Frankenhieimer gave us some great Transitional Noirs, In the early 60s he was on fire. The Noirs were All Fall Down, The Manchurian Candidate, and Seconds. He also directed Seven Days in May, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Train, and Grand Prix which I believe was his first color film.
Then he just sort of disappeared below my horizon, I don't remember much of note, maybe he didn't like working in color, who knows? He kept making films. Films that made some blips on the radar screen. I haven't seen all of them but those I did somewhat like were Ronin, Reindeer Games and this one 52 Pickup.
It was written by Elmore Leonard and based on his novel. Leonard penned a few hits Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, Mr. Majestyk, Joe Kidd, Valdez Is Coming, Hombre, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Tall T. Cinematography was by Jost Vacano and Stephen Ramsey (uncredited). Music was by Gary Chang.
The film stars Roy Scheider as Harry Mitchell, Ann-Margret as Barbara Mitchell, Vanity as Doreen, John Glover as Alan Raimy, Clarence Williams III as Bobby Shy, Lonny Chapman as Jim O'Boyle, Kelly Preston as Cini, Robert Trebor as Leo Franks, Doug McClure as Mark Arveson, and real porn stars Ron Jeremy and Amber Lynn as Party Goers.
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| Roy Scheider as Harry Mitchell |
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| 1965 Jaguar XK-E |
His wife Barbara (Ann-Margret) is a politician running for the Los Angeles City Council.
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| Ann-Margret as Barbara Mitchell |
Harry is two-timing Barbara. He's shacking up on the side with Cini (Kelly Preston). Cini poses as a model. She is a "live nude girl." Her specialty is split wide open beaver shots for drooling pervs with cameras. The joint even rents Polaroid cameras for those that need them. They get to keep their whack off keepsakes for their photo albums.
Cini was used by three low rent blackmailers to lure Harry to a motel room containing hidden cameras. One of them is her boss Leo Franks (Robert Trebor) the others are Alan Raimy (John Glover) and his muscle Bobby Shy (Clarence Williams III). Raimy is a pornographer and the brains of the scheme.
Harry arriving for his scheduled session with Cini is confronted by three masked men instead. They show him a tape they made of Harry boning Cini. They want a payment of $100,000 or they are going to show the tape to Barbara.
Harry refuses to pay. The blackmailers get pissed off and kill Cini with Harry's own gun to frame him for the murder. They video taped the murder and again show Harry. Now they want a payment of $105,000 a year for life.
Harry tells them that he doesn't have that much money. He offers to show Raimy his books to prove it. When Raimy sees that Harry is telling the truth he accepts Harry's offer of $52,000.
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| John Glover as Alan Raimy |
This buys Harry time to turn the blackmailers against each other. He starts with Leo, the weakest link. Things in Noirsville unravel quickly.
Noirsville
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| Kelly Preston as Cini |
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| Vanity as Doreen |
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| Robert Trebor as Leo Franks |
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| Clarence Williams III as Bobby Shy |
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| Lonny Chapman as Jim O'Boyle |
52 Pickup suffers from a real lack of any character development so you don't really care enough for any of the cast to get emotionally sucked into the story. The film proceeds in a pedestrian by the book manner without a lot of heart or very much of a memorable style and it feels like it's from another era. Ann-Margaret is underused. I was hoping to see her in at least one good Noir/Neo Noir. It also suffers from the lack of a very strong villain. It diffuses the villainy among three characters. It needed an over the top protagonist.
Remember at the same time 52 Pickup came out we already had films by those that would be the new torch bearers setting new benchmarks, the Coen Brothers and David Lynch were making their marks and pushing the envelope. The Coen's Blood Simple (1984), Wim Wenders Paris, Texas (1984), Eastwood's Tightrope (1984), William Friedkin'x To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986), and Alan Parker's Angel Heart (1987). Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs was just five years down the road. Watchable 6-7/10
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