Report To The Commissioner
directed by Milton Katselas
directed by Milton Katselas
Report To The Commissioner and The French Connection shared the same screenwriter in Ernest Tidyman, so perhaps it's not too surprising that the cop played by Yaphet Kotto seems to have a lot in common with The French Connection's Popeye Doyle, right down to the porkpie hat.
Report To The Commissioner has understated social commentary. By today's standards the language is rough befitting the sort of story this film is trying to tell but the violence is minor and not explicit.
I haven't been to New York City in decades; I hear that compared to the seventies and eighties everything has been cleaned up and "Disneyfied".
This 1975 film takes place in the bad old days of live sex shows, garish neon, and big yellow Checker taxicabs. There's an excitement and energy to the film that leaps off the screen even when nothing much is happening.
That's not something that's easy to pull off. This movie makes New York City look like a smelly rotten den of iniquity full of lowlifes, ripoff artists, and corrupt government officials. It also makes it look like a place you might want to visit though perhaps not live.
Although friends and family who live in NYC tell me that NYC has a surprising number of green spaces, obviously compared to where I live that's not the case.
When I think NYC I think apartment buildings and concrete. That's what this movie shows. This movie is shown in flashbacks and interviews.
Beauregard "Bo" Lockley (Michael Moriarty, whom I remember from Law and Order) is a rookie undercover detective in NYC. Worse, he's something of a liberal and let's talk it out pacifist sort of fellow in a department disproportionately populated by racist conservatives who believe that force is the only way to deal with criminals (and any citizens who get on their nerves).
One such detective is the veteran Richard "Crunch" Blackstone (Yaphet Kotto) who despite being well, Black, accepts racist "joking" repartee from his fellow white detectives and regularly dishes out the same to Black suspects.
And Black or White, if you irritate Crunch he's going upside your head with a sap quicker than it took you to read this sentence.
Crunch is assigned Bo as a partner to break him in. Even though their working styles are worlds apart Crunch gains some grudging respect for Bo's beliefs and worldview.
Bo believes a kind word and a helping hand get you further than smacking people around, a belief he doesn't change even when he's mugged.
Another undercover cop named Patty Butler (Susan Blakely) is a rising NYPD star. Patty has busted dozens of low level drug dealers and gangsters.
Now Patty has set her sights on a high level heroin importer, Stick Henderson (Tony King).
But to really get the goods on Stick, Patty (undercover as supposed Midwest runaway Chicklet) wants to become Stick's girlfriend. Her supervisors are unhappy with this request. Personal relationships revealed in court could taint convictions. And Patty is White while Stick is Black.
But Patty's immediate supervisors want the credit for any resulting arrests and convictions. They figure it's easier to ask forgiveness than ask for permission.
Bo gets an assignment to look for the runaway "Chicklet" and takes it seriously, not knowing her true identity or that the higher ups were using him to give credence to Patty's cover story. Tragedy ensues.
Like many seventies films this movie assumes that the viewer has an attention span longer than 10 seconds. Things take time to develop.
This movie came out before Taxi Driver but Richard Gere here plays a pimp who looks and sounds much like the Harvey Keitel pimp from Taxi Driver. Vic Tayback, Hector Elizondo, William Devane, and Bob Balaban all have roles. This was a solid seventies movie with something to say about how institutions can grind people down.
