Madigan
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Movie Reviews of Madigan
Movie Review: Journeyman Cop Movie.
Summary: 3 Stars
One can only wonder what might have been made of a pretty good story with a great cast and director if it had been made somewhere other than the Universal factory which churned out more garbage over the decades than practically any other studio.Constrained by the loosening but not yet free film-making environment of 1968, Don Siegel keeps the film moving at a brisk pace while alternating his story from the efforts of two detectives (Richard Widmark & Harry Guardino) with 48 hrs to redeem themselves after losing the drop-on and their guns to a suspect, and the political and personal problems of the NY Police Commissioner (Henry Fonda). This view of the street cops who can and will bend the rules and the politics and stresses at the top of the beauracracy was fresh in 1968, but have been done to death since with the result that Madigan seems tame and dated now. While a little tougher in depiction for its time, and aided by location shooting and a tad more sexual explicitness, the movie is quaintly on that cusp between the sanitized early 60's and the explosion of explicit sex and violence in film that was yet to come. It bends the stereotypes but it doesn't break them.
Still and all, Don Siegel was a director that could move a story, and no film with Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, James Whitmore and Inger Stevens is without interest or merit. I was still entertained and found the characters & story very watchable, but I could only wish for a different studio and a later time that would have allowed for a grittier and more honest film. Nonetheless, it was a solid effort and had something to say about the dilemmas and conflicts of loyalty and honesty and doing the right thing. A good film at 3-1/2 stars that with this cast & story, might have been much better.
Movie Review: Not Widmarks finest moment !
Summary: 3 Stars
Madigan is a typical late 1960s to mid 1970s police drama with an aging Star (Widmark at 54) trying to resurrect his career and Henry Fonda (63) just going through the motions.
1968 New York was not very appealing in this movie with the Police dept. still based in an old brick bldg. that was used in the 1920s and 1930s and they still used the old 2 piece phones in the bldg.
Absolutely no modernism used at all in this movie, just talking & walking the beat.
The story is flat and of course they had to throw in a bit of brief nudity to sell the movie. Both Widmarks wife and Fondas girlfriend looked young enough to be their daughters.
James Whitmore was the only person who actually did any acting !
This movie is definitely for Widamrk fans only !
Movie Review: Lively, well-characterized police thriller with excellent locations...
Summary: 3 Stars
In the late Sixties there has been a tendency towards rough cops who are up against the system - whatever that is - yet who win through despite all odds... Richard Widmark was one of them...
In "Madigan" he is a solid, touchy New York detective who, like Quinn in "Across 110th Street," knows the people on his patch and knows how to handle them...
Unlike the Quinn character, however, he is honest to the nth degree... He will kill, beat and cheat to destroy the big villains, yet retains a curious affection for the little crooks that cross his path... One feels that if Madigan took a bribe, it would be secretly witnessed and the evidence produced in court to the ruination of some baddie...
Movie Review: Cops in Hats
Summary: 3 Stars
The second Don Siegel movie from 1968 about a cop in NYC hunting the killer who stole his gun. (Paging Dr. Freud.) Great NYC location work is mixed with some dreay backlot stuff in this otherwise good policer. We get a little too much of the cops' homelives, but there's a hard-hitting climax. (Plus the last line in the picture provides ironic resonance to the city's racial issues with law enforcement that haven't gone away since the picture's release. ) Nice brassy Don Costa score.Movie Review: a cop dies because he didn't wear his vest
Summary: 3 Stars
This film is a different era: even New York is cleaner
appearing here. The dirty cop is OK because
he is doing it to save his son.
The police commissioner is human because he is having an affair.
The detective sleeps at his girl friend's after a fight with his wife.
His wife gets drunk and almost sleeps with the single detective
her husband got for her date.
The blood and guts is not quite as bloody or gutsy?