Badge 373

Badge 373 (1973)

Runtime: 116 minutes

Directed by: Howard W. Koch

Starring: Robert Duvall, Verna Bloom, Henry Darrow, Felipe Luciano

From: Paramount

Here’s a curio. It is a movie never released on DVD yet one time it was on TCM (it was during a month where they paid tribute to Hispanics and even though the movie’s portray of Puerto Ricans is not flattering, to say the least, it still had many of its top actors during the time period) and a few days ago on a TMC channel they showed the flick, so I caught it that way. It is one of those movies based on the exploits of Eddie Egan, who is now most famous for being the inspiration for “Popeye” Doyle of The French Connection fame. Now, I got to be honest here. The one time I saw that movie, I wasn’t blown away by it and in fact I wondered why it was so beloved. Sure, the famed car chase was cool and all. The rest of it, though, did nothing for me, and I remember not really liking the two lead cops, which is definitely a problem.

Then again, it can be tough to like the lead here, known as Eddie Ryan. Played by Duvall, he’s a gruff cop who clearly has his prejudices. He uses a certain Hispanic slur (it’s a four letter word starting with S) about 10 times and it can be difficult to like that sort of protagonist. At least here he can be outrageously funny. For example, a suspect calls him a maricon and Ryan responds, “I bet you’ve taken it up the chocolate-covered speedway a few times, haven’t you?” and says to a prostitute, “Listen, you coked-up whore bitch!” That sort of dialogue makes me laugh, as politically incorrect as it is.

However, the movie overall is average at best. It’s overlong and despite a fun first ten minutes where Ryan goes in disguise as a club patron (with giant fake mustache) in order to be part of a bust, the rest of the movie can be downright dull at times and the story (involving guns and Puerto Rican independence) isn’t anything special. There’s some unintentional laughs but that’s about it. However, the music is early 70’s grooviness, and I at least enjoyed that. It was done by J.J. Jackson, the guy famous for the oldies staple But It’s Alright (covered in the 80’s by Huey Lewis);

It’s a shame, as Duvall delivers the expected good performance. I just wish that aside from some nice dramatic moments scattered throughout, that there’d be more of this movie than there was. It doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be on DVD, though.

I’ll be back Monday night with a foreign flick, and while I’ve only seen clips of it as of this time, I already know it’ll be quite the review.