Review of The Seven-Ups (1973) by Tonypolito — 12 May 2014

This gritty '70s New York City copper caper is produced and directed by Philip D'Antoni, who also produced "Bullitt" and "The French Connection." Though it doesn't exactly make the hat trick, the film well qualifies for third place in such a triple bill.

Roy Scheider, ringleader of a quartet of street cops who bag their busts by bending the rules, inadvertently stumbles into a roost of small-time thugs using boosted badges to kidnap and ransom wiseguys.

The Manhattan car chase, embedded about midway in the film, heavily borrows its choreography from its sibling films, complete with thundering motor-blocks, springy-sprung foothill-jumping and pedestrian near-misses.

The thugs speed off in a 1973 455-cube Pontiac Grand Ville land yacht (essentially a rebadged big-block Caddy DeVille) - and Scheider peels out for the chase in his 1973 350-cube Pontiac Ventura (essentially a rebadged 351 Chevy Nova). Then it's zippity-do-da through mid-town traffic, up the Henry Hudson Parkway and across the upper lanes of the GW. The chase finale is supposedly a remembrance toward Jayne Mansfield's fatal accident.

Most every scene is bursting with authentic Manhattan backdrops from the day - many quite gritty indeed - and that alone makes a strong case for its viewing. The plot's a little weak, in that the viewer sees all the cards face up well before the Act 1 curtain and needs only munch popcorn waiting for Scheider to sniff out his way to trail's end.

And no viewer should expect Scheider to save lines such as "we can do this the easy way or the hard way.".

The disc's an unlabelled flipper; the obverse contains the wide-screen and a brief (and very-grainy) "making of the chase scene" doc.

RECOMMENDATION: Viewers that especially enjoyed "Bullitt," "French Connection," "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3" and/or "Cops and Robbers" should give it a spin.