User Reviews

It's a pretty dumb title -- "Cops and Robbers." Sounds as if it ought to be a gritty urban crime tale starring maybe Steven Segal. Instead it's a good-natured look at two ordinary New York City cops who are tired of the violence and selfishness they see on the job, the greed and perspiration. They dream about getting their share of the goods too so that one of them (Cliff Gorman) can take his family to Bermuda and the other (Joseph Bologna) can become a farmer in Saskatchewan.

The cops contact a mafioso (John Ryan) and tell him they want to get out, and they plan on doing it by stealing something and selling it to him for disposal. "What do you plan to steal?" asks Ryan. "Whatever you'll pay two million dollars for," replies Gorman.

So they stage a robbery along lines suggested by Ryan, robbing an investment firm of ten million dollars worth of bearer bonds. The man who runs the firm, Mr. Eastpool (Shephard Strudwick) and his secretary (Ellen Holly, a dish) cooperate fully -- and for good reason. Afterward they claim TWELVE million was stolen, stealing the extra two million for themselves. "One million apiece!" Bologna exclaims in disgust. The two don't actually steal anything because they are forced by circumstances to destroy the bonds. But they cheat Ryan out of the two million he agreed to pay, and the film ends with the pair lazing in the back yard of their modest home, smiling and gazing contentedly at an airliner way up there in the sky.

The amusement is tempered with a good deal of suspense before and after the robbery as the usual things go wrong and reality intrusions occur.

Gorman and Bologna work well together, the former slightly wall eyed and a little insane, the latter cherubic and frightened. In their false mustaches, each looks a little like Groucho Marx. Strudwick and Holly are better than simply good enough, too.

Much of the credit must go to the director, Aram Avakian, watching whose documentary, "Jazz on a Summer's Day," was almost as good as being there. Avakian gets a lot of smiles out of events in long shot. (The kids might not get it.) Example: Ryan is having his record typed up for an interview in the police station, looking very very Italian. "What's your name?" asks the cop tonelessly from behind the desk. "Patsy O'Neal," replies the smiling Ryan easily. The cop doesn't bat an eye as he types in, "Anielli, Pasquale." Well, another example, because that last one didn't involve a long shot. A half dozen mafia types wearing shades and flowered shirts are leaning against the wall in front of a high mafioso's headquarters when Ryan's long limousine pulls up. Ryan sits patiently in the car while the armed goons spread out in a circle, like the Praetorian Guard, hands fondling the guns packed into their belts, eyes searching for enemies. Nothing much is made of it but the scene is quite funny. I won't describe any of the other amusing scenes except to say that you have to look for them. The comedy is effective but not outrageous. Nobody falls on his behind, and after the first few minutes there is no shooting.

Easy going and diverting film, worth watching.

Cliff Gorman and Joseph Bologna star in this movie about two cops who are looking forward to their retirement and want to rob somewhere, but where, for some extra money. (They get paid squat.) One of them goes to a mobster with a proposition in exchange for some information, so that they'll know what and where is the best place. They're told to rob a securities bank for bonds worth a lot of money. But then, there's an unexpected twist.

This is a great little film that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was afraid it was going to get really bloody and violent, because it has that feel to it like anything can happen. In fact, at the beginning, there's a fracas that's a little jarring with the yelling and the tension. But essentially we are being shown an average day in the life of a police officer in New York City, from encounters on the street to petty things in the office, which Bologna and Gorman are getting pretty tired of.

(Sidenote: It costars Ellen Holly, who was mainly a Broadway actress and made only a few movies and who is known as Carla Gray from One Life to Live as the woman who "passed." I was too young at the time to remember her role, but she was a very beautiful actress.)

Getting back to the movie: If you get a chance to see this, which is going to be rare, watch it please. It's a chance to see these stars as cops and as robbers.

Cliff Gorman and Joe Bologna play 2 cops but they can be just about anyone else in any profession. Just 2 guys trying to make a living and support their families in the craziness of New York City. Even though they are corrupt, you can't help but feel sorry for them because all they are trying to do is survive. We soon find out that everyone else is just as corrupt, from the grocery store manager who justifies walking out of the store each day with a sack of groceries as a "prerogative of my managerial position", to the executive and his secretary at a Wall St. securities firm padding the amount stolen so they can keep a little for themselves to the crooked mobsters who weren't going to let anyone keep the money in return for the stolen bonds.

This was just a nicely made, lighthearted movie with a good cast of actors and takes us back to the 70's. There's no sex scenes, no wild ridiculous explosions, no actors doing the physically impossible, no computer generated graphics, just a nice clean (and corrupt) movie. It's movies like this that Hollywood needs to go back and remember a time that you had quality, and not quantity with the garbage they are throwing into them today.

I would like to see this movie released in Blu Ray and with the scenes added that regular DVD version cut.

Disgruntled police officers Tom (the extremely affable Cliff Gorman) and Joe (the equally engaging Joseph Bologna) decide to steal ten million dollars worth of untraceable bonds in order to improve their lackluster lots in life. However, things don't go as smoothly as planned.

Director Aram Avakian keeps the enjoyable and engrossing story moving along at a brisk pace, makes fine use of gritty New York City locations, grounds the premise in a thoroughly plausible blue collar reality, stages several exciting action set pieces with flair and skill (a chase sequence in Central Park involving a bunch of angry bicyclists rates as a novel and thrilling highlight), and maintains a playfully audacious tone throughout. Donald E. Westlake's clever script slyly subverts crime cinema conventions by making the crooks a pair of highly likable and sympathetic average working class guys who the viewer can't help but identity with and subsequently root for to get away with their daring heist. Gorman and Bologna display a natural and convincing chemistry in the leads; they receive sturdy support from John P. Ryan as formidable mob fence Patsy O'Neill, Richard Ward as hard-nosed flatfoot Paul Jones, Sheppard Strudwick as shady businessman Mr. Eastpoole, Ellen Holly as nervous secretary Mrs. Wells, Dolph Sweet as the hearty George, and Joe Spinell as intimidating enforcer Marty. Both David L. Quaid's sharp cinematography and Michael Legrand's tuneful score are up to speed. A racy treat.

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.