Runtime: 112 minutes
Directed by: Stuart Rosenberg
Starring: Walter Matthau, Bruce Dern, Louis Gossett, Jr., Anthony Zerbe, Albert Paulsen
From: 20th Century Fox
In this earlier than typical Friday posting, last night seemed like the right time to experience a Bruce Dern movie. A long while ago, on YouTube there briefly was a copy of this film; beforehand, its existence was unknown to me. I skimmed through it before the movie was deleted—I was amused not only by Dern w/ a gigantic porn 'stache but also Walter Matthau as the lead character, a rather gruff & somber San Francisco police officer. Its title is nonsensical in this context but it was originally a Swedish crime novel (of all things) that found some fame after it was translated into English. The movie adaptation is incredibly loose, judging via my reading of a Wikipedia article. In the novel, the title actually makes sense.
In the film, Matthau's attitude is understandable; there's a mass shooting via a submachine gun on a bus which is chilling in 2024 for obvious reasons but must have been stunning 50 years ago... for unknown reasons, his cop partner is on the bus when he shouldn't have been & was one of the victims. In a movie with a pacing methodical even by my standards, the viewer is required to pay attention to piece the clues together rather than having their hand held like we usually get now. It kept my interest throughout as time is spent showing the police department (including an early role for Louis Gossett, Jr.) working the case on the bus right after the massacre, tracking down dead ends, bad tips from informants, the procedural aspects of a police procedural, etc.
The Laughing Policeman won't be for all tastes due to the pacing, a frosty relationship between the two leads that barely thaws into a begrudging respect, the lack of humor and yep, some casual racism/sexism/homophobia. The latter point, other cop movies of the time have aged far worse in that respect but here you will still hear terms like “boy” and “fruiter.” Regardless, while this is a movie where only some will enjoy it even more than I did, many can appreciate the pleasant jazz music heard throughout and/or the wide variety of different San Francisco areas visited throughout.
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