The Laughing Policeman (1973)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Stuart Rosenberg

Writers:

Per Wahlöö (novel) &
Maj Sjöwall (novel) ...

Release Date:

23 January 1974 (Sweden)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

This movie is so real it makes every other movie in this town look like a movie.

Plot:

In San Francisco, one victim in a mass murder is a police detective. His partner and a new partner investigate in the city's seamy side.

Plot Keywords:

Bus | Killer | Detective | Investigation | Sub Machine Gun

Cast

Walter Matthau	...	Sgt. Jake Martin SFPD
Bruce Dern	...	Insp. Leo Larsen SFPD
Louis Gossett Jr.	...	Insp. James Larrimore SFPD (as Lou Gossett)
Albert Paulsen	...	Henry Camerero
Anthony Zerbe	...	Lt. Nat Steiner SFPD
Val Avery	...	Insp. John Pappas SFPD
Cathy Lee Crosby	...	Kay Butler
Mario Gallo	...	Bobby Mow, Snitch
Joanna Cassidy	...	Monica, Beth's Roomate
Shirley Ballard	...	Grace Martin
William Hansen	...	Mr. Schwermer, Bus Vicitm
Jonas Wolfe	...	Det. Mike Collins
Paul Koslo	...	Duane Haygood, Drug Pusher
Louis Guss	...	Gus Niles / Andrew Medford - Bus Victim
Frances Lee McCain	...	Prostitute (as Lee McCain)

Also Known As:

An Investigation of Murder (UK)

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Singapore:NC-16

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

When Larsen (Bruce Dern) and Martin (Walter Matthau) are on the way to pick up explosives from the Hell's Angels, the tune "Big Noise From Winnetka" plays in the background. Dern went to New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the morgue scene, early in the film, there are a few "corpses" breathing. On one corpse, the toes curl.

Quotes:

Sgt. Jake Martin SFPD: I want you to help me follow Henry Camarero for a few days, that's all.
Insp. Leo Larsen SFPD: Why?
Sgt. Jake Martin SFPD: Well he knows me from the original Teresa investigation...
Insp. Leo Larsen SFPD: [cutting off Jake] No, I mean why do you suddenly need me for anything? You've been doing this all by yourself all along. I've seen you. You never even bothered to show me the picture you showed the man upstairs just now.
Sgt. Jake Martin SFPD: Evans was following Gus Niles, right? Well I think Niles wanted Evans to follow him.
Insp. Leo Larsen SFPD: You mean you think he was setting the kid up?
Sgt. Jake Martin SFPD: That's exactly what I think.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hot Times (1974)

Soundtrack:

Ain't We Got Fun

From the golden age of urban American film

From a period before marketing departments and focus groups took over the movie industry and began pumping out formulaic happy-ended regurgitated baby food, The Laughing Policeman offers gritty urban drama, acted by the great character actors of the day, actors that filled out such classics as The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon...

It's shortcomings are there, to be sure, but as a stylistic gem - as a sample of the type of movies they just don't or can't make anymore, it's worth watching. Matthau is as angry and as serious as you've ever seen him - a performance sterner that even the MTA traffic official in The Taking of Pelham 123.

There is no formula here - no overbearing Sargent hanging over the detectives, no goofing off in the office downtown to lighten things up. No romantic interest or hot sex scene crammed in between bullets.This is reality, harsh and complicated - if you can handle it, that is.