If anybody could write a novel about the perfect heist, crime novelist Donald Westlake would be the man. This legendary author, who won three Edgars Awards and received the title Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, wrote "Cops and Robbers" for prolific film producer Elliot Kastner and parlayed his screenplay into a novel by the same name. This gritty but comic New York City crime thriller focuses on two uniformed NYPD patrolmen, Tom (Cliff Gorman of "All That Jazz") and Joe Bologna of "Blame it on Rio"), who are sick of the maximum risks that they take for the minimal pay that they receive. They decide to commit the crime of the century, so Tom approaches a Mafia crime boss, Pasquale O'Neill (John P. Ryan of "Five Easy Pieces"), and he explains he will pay $2 million for $10 million in bearer bonds from Wall Street. These investment bonds are as good as cold hard cash, but they have nothing that would tie him to any crime. "Miracle Worker" editor turned director Adam Avakian, who followed "Cops and Robbers" up with another crime thriller "11 Harrowhouse," doesn't squander a second in this tightly helmed film. Of course, the action is predictable and smooth until our cops show up at a brokerage firm and learn that more cops are swarming in the building in response to a man who got shot in an elevator. They decide to shred the bearer bonds and dump those shreds onto a parade celebrating the homecoming of the Apollo II astronauts. Despite the fact that they have nothing when they leave the premises, while several other cops are patrolling the building, they get away, and then later learn that the brokerage firm official, Mr. Eastpoole (Shepperd Strudwick of "All the King's Men"), has boosted the reported amount stolen from $10 to $12 million. Our shrewd heroes think that they have the mob by the balls when they arrange for the exchange in Central Park during bicycle day. Little do they know that the mob has parked their Cadillacs in front of the sawhorse barricades that prevent cars from entering the park. Predictably, a chase ensues with our heroes getting away a little too easily. As slick and stylist as "Cops and Robbers" is, you may have trouble rooting for the good guy cops turning villains because neither Cliff Gorman nor Joe Bologna were celebrity actors at the time. This was Bologna's second movie, while "Justine" (1969) was Gorman's first picture.
Review of Cops and Robbers
