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Tuesday, April 7, 2020

52 PICKUP (1986)

A couple of years after barely touching on the plot of an Elmore Leonard novel they bought for THE AMBASSADOR/’84, schlock producers Yoram Globus & Menahem Golan tried again, initiated this time by director John Frankenheimer who brought in Elmore Leonard (of all people) as co-scripter. This made all the difference. A crackerjack L.A. Neo-Noir (location moved from the book's Detroit to help the budget), it’s a decidedly nasty piece of work as Roy Scheider’s high-tech industrialist is blackmailed for infidelity by a trio of amoral sadists just as his high-profile politico wife, Ann-Margaret, is gaining a spot on the election ballot. More violent than you expect, funnier, too, in a sick way, with an ‘80s porn-industry background to justify lots of ‘tittie’ action. No small thing for Globus/Golan International sales. With clever crisscross plotting as Scheider works fissures between blackmailers Robert Trebor (gay), Clarence Williams III (revolutionary black) & John Glover (going to town as a smooth sociopath). The compromises of working with Globus/Golan occasionally show (that score!), but Frankenheimer (not at a good place in his career) comes thru with what often feels like a proto-Quentin Tarantino vibe, largely from Elmore Leonard’s off-the-beat gags & threat.*

DOUBLE-BILL: *That Elmore Leonard/Tarantino connection made plain in JACKIE BROWN/’97.

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