Coogan's Bluff (1968 Don Siegel)

Oh dear. Time has not been kind to Coogan's Bluff -  it seems more dated than our recent thirties films and Clint seems to have reversed in the cool stakes since The Good The Bad and the Ugly - he's a kind of randy raccoon - quite embarrassing. Grotesque characters abound in Arizona sheriff-out-of-water in NYC comic book violence crazyland.

Important, I know, because of the teaming of Clint and Siegel - they went on to better things. Blame the writers (none of whom I'd heard of - similarly the cameraman and editor). The awful highlight is the 'groovy' 'Pigeon Toed Orange Peel' section which is so bad it warrants inclusion in a Family Guy episode.

For the record, actors are Lee J Cobb, Susan Clark, Tisha Sterling, Don Stroud and - get this for weird - King's Row's Betty Field as the psycho's mother.

Lalo Schifrin's score - piano, vibes, percussion - is very much of the moment. Some nice location shooting at least. Bruce Surtees was sitting backwards with a hand held Arriflex filming the bike chase, in freezing and slippery conditions. Alexander Golitzen is credited as a production designer.

What's the 'bluff' of the title anyway?

Clint even back then had the clout to reject the script which he 'hated'. Siegel encouraged him to read the first three versions, then the two of them did a cut and paste job to get it into order. Then Dean Reisner took over. Siegel claims that the Universal computer mixed up two other directors and came up with his name by mistake, but Richard Schickel's book make the more believable claim that agent Jennings Lang was the one who recommended Siegel for the project.