Fuzz
directed by Richard Colla
directed by Richard Colla
This 1972 movie was based on the novel of the same name written by Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Lombino, who is best known by his pen name of Ed McBain. Hunter also wrote the film's screenplay. Many of "McBain's" novels were set in NYC's 87th precinct but this movie was set in Boston. Fuzz had two big stars in Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch but they didn't click together for at least two reasons.
(1) The film was conceived and executed as an ensemble "dramedy".
(2) According to Reynolds, Welch was not happy, to put it mildly, that Reynolds had higher billing and the associated higher pay. Welch refused to work with Reynolds.
Their two characters were rarely in the same scene together and again according to Reynolds when they were Welch insisted on using body doubles for dialogue so that she wouldn't be there. Welch was also annoyed with what she thought was excessive attention to her beauty/body; she made the director tone down a scene she thought was needlessly revealing.
As mentioned this is a dramedy-a mixture of drama and comedy. The comedy is not slapstick. It's just rumination on life's absurdities. A typical example is when an earnest white city electrician assures a Black detective that he's not racist because after all he gets along with <racial slur> just fine. The detective's reaction is direct.
In Boston's 87th precinct a group of bumbling detectives must solve a number of crimes. These include a serial rapist, a string of robberies, a rash of arson attacks on homeless men, and an extortionist who is targeting high ranking city politicians and officials for murder.
And if that's not enough on the cops' plate, the police station is being repainted. It's chaos. The painters have people working in the wrong offices, have moved or damaged important files, talk all the time, and worst of all are very slow workers.
The detectives include Reynolds and Welch, along with Tom Skerritt, Jack Weston, and James McEachin. Yul Brynner appears as a mysterious criminal mastermind..
There are many mistakes and mixups. My problem with the movie is that I didn't think that it properly balanced the humor with the seriousness of the crimes. There are people being raped, murdered, and set on fire.
One minute the viewer is smirking at some bureaucratic paradox and the next some politician is being shot in the head. Some directors/writers can tie together those events better than others. Much of the film's humor would likely not go over well today. The movie ran a little long at ninety minutes. But it definitely has that seventies vibe that I like.
