THOMPSON’S LAST RUN (1986)

Back when it was something of an event when an old-time movie star hit the small screen, Robert Mitchum splashed-down in Dan Curtis’s WWII maxi-series THE WINDS OF WAR/’83 and its follow-up WAR AND REMEMBRANCE/’88.  Mitchum’s disengagement growing steadily over the nineteen episode run.  Turning seventy between all that heavy-lifting prestige, he’s more engaged and far more animated in some of the tv pics he started to embrace.  None more so than this modest ‘find,’ tonally something of a  partner to THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE/’73.*  Here, he’s in prison for his safecracking ways when a surprise visitor comes by; niece Kathleen York, his only living relative other than her little boy.  Unaware he’s about to be transferred to Texas on a life sentence, and desperate for a new start (she’s been turning tricks to get by, she steals Mitchum from Wilford Brimley, the about to retire Sheriff handling the friendly transfer.  These two geezers with a long history between them, the inevitable cat-and-mouse chase nicely structured by writer John Carlen and believably staged by director Jerrold Freedman.  Even a neat double-helix bit of crisscross justice right at the end.  Keep expectations in check and swallow hard at some contrivances in the first half of the third act, and you just might be pleasantly surprised at how satisfying this is.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *EDDIE COYLE no modest/pretty good surprise, but a full bore masterpiece that holds its cards close to the vest and speaks quietly.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-friends-of-eddie-coyle-1973.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK:  A foot race at the end features a lot of stunt doubling for a wheezing Brimley; whereas Mitchum appears to be doing all his own running.  No slow-cranking fakery for Bob!  What a pity no one thought to steal the scene from GUARDIE E LADRI / COPS AND ROBBERS/’51 that sees Robber Totò totally running out of steam just as Cop Aldo Fabrizi also runs out of steam, their chase continuing on foot, but at a slow, exhausted crawl.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/12/guardie-e-ladri-cops-and-robbers-1951.html