(thanks, TaylorHamKid!)

While reminiscing with a guy I hadn’t seen for close to 20 years this week, this flick came up in our conversation and I had to rush out to write about it while the memory was still fresh. After the great 1972 ABC telefilm Short Walk to Daylight and 1980’s compellingly crazy action/drama Night of the Juggler,  I still say James Brolin should have stuck around and made a third New York-centric film to complete some sort of unconnected trilogy about an otherwise decent cop who’s having some really bad days in the Big Apple.

The former film was about survivors of an earthquake (in New York City of all places!) trying to make it out of some deadly subway tunnels with Brolin’s cop leading the way and the latter has his divorced ex-cop now truck driver character chasing after the maniac that’s mistakenly kidnapped his daughter. Neither is legally available on DVD (and it’s a darn shame, I say), but if you’re clever and know how to use the internet, there are ways to snag both gems for your viewing pleasure…

Brolin’s kid is mistaken for the daughter of a wealthy guy and grabbed in the opening minutes, which leads to the first of a few amazing chase scenes. If his snatched daughter isn’t enough of a cross to bear, Brolin also has to deal with a REALLY pissed off cop (played by Dan Hedaya in full-on insane mode) who’s got it in for the guy because of some stuff that went down between them. I won’t spoil what that is here, but let’s just say that Hedaya’s angrier man thinks it’s more than enough to go running full tilt after Brolin through the crowded NYC streets (during midday yet!), blasting a shotgun at him, blowing out store windows and sending people running for cover. Yes, the movie gets that whacked out.

Add in a stop to a seedy 42nd Street peep show (cue an awesome Sharon Mitchell cameo!), a handful of helpful people who actually aren’t trying to kill our hero, a stop in the Bronx to fight a gang (not once, but twice) and a somewhat oddball finale and yeah, you get an instant classic in my book. There’s a tightly coiled spring of a film here and while not everything clicks nor makes sense (the maniac’s main motivation is a bit too stupid, but hey, he’s supposed to be nuts, right?), there’s a very good chance that once you sit down to watch this, you aren’t getting up until the closing credits roll.  Some would say things are tied up a wee bit too neatly, but it’s actually pretty funny to see some characters getting their appropriate comeuppances when their on screen time is over and done.

For a native New Yorker like me, NotJ is one of those great “New York City” films from the 1970’s and early 80’s where the city is portrayed as a bleak doom-packed amusement park filled with crime, unsexy sex joints, very angry people chasing each other, gangs crawling around in burned-out nabes, random violence and more. Whee! I saw this with a few friends when it was released back in 1980 and I recall we were howling our asses off because the film was so over the top and not at all what reality was like. Sure the city was dirty and definitely not to be traveled lightly at all. On the other hand, it was never as wild as any of these films made it out to be.

I also recall a few years later having to convince a friend from overseas to visit the city with her future husband. They were dating at the time and wanted to see the city, but were somewhat thoroughly convinced by this flick, Fort Apache: The Bronx, The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3, and the Death Wish series that NYC was a pretty dangerous place to be. It’s a good thing she didn’t see The Warriors, or those two Exterminator flicks I guess. In a way, this is like a low-rent Ransom, but I like this flick a great deal better because Brolin has nothing to fall back on but his anger and running speed plus a helpful cutie and a boatload of luck.  While I doubt this will ever get the remake treatment, I’d bet if it did it wouldn’t have the same grimy feeling on display in every frame of this underrated bit of funk. Give it a look when you’ve got an extra 101 minutes to spare…