Eastwood plays the part of a veteran deputy sheriff from a rural county in Arizona who travels to New York City to extradite an apprehended fugitive named Jimmy Ringerman, played by Stroud, who is wanted for murder.
The name of the film itself is a reference to a New York City natural landmark, Coogan's Bluff, a promontory in upper Manhattan overlooking the site of the former long-time home of the New York Giants baseball club, the Polo Grounds, with a double-meaning derived from the name of the lead character.
Plot
Arizona deputy sheriff Walt Coogan is sent to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman. Detective Lieutenant McElroy informs him that Ringerman is recovering from an overdose of LSD, cannot be moved until the doctors release him, and that Coogan needs to get extradition papers from the New York State Supreme Court.
Coogan flirts with probation officer Julie Roth and takes her out for lunch. He goes to the prison hospital and bluffs his way to Ringerman, tricks the attendants into turning him over, and sets out to catch a plane for Arizona. Before he can get to the airport, Ringerman's girlfriend Linny and a tavern owner named Pushie ambush Coogan and enable Ringerman to escape. Detective McElroy is furious with Coogan and warns him against playing policeman in New York.
Coogan learns Linny's name from a visit to Ringerman's mother. While he is at Roth's apartment for a home cooked supper Coogan learns that Roth is Linny's probation officer and he finds Linny's address in Roth's home files while Roth is in the kitchen cooking them supper. He tracks Linny to a nightclub, where she offers to lead him to Ringerman. Instead she takes Coogan to a pool hall where he is attacked by Pushie and a dozen men in a bloody battle. Coogan holds his own for a while but is eventually overpowered. After hearing sirens the men take off, but not before the beaten Coogan kills Pushie and two others. Detective McElroy finds the bar in pieces and a cowboy hat on the floor.
Coogan finds Linny and threatens to kill her if she does not lead him to Ringerman. She takes him to Ringerman who is hiding out at the Cloisters. He is armed with a gun stolen from Coogan. Ringerman gets away on his motorcycle and Coogan commandeers a motorcycle of his own. Coogan gives chase through Fort Tryon Park[2] and eventually captures Ringerman.
He hands the fugitive over to McElroy, who once again tells him to go to the DA's office and to let "the system handle this." Some time later Coogan, with Ringerman in cuffs, prepares to leave for the airport via helicopter from the helipad atop the Pan Am building. At the last minute Julie Roth runs up to the helicopter to give Coogan a long good-bye kiss. Coogan's last view is Julie Roth waving goodbye from the helipad as the helicopter lifts off.
Before Hang 'Em High had been released, Eastwood had set to work on Coogan's Bluff, a project which saw him reunite with Universal Studios after an offer of $1 million, more than doubling his previous salary.[3][4]Jennings Lang was responsible for the deal. Lang was a former agent of Don Siegel, a Universal contract director who was invited to direct Eastwood's second major American film. Eastwood was not familiar with Siegel's work but Lang arranged for them to meet at Clint's residence in Carmel. Eastwood had seen three of Siegel's earlier films, was impressed with his directing and the two became friends, forming a close partnership in the years that followed.[5]
The idea for Coogan's Bluff originated in early 1967 as a TV series and the first draft was drawn up by Herman Miller and Jack Laird, screenwriters for Rawhide.[6] It is about a character named Sheriff Walt Coogan, a lonely deputy sheriff working in New York City.
After Siegel and Eastwood had agreed to work together, Howard Rodman and three other writers were hired to devise a new script as the new team scouted for locations including New York City and the Mojave desert.[5] However, Eastwood surprised the team one day by calling an abrupt meeting and professed to strongly dislike the script, which by now had gone through seven drafts, preferring Herman Miller's original concept.[5] This experience would also shape Eastwood's distaste for redrafting scripts in his later career.[5]
Eastwood and Siegel hired a new writer, Dean Riesner, who had written for Siegel in the Henry Fonda TV film Stranger on the Run. Eastwood did not communicate with the screenwriter until one day Riesner criticized a scene Eastwood had liked which involved Coogan having sex with Linny Raven in the hope that she would take him to her "boyfriend". According to Riesner, Eastwood's "face went white and gave me one of those Clint looks".[7]
The two soon reconciled their differences and worked on a script in which Eastwood had considerable input. Don Stroud was cast as the psychopathic criminal Coogan is chasing, Lee J. Cobb as the disagreeable New York City Police Department lieutenant, Susan Clark as a probation officer who falls for Coogan and Tisha Sterling as the drug-using lover of Stroud's character. Coogan's Bluff was the final film appearance of actress Betty Field, who died in 1973.[7] Filming began in November 1967 even before the full script had been finalized.[7]
Reception
“As Walt Coogan, the twentieth-century personification of nineteenth-century values and ethics, Eastwood strides through the urban landscape, breaking rules and offending those upon whom he depends for help. Lee J. Cobb, as a police Lieutenant, into whose domain Eastwood stalks, tells him angrily that ‘We’ve got a system here. Not much, but we’re fond of it.’”[8]
Coogan's Bluff was released in the United States in October 1968, where it grossed over $3.1 million.[9] The film was controversial for its portrayal of violence, but it had launched a collaboration between Eastwood and Siegel that lasted more than ten years, and set the prototype for the macho hero that Eastwood would play in the Dirty Harry films.[citation needed] The script of the film inspired the McCloud television series that starred Dennis Weaver.[10]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 95% based on reviews from 19 critics.[11][12]Roger Ebert gave it 3 out of 4.[13]Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave it a negative review, and wrote: "The screenplay is so predictable in situation and so arch in its supposedly tough, blunt, wise talk that it turns into a joke told by someone with no sense of humor."[14] In 2006 Kim Newman of Empire magazine, gave the film 4 out of 5, calling it a "New York cop thriller with a touch of the Western and a touch of the Eastwood...and all the better for it."[15]
Quentin Tarantino said the film "plays like a trial run for the next twenty years of action cinema. It's with Coogan's Bluff that Eastwood would establish his post Leone persona. A persona that would dominate action cinema for the next twenty-five years."[16]
Home media
The DVD version of Coogan's Bluff is edited by approximately three minutes in all regions for unknown reasons. The missing scenes include Coogan receiving his assignment to return Ringerman from New York, a short scene in a hospital, and a scene in which Julie talks about Coogan's Bluff, a lookout point over the ocean near New York (the real Coogan's Bluff is a site on Manhattan Island between Washington Heights and Harlem), tying the location into the film's title. The earlier video release did not have these edits, and was released uncut.[17]
Donald Siegel was an American film and television director and producer.
Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American action thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first appearance as San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. The film drew upon the real-life case of the Zodiac Killer as the Callahan character seeks out a similar vicious psychopath.
Play Misty for Me is a 1971 American psychological thriller film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, his directorial debut. Jessica Walter and Donna Mills co-star. The screenplay, written by regular Eastwood collaborators Jo Heims and Dean Riesner, follows a radio disc jockey (Eastwood) being stalked by an obsessed female fan (Walter).
McCloud is an American police drama television series created by Herman Miller, that aired on NBC from September 16, 1970, to April 17, 1977. The series starred Dennis Weaver, and for six of its seven years as part of the NBC Mystery Movie rotating wheel series that was produced for the network by Universal Television. The show was centered on Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud of the small western town of Taos, New Mexico, who was on loan to the metropolitan New York City Police Department (NYPD) as a special investigator.
The Enforcer is a 1976 American neo-noir action thriller film and the third in the Dirty Harry film series. Directed by James Fargo, it stars Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, Tyne Daly as Inspector Kate Moore, and DeVeren Bookwalter as criminal mastermind Bobby Maxwell. It was also the last film in the series to feature John Mitchum as Inspector Frank DiGiorgio.
The Beguiled is a 1971 American Southern Gothic psychological thriller film directed by Don Siegel, starring Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Hartman. The script was written by Albert Maltz and is based on the 1966 novel written by Thomas P. Cullinan, originally titled A Painted Devil. The film marks the third of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968) and Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), and continuing with Dirty Harry (1971) and Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
High Plains Drifter is a 1973 American Western film directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Ernest Tidyman, and produced by Robert Daley for The Malpaso Company and Universal Pictures. The film stars Eastwood as a mysterious stranger who metes out justice in a corrupt frontier mining town. The film was influenced by the work of Eastwood's two major collaborators, film directors Sergio Leone and Don Siegel. In addition to Eastwood, the film also co-stars Verna Bloom, Mariana Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Ging, and Stefan Gierasch.
Escape from Alcatraz is a 1979 American prison action thriller film directed and co-produced by Don Siegel, written by Richard Tuggle, and starring Clint Eastwood alongside Patrick McGoohan, Fred Ward, Jack Thibeau, and Larry Hankin with Danny Glover appearing in his film debut.
Two Mules for Sister Sara is a 1970 American-Mexican Western film in Panavision directed by Don Siegel and starring Shirley MacLaine set during the French intervention in Mexico (1861–1867). The film was to have been the first in a five-year exclusive association between Universal Pictures and Sanen Productions of Mexico. It was the second of five collaborations between Siegel and Eastwood, following Coogan's Bluff (1968). The collaboration continued with The Beguiled and Dirty Harry and finally Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
Donald Lee Stroud is an American actor, musician, and surfer. Stroud has appeared in over 100 films and 200 television shows.
Madigan is a 1968 American neo-noir crime drama thriller film directed by Don Siegel and starring Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda and Inger Stevens.
Herman Miller was a Hollywood film writer and producer.
Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American revisionist Western film directed by Ted Post and written by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching; Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him; Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched Cooper; and Pat Hingle as the federal judge who hires him as a Deputy U.S. Marshal.
Dirty Harry is an American neo-noir action thriller film series featuring San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan. There are five films: Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988). Clint Eastwood portrayed Callahan in all five films and directed Sudden Impact.
Walter Lee Barnes was an American football guard and actor who played in National Football League (NFL) for four seasons. He played in the (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles and in college at Louisiana State University. Barnes was an actor in both American and European films. He appeared in several films with John Wayne, Lex Barker, and Clint Eastwood.
Dean Riesner was an American film and television writer.
Joe Kidd is a 1972 American Western film starring Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall, written by Elmore Leonard and directed by John Sturges.
Bruce Mohr Powell Surtees was an American cinematographer, the son of Maydell and cinematographer Robert L. Surtees. He is best known for his extensive work on Clint Eastwood's films. His cinematography was compared to that of the Dollars trilogy of Sergio Leone.
Gran Torino is a 2008 American drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, who also starred in the film. This was Eastwood's first starring role since 2004's Million Dollar Baby. The film features a large Hmong-American cast, as well as one of Eastwood's younger sons, Scott. Eastwood's oldest son of record, Kyle, composed the film's score with Michael Stevens, while Jamie Cullum and Clint Eastwood provide the theme song.
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