he gets there he is told that the prisoner is in a hospital, tripping on LSD and that he will just have to wait. But he doesn't play by the rules, so he hatches a scheme to get him out and go to Arizona, but the culprit gets away and the rest of the movie I am sure you can guess. .
The film is definitely fun. It has the standard cop plot, with some awesome camera work. It has its problems, like a horrible depiction of the hippy scene with some of the most cliche stoner behavior I have ever seen. But other than I few plot missteps it is still a good first collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood. It isn't as good as Dirty Harry or near the brilliance of Escape from Alcatraz, but entertaining all the same.
This review of Coogan's Bluff (1968) was written by Melvin W on 23 Oct 2011.
Coogan's Bluff has generally received mixed reviews.
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