Called in to take over direction from Blake Edwards after ‘creative differences,’* Richard Benjamin (in just his third film) can’t find a rhythm to make this featherweight 1930s period piece play. Clint Eastwood & Burt Reynolds (working under his own hair), cop and P.I. in a glossy if never-named Kansas City*, were the commercial impetus for making the film, but Clint comes off primus inter pares. And while everyone works to keep this from becoming too cute for words, they only fitfully succeed in resuscitating the hoary tropes. You can see what they were up against: jazz clubs and book-keeping swindles; an unsolved murder and romance starved dames (Madeline Kahn & Jane Alexander, both underused); machine-gun rubouts & boxing action. Slick & watchable at a quick 93", you can spot the stars using their pull behind the scenes: Burt gets a favored cinematographer; Clint gets his preferred composer and a final rewrite. You can also spot something going on with Reynolds’ weight. Whenever he takes off the raincoat, he seems to drop twenty pounds. (Apparently, the result of a stunt injury early in the shoot.)
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Working similar terrain, Robert Altman’s KANSAS CITY/’96 is a less light-hearted 1930s jazz-infused underworld drama. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2023/04/kansas-city-1996.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK: *Edwards’ pseudonym is Sam O. Brown (S.O.B.). But he got an even better last laugh, since ankling this freed up his schedule for one of the rare films he directed but didn’t write, MICKI & MAUDE/’84, one of his best late works. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/05/micki-maude-1984.html On the other hand, Edwards repurposed ideas from here into the slapdash SUNSET/’88.
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