Coogan's Bluff (1968)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Don Siegel

Writers:

Herman Miller (screenplay) &
Dean Riesner (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

2 October 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime

Tagline:

Before "Dirty Harry"... there was Coogan.

Plot:

Coogan, an Arizona cop, is sent to New York to collect a prisoner. Everyone in New York assumes Coogan is from Texas...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Escape | Outlaw | Billiard Room | Chrysler Building New York City

Cast

Clint Eastwood	...	Coogan
Lee J. Cobb	...	Lt. McElroy
Susan Clark	...	Julie
Tisha Sterling	...	Linny Raven
Don Stroud	...	Ringerman
Betty Field	...	Mrs. Ringerman
Tom Tully	...	Sheriff McCrea
Melodie Johnson	...	Millie
James Edwards	...	Sgt. Jackson
Rudy Diaz	...	Running Bear
David Doyle	...	Pushie (as David F. Doyle)
Louis Zorich	...	Taxi Driver
Meg Myles	...	Big Red
Marjorie Bennett	...	Mrs. Fowler
Seymour Cassel	...	Young Hood

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Spain:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | West Germany:16 (re-rated) (DVD) | West Germany:18 (f) | USA:Approved (certificate #21735) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 (1993) | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R (re-rating) (1968)

Filming Locations:

23rd Precinct Building, 23rd Precinct, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Malpaso Company, The

Trivia:

Coogan's Bluff in New York City is the name of a large cliff extending northward from 155th Street in Manhattan. It once was the site of the fabled Polo Grounds, home of the New York baseball Giants, and the first home of the New York Mets before the Polo Grounds were demolished in 1964.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Coogan and Julie are talking in the area that overlooks the cloisters, Coogan at first is wearing his cowboy hat, the camera switches to Julie as she says something and back to Coogan. Lo and behold, his hat is gone, his hair is perfectly combed, he's got one hand in his pocket, and nothing in his other hand. Later his hat reappears in his hand, and he puts it back on as they walk off the scene.

Quotes:

Coogan: [panting] I'm making a citizen's arrest.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Eastwood & Co.: Making 'Unforgiven' (1992) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Pigeon-Toed Orange Peel

Terrific thriller classic

Even though not among his best-known thrillers, "Coogan's bluff" from 1968 is definitely a rather important and noteworthy movie in Clint Eastwood's long and esteemed career. It was his first cooperation with legendary Don Siegel who was stylishly working behind the camera. Eastwood was altogether the star of five movies Don Siegel directed and Siegel turned out to be one of the biggest mentors of him as a director.

Secondly Clint was a very popular and noted western star back in the late 60's. He had just played the leading character, the nameless cowboy in Sergio Leone's praised and beloved Dollars trilogy but his career in a cop thriller genre and the splendid Dirty Harry series was still ahead. "Coogan's bluff" was an extremely interesting changing over from one genre to another.

Eastwood played Sheriff Coogan and it was clearly a cowboy role, no doubt, but everything else around him, the big city with big city criminals, sleazy taxi drivers, hippies, prostitutes and so on weren't no longer from Coogan's world but rather from Harry Callahan's normal working day. "Coogan's bluff" is a terrific pre-Dirty Harry thriller classic and every Eastwood fan should watch it couple of hundred times. 9/10.