Written by Thomas Rickman from the novel 'Den Skrattande Polisen' by Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall, one of a series of novels featuring Stockholm detective Martin Beck, transplanted to seedy seventies San Francisco. Starring Walter Matthau in one of his dead serious roles, with Bruce Dern as his new associate trying to solve the murder of a busload of passengers. Dern rather steals the film - Matthau not only seems on low power, but the editing favours Dern also. (All Walter's biography says is he 'liked walking the hilly streets' of the city.) So I don't really know what's going on there. But there's a gradual warming up of relations between the two men (it never seems to go the other way round - two cops start out liking each other but by the end can't stand one another.)
The film is impressively detailed - the scenes in which the detectives minutely examine the murdered passengers and bus, and the hospital scenes, are almost documentary-like, played out with little music. (Thus when music does kick in later, it seems out of place.)
The plot revolves around an investigation by his murdered partner that links back to an earlier case of Matthau's he was unable to solve. I've got to admit I didn't really understand the villain's motivations, nor what he thinks he's doing at the end, about to shoot another busload of passengers with his 'grease gun'. Maybe it's his thing...
So it doesn't quite click but is interesting. With Lou Gossett, Albert Paulsen, Anthony Zerbe, Val Avery, Cathy Lee Crosby, Mario Gallo, Joanna Cassidy. Photographed by David M Walsh (Sleeper, Silver Streak, The Goodbye Girl) and edited by Bob Wyman.
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