A British action thriller; A story about an American police detective sent to London to bring back a criminal who jumped bail, but he gets into conflict with the British police. This fish-out-of-water crime drama is lively and carried by the charisma and natural force of John Wayne but it is an unremarkable crime caper, a humdrum potboiler of oversimplification. It has good action and the backdrop of London locatons is interesting but its structure is essentially a Western with associated mythical figure: outoftown gunslinger comes to the aid of a Scotland Yard sheriff, and for an outlaw American mob boss. But, the lead character's he-man antics don't belong to modern day Chicago never mind Britain. As an aside, there are similarities with the film Coogan's Bluff, but also the film Dirty Harry, as Wayne's character struggles with the restrained policing style of his British counterparts, and even similar shots of its film sequel, Magnum Force, with a closeup of a revolver in the credit sequence.
Review of Brannigan
