My on location series of films set in San Francisco continued with the "buddy cop" comedy Freebie And The Bean. The movie was released in 1974, eight years before the "buddy cop" genre became a summer blockbuster staple with the hit 48 HRS.
The movie stars James Caan in a rare comedic role and Alan Arkin. They are two detectives working to bring down a local crime boss who runs a truck hijacking gang. They are trying to locate their star witness in order to make the arrest. But when they learn their is a contract out on the boss, they must spend a weekend trying to protect him, before they can arrest him.
The film makes use of many San Francisco locations including Candlestick Park on Super Bowl Sunday. There are multiple car chases involving hundreds of cars and a third floor apartment.
The film would have worked better as a straight action thriller with the two cops being funny with each other. Instead some of the comedy is to over the top. The film is funny when it should be serious and overly violent for a comedy. There is a sub-plot involving bean's wife (Valerie Harper) and a suspected affair that works. The movie also has a bit of a surprise at the end. Arkin and Caan spend a lot of time yelling at each other with over lapping dialogue so it's hard to hear what they say. You cans see Arkin put this type of character to better use in the 1979 comedy The In-Laws.
I saw this film when I was 15 and I didn't remember it very well. It was big hit back in 1974 and even spawned a brief TV series based on the characters.
At The Movie House rating **
No comments:
Post a Comment