Coogan's Bluff [Blu-ray]

Director: Don Siegel, Donald Siegel Don Siegel

Overview

Clint Eastwood stars as Walt Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff who has been sent to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman (Don Stroud). On arrival, he's forced to wait by NYPD detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb), who informs him that Ringerman is recovering from a bad acid trip at Bellevue Hospital. After briefly flirting with attractive probation officer Julie Roth (Susan Clark), Coogan heads for Bellevue, where he's able to con the hospital's staff into releasing the criminal. The cop and the fugitive are on the way to catch a flight back to Arizona, when Ringerman's hippie girlfriend Linny (Tisha Sterling) and a large accomplice spirit the killer away, leaving Coogan unconscious. Luckily, Julie is the girl's probation officer, and Coogan manages to get her address from the woman's files while getting to know her better. He tracks the girl to a popular psychedelic club, whereupon, deciding she likes the deputy, she takes him back to her apartment for further interrogation. The first in a series of films on which Eastwood would collaborate with director Don Siegel, it features a memorable scene in which a battle fought with billiard balls and cue sticks suggests the birth of a new martial art. Although its seemingly innocuous scenes of sex and violence drew criticism at the time, it served as the source for television's considerably more benign McCloud, starring Dennis Weaver as the laconic fish out of water.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/03/2021
UPC:	0738329254735
Original Release:	1968
Rating:	R
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:33:00
Sales rank:	16,351

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Clint Eastwood	Coogan
Susan Clark	Julie
Tisha Sterling	Linny Raven
Betty Field	Mrs. Ringerman
Tom Tully	Sheriff McCrea
Lee J. Cobb	McElroy
Melodie Johnson	Millie,Millie
James Edwards	Jackson
Rudy Diaz	Running Bear
David Doyle	Pushie
Louis Zorich	Taxi Driver
Meg Myles	Big Red
Marjorie Bennett	Mrs. Fowler
Seymour Cassel	Young Hood
John Coe	Bellboy
Skip Battyn	Omega
Albert Popwell	Wonderful Digby
Conrad Bain	Madison Avenue Man
James Gavin	Ferguson
Albert Henderson	Desk Sergeant
Syl Lamont	Room Clerk
Jess Osuna	Prison Hospital Guard
Jerry Summers	Good Eyes
Antonia Rey	Mrs. Amador
Marya Henriques	Go-Go Dancer
James McCallion	Room Clerk
Diki Lerner	Gay Boy (uncredited)
George Fargo	Gay Boy (uncredited)
Bud Thackery	Actor
Donald Siegel	Actor,Elevator passenger
Lalo Schifrin	Actor,Musician,Composer
Irving Leonard	Actor
Herman Miller	Actor
Robert Surtees	Actor
Richard E. Lyons	Actor
Dean Riesner	Actor
Howard Rodman	Actor
David Brandon	Hippie Boy
Eve Brent	Hooker
Constance Davis	Mother
James Dukas	Prison Hospital Doctor
Larry Duran	Zig Zag
Andy Epper	Pool Player
Scott Hale	Dr. Scott
Ted Jacques	Detective
James Joyce	Man at Pigeon-Toed Orange Peel
James McEachin	Man
Jerry Chiat	Good Eyes
andere	Actor
Dean Reisner	Actor
Don Stroud	Ringerman
Kristoffer Tabori	Elevator passenger

Technical Credits

Herman Miller

Dean Riesner

Howard Rodman

Don Siegel	Director,Producer,Director
Paul Baxley	Stunts
Richard E. Lyons	Executive Producer,Producer
Jack Bolger	Sound Effects
Lyle Cain	Sound Effects
Herman Miller	Screenwriter
Dean Riesner	Screenwriter
Howard Rodman	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Waldon O. Watson	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
Paul Baxley Jr.	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

While Don Siegel's fish-out-of-water cop film is a stylish action film, it also features a fine understated comic performance by Clint Eastwood. The story concerns a Stetson-wearing deputy who comes to New York in pursuit of an escaped killer (Don Stroud). Apparently the only film Eastwood ever shot in New York, it derives its comic energy from the repugnance with which his uptight deputy regards almost everyone and everything he encounters in the city, from the compassion of social workers for obviously undeserving criminals, to the miles of red tape that tie cops in knots, to the more flagrant antics of the 1968 vintage counterculture. The expression on Eastwood's face as he observes the chemically influenced activities unfolding at a club based on the famed Electric Circus is alone worth the price of admission. More seriously, the casting of Stroud, an actor of limited talent and a physical presence hinting at recent simian ancestry, implies that the criminal is an animal being hunted in a urban jungle. In touching on the frustrations of police bureaucracy, it presages the Eastwood's enduringly popular Dirty Harry series. Aside from the star, Lee J. Cobb is also excellent as a put-upon cop, as is the spirited Susan Clark.