Review of Coogan's Bluff (1968) by Donald W — 06 Nov 2013

This movie inspired the TV series McCloud starring Dennis Weaver. Don Siegel directed this movie. A few years latter Client Eastwood and Don Siegel made the movie Dirty Harry. In this movie Eastwood plays a Deputy Sheriff from Arizona who is sent to New York to transport a prisoner to Arizona.

The character's name is Coogan. They got his name from a rock formation in New York City. He is a womanizing cowboy who doesn't follow the rules in Arizona. He's kind of a more charming version of Dirty Harry.

The movie's theme is the culture clash between Arizona and New York. At the time the movie was made New York was in the first years of liberal rule that was tying the hands of the New York police with a cumbersome bureaucracy that would result in a dramatic rise in the crime rate during the 1970's and early 1980's.

Coogan wants to get home quickly and doesn't want to wait till his prisoner is release from a psychiatric hospital. He goes to the hospital and bluffs them into turning the prisoner over to him. At the top of the old Pan Am building he is mugged by the prisoner's girl friend and his buddies.

This was back in the day when you could ride a helicopter from the airport to the Pan Am Building and back. They don't allow that anymore. It's not the Pan Am Building anymore and the risk of a helicopter crash is too great.

They filmed the movie on location in New York so you get to see what the city looked like in 1968. After his prisoner escapes Coogan goes into the New York Discos to find him. This was about the time the Discos were just starting to get popular.

The movie is rated R because of the nudity at the Discos. They never explain what crime the bad guy committed in Arizona or why he had friends who would risk helping him escape. The underlying theme to the movie is that whenever the New Yorkers see Clint Eastwood in cowboy boots and hat they act like they think he's gay.

Then all during the movie Clint tries to pick-up every good looking woman he meets. In the short amount of time he's in New York he picks up a female parole officer and goes behind her back to find the name of the bad guy's girl friend.

After he recaptures the bad guy Coogan decides to let the system do its thing and when he leaves with his prisoner his New York girl friend is at the Pan Am Building to waive goodbye.