Coogan's Bluff (1968)
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Synopsis: This fish-out-of-water film was the beginning of a long association between Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood, who stars as the eponymous deputy sheriff from Arizona. The cowboy-cop is sent to New York City to extradite escaped murderer James Ringerman (Don Stroud), only to be told by police... This fish-out-of-water film was the beginning of a long association between Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood, who stars as the eponymous deputy sheriff from Arizona. The cowboy-cop is sent to New York City to extradite escaped murderer James Ringerman (Don Stroud), only to be told by police lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb) that the killer is recovering from an acid trip at Bellevue Hospital and can be released only with his doctors' approval. After some low-key flirtation with probation officer Julie Roth (Susan Clark), Coogan decides to take the bull by the horns and tricks Ringerman's Bellevue attendants into releasing him. However, on the way to the airport, the Arizona-bound cop is waylaid by Ringerman's amusingly wacked-out girlfriend, Linny (Tisha Sterling), and beaten senseless by a goon, allowing his prisoner to escape. Later, while in Julie's apartment, he surreptitiously extracts Linny's file to get her address and tracks her to an Electric Circus-like club whose habitués he regards with utter disdain, and he persuades the ditsy woman to take him back to her apartment. An amusing action film, COOGAN'S BLUFF makes much of the irony of the laconic Old West, with Eastwood being equally put off by both the bureaucratically hamstrung cops and the acid-fueled hippies. Cobb and Clark are good in supporting roles. [More]
Genre: Action/Adventure
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Susan Clark, Don Stroud, Tisha Sterling
Screenwriter: Herman Miller, Dean Riesner, Howard A. Rodman
Producer: Don Siegel
Composer: Lalo Schifrin
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Reviews
This urban Western, the first collaboration with Don Siegel, is a significant transitional film in Eastwood's career and screen image, situated between his 1960s Spaghetti Westerns and the Dirty Harry film series of the 1970s.
A subtrama romântica é dispensável e J. Cobb é desperdiçado pelo filme. Ainda assim, Eastwood transforma o lacônico Coogan em um personagem interessante nesta sua primeira parceria com Siegel.


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