It's Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, but they aren't playing Kelly and
Scott!

From a decade-old script by writer-producer-director Walter Hill, who
wrote it with Jason Robards and Strother Martin in mind.

The script was sent to Cosby who asked that Culp be allowed to direct.

Fouad Said produced. He was the great cinematographer on I Spy who
really made the exotic locations pop.

The script is dreadful and it's really not possible to follow the plot
or even figure out who many of the characters are.

It's an attempt at film noir. A silent Mary Jane (Carmen Moreno with
just a handful of credits) has something to do with stolen cash and is
placing it with fences. At first I thought it was counterfeit but later
it's revealed to have been stolen from the Pittsburgh Fed. There is
actually a Pittsburgh Fed; it's a branch of Cleveland. Has the Fed ever
been robbed? I've never heard of it.

Why does genuine currency need to be fenced? I have no clue. Obviously the
Fed knows the range of serial numbers stolen, so I guess the fence mixes
the bills in with other stacks of currency?

The two title characters are down and out private detectives who take a
job for Mr. Rice who is looking for his "daughter" Mary Jane.

The syndicate headed by Robert Mandam and assisted by Michael Moriarity
figures out very quickly that Mary Jane is placing stolen money from a
robbery that they financed. It's embarassing and they'll spend any
amount of money to clean it up.

The syndicate hires mercenary soldiers. They don't do much
investigating, just killing.

We don't exactly understand what Mary Jane's role in the robbery had
been. She's got two children, briefly watched by the guy at flower shop
where the money was hidden, but there's weirdness that she's carrying a
clean suitcase on the train to Los Angeles but the same suitcase is
later dug out of the dirt in the greenhouse? Much later in the movie,
there's a man she's in love with who apparently was head of the original
robbery crew who failed to repay the syndicate monies owed with
interest. I'm guessing. Maybe he's the brother of the flower shop guy?
Maybe flower shop guy was part of the robbery crew? The audience is
never told anything. Also there's another kid.

Los Angeles looks seedy as hell. Bill Hickman is, I think, one of the
soldier henchmen, so I guess he's part of some of the fight
choreography. He famous staged auto chase in Bullitt and The French
Connection.

Culp stages his shots decently from what I can tell.

The rest of the cast is terrific: Vincent Gardenia as a police
detective. Both he and Mandam get to chew scenary. A very young James
Woods is a police detective lietenant!

In small roles, Ed Lauter, Joe E. Tata, and an uncredited Roger E.
Mosley.

This could have been decent if not good, but they went another way.

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
> It's Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, but they aren't playing Kelly and
> Scott!
>
> From a decade-old script by writer-producer-director Walter Hill, who
> wrote it with Jason Robards and Strother Martin in mind.
>
> The script was sent to Cosby who asked that Culp be allowed to direct.
>
> Fouad Said produced. He was the great cinematographer on I Spy who
> really made the exotic locations pop.
>
> The script is dreadful and it's really not possible to follow the plot
> or even figure out who many of the characters are.
>
> It's an attempt at film noir. A silent Mary Jane (Carmen Moreno with
> just a handful of credits) has something to do with stolen cash and is
> placing it with fences. At first I thought it was counterfeit but later
> it's revealed to have been stolen from the Pittsburgh Fed. There is
> actually a Pittsburgh Fed; it's a branch of Cleveland. Has the Fed ever
> been robbed? I've never heard of it.
>
> Why does genuine currency need to be fenced? I have no clue. Obviously the
> Fed knows the range of serial numbers stolen, so I guess the fence mixes
> the bills in with other stacks of currency?

Or overseas where nobody’s checking and it doesn’t get flagged until a bill
gets to a different country and it’s already changed hands so many times
it’s too late to worry about it, except for the guy who spent it and gets
it confiscated.

>
> The two title characters are down and out private detectives who take a
> job for Mr. Rice who is looking for his "daughter" Mary Jane.
>
> The syndicate headed by Robert Mandam and assisted by Michael Moriarity
> figures out very quickly that Mary Jane is placing stolen money from a
> robbery that they financed. It's embarassing and they'll spend any
> amount of money to clean it up.
>
> The syndicate hires mercenary soldiers. They don't do much
> investigating, just killing.
>
> We don't exactly understand what Mary Jane's role in the robbery had
> been. She's got two children, briefly watched by the guy at flower shop
> where the money was hidden, but there's weirdness that she's carrying a
> clean suitcase on the train to Los Angeles but the same suitcase is
> later dug out of the dirt in the greenhouse? Much later in the movie,
> there's a man she's in love with who apparently was head of the original
> robbery crew who failed to repay the syndicate monies owed with
> interest. I'm guessing. Maybe he's the brother of the flower shop guy?
> Maybe flower shop guy was part of the robbery crew? The audience is
> never told anything. Also there's another kid.
>
> Los Angeles looks seedy as hell. Bill Hickman is, I think, one of the
> soldier henchmen, so I guess he's part of some of the fight
> choreography. He famous staged auto chase in Bullitt and The French
> Connection.
>
> Culp stages his shots decently from what I can tell.
>
> The rest of the cast is terrific: Vincent Gardenia as a police
> detective. Both he and Mandam get to chew scenary. A very young James
> Woods is a police detective lietenant!
>
> In small roles, Ed Lauter, Joe E. Tata, and an uncredited Roger E.
> Mosley.
>
> This could have been decent if not good, but they went another way.
>

I watched this a long long, long time ago and IIRC my reaction was
basically “what the hell was that?“

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:
>In article <u540i6$1si4b$1@dont-email.me>,
> "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
>
>> It's Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, but they aren't playing Kelly and
>> Scott!
>>
>> From a decade-old script by writer-producer-director Walter Hill, who
>> wrote it with Jason Robards and Strother Martin in mind.
>>
>> The script was sent to Cosby who asked that Culp be allowed to direct.
>>
>> Fouad Said produced. He was the great cinematographer on I Spy who
>> really made the exotic locations pop.
>>
>> The script is dreadful and it's really not possible to follow the plot
>> or even figure out who many of the characters are.
>>
>> It's an attempt at film noir. A silent Mary Jane (Carmen Moreno with
>> just a handful of credits) has something to do with stolen cash and is
>> placing it with fences. At first I thought it was counterfeit but later
>> it's revealed to have been stolen from the Pittsburgh Fed. There is
>> actually a Pittsburgh Fed; it's a branch of Cleveland. Has the Fed ever
>> been robbed? I've never heard of it.
>
>Yes, in 1995 the New York Federal Reserve was robbed of approximately
>10,000 tons of gold by a terrorist financier known only as "Simon". He
>was able to do it by setting off what appeared to be terrorist bombings
>all around the city, pulling law enforcement away from Lower Manhattan
>and giving him time to truck out all the gold. He was eventually stopped
>at the Canadian border by an NYPD detective and yellow cab driver
>working together. The stolen gold was returned to the government.

Oh! That was the plot of an episode of that lousy Morena Baccarin series
The Endgame.

Thanks

In <u55rm6$24134$3@dont-email.me> "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> writes:

[snip]
>>> It's an attempt at film noir. A silent Mary Jane (Carmen Moreno with
>>> just a handful of credits) has something to do with stolen cash and is
>>> placing it with fences. At first I thought it was counterfeit but later
>>> it's revealed to have been stolen from the Pittsburgh Fed. There is
>>> actually a Pittsburgh Fed; it's a branch of Cleveland. Has the Fed ever
>>> been robbed? I've never heard of it.
>>
>>Yes, in 1995 the New York Federal Reserve was robbed of approximately
>>10,000 tons of gold by a terrorist financier known only as "Simon". He
>>was able to do it by setting off what appeared to be terrorist bombings
>>all around the city, pulling law enforcement away from Lower Manhattan
>>and giving him time to truck out all the gold. He was eventually stopped
>>at the Canadian border by an NYPD detective and yellow cab driver
>>working together. The stolen gold was returned to the government.

>Oh! That was the plot of an episode of that lousy Morena Baccarin series
>The Endgame.

Much simpler plan would be to leave the gold in place
but zap it with radioation from a low yield nuke.

--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote:
> In <u55rm6$24134$3@dont-email.me> "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> writes:
>
> [snip]
>>>> It's an attempt at film noir. A silent Mary Jane (Carmen Moreno with
>>>> just a handful of credits) has something to do with stolen cash and is
>>>> placing it with fences. At first I thought it was counterfeit but later
>>>> it's revealed to have been stolen from the Pittsburgh Fed. There is
>>>> actually a Pittsburgh Fed; it's a branch of Cleveland. Has the Fed ever
>>>> been robbed? I've never heard of it.
>>>
>>> Yes, in 1995 the New York Federal Reserve was robbed of approximately
>>> 10,000 tons of gold by a terrorist financier known only as "Simon". He
>>> was able to do it by setting off what appeared to be terrorist bombings
>>> all around the city, pulling law enforcement away from Lower Manhattan
>>> and giving him time to truck out all the gold. He was eventually stopped
>>> at the Canadian border by an NYPD detective and yellow cab driver
>>> working together. The stolen gold was returned to the government.
>
>> Oh! That was the plot of an episode of that lousy Morena Baccarin series
>> The Endgame.
>
> Much simpler plan would be to leave the gold in place
> but zap it with radioation from a low yield nuke.
>

I believe that’s the plot of GOLDFINGER.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.