- DIRECTOR:
Barry Shear
- ACTORS:
Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Paul Benjamin, Ed Bernard, Richard Ward, Antonio Fargas, Norma Donaldson, Gilbert Lewis, Marlene Warfield
- PLOT:
When a mob-run operation is robbed in Harlem, gangsters, mafiosos, and police race to be the first to find the three suspects.
- EVALUATION:
Surprisingly good, with a shockingly violent heist, tons of sweaty tension, a great cast, and what became an even better theme song in its more widely released form.
- WRITING:
The most interesting aspect of the script is that Mattelli (Quinn) is an unrepentant racist who sometimes sincerely tries to help black people, which strikes me as realistically contradictory behavior.
- FILMING:
Great location filming and a few visual flourishes, the best of which is a cross-cut from a man falling down an elevator shaft to someone screaming in an epileptic fit.
- BEST PART:
Any time Richard Ward's scratchy voice is saying anything.
- TRIVIA:
Yaphet Kotto, Gloria Hendry and Arnold Williams are all featured in Live and Let Die.
- STINGER:
Guy getting his head pressed at the laundromat.
