Movie Details
| Title: | Coogan's Bluff | |
| Director: | Don Siegel | |
| Year: | 1968 | |
| Genre: | Cop | |
| Times Seen: | 2 | |
| Last Seen: | 03.03.23 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (9)
- The Beguiled
- Charley Varrick
- Dirty Harry
- Escape from Alcatraz
- The Lineup
- Madigan
- Private Hell 36
- Riot in Cell Block 11
- Two Mules for Sister Sara
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 03.03.23 | Internet | Next up is what I believe to be Eastwood's first picture with Siegel. Clint plays an Arizona deputy sheriff come to New York City for a prisoner transfer. The titular bluff happens when he attempts to cut through the big city red tape and his prisoner gets away. Imdb trivia tells me it's also a cliff, which I did not know. I liked this better than Madigan but mostly found it interesting that they were released the same year. I don't know what the production schedules were like but they share some cast (Susan Clark and Don Stroud) as well as that damn plastic bead curtain and what looks like a "city" backlot somewhere. Put together as a double feature, I actually like Madigan a bit more. Couple more things about this one. There's a late-60s hippie night club that fish-out-of-water Coogan visits in search of his prisoner called Pigeon-Toed Orange Peel. There's a cool sign and everything but there's also some band playing a song of the same name? Like the club has a theme song? I've never been there but I doubt every night doesn't start with some guy singing "SssssSsss We're in the Viper Room, baby!" I loved the dip into psychedelia there (this is my happening and it freaks me out!) and it's hilarious to see chisel-jawed Clint in his cowboy hat catching a flying naked painted hippie chick. Speaking of chicks, Eastwood is tenacious toward every uterus in the movie. I thought his first scenes with Susan Clark were not quite "cool" today, but then again that was probably his charm circa 1968... but then he sleeps with another character and I have to say that one made me scratch my head a bit. I guess his character is introduced as a scoundrel in the first scene with the beautiful Melodie Johnson ("Need a bigger target?" - "There ain't none in this county, Baby"), and I guess he was a major cocksman in real life too... but damn dude let a girl take a breath. Also, there's a pretty cool shot at the very end of the film taking off from a helipad on top of the Pan Am / Met Life building. Cool shift of scale as Susan Clark gets lost in the film grain. The motorcycle race at the end felt a little more like two dudes trying not to fall off than one trying to catch the other, but I suppose it was still cool enough. Overall, yeah I liked it. Didn't absolutely love it, but didn't get bored with it either. Alright, two more. |
| 02.10.07 | Netflix | Clint Eastwood plays Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff sent to NYC to retrieve a prisoner. Problems arise when he finds out said prisoner's locked up in Bellvue coming off a LSD trip. Coogan bluffs his way into the hospital to get him out but gets jumped at the airport and has to track the acidhead down again, through the 1968 hippie psychadelia culture. There's even a scene where he walks through a club with a cowboy hat on while the band plays "pidgeon-toed Orange Peel." Damn dirty hippies. For some reason, the title always made me think this was more like Donavan's Reef than Dirty Harry. I should've known though... with Don Siegel at the helm. I particularly liked how womanizing Eastwood is. I guess I'm used to seeing him full-on stoic and non-sexual at all but there's a hilarious bit in the beginning where he's in a bath and squirts the bar of soap up towards a woman's gigantic cleavage then makes a joke about how it's the biggest target in this county. Overall though, I didn't feel like I was watching a classic. There are a couple of moments and it's always cool to see Eastwood as a tough guy... it's a solid movie but nothing to write more than three paragraphs about. |
