First off, a nitpick (or maybe just pointing out a flaw in the time of the year this is set in): early in the film is that wonderfully nutty scene where pre-fame Andy Kaufman is the cop in the St Patrick's Day parade, and then... Just a day or two later, or maybe it's a week, hard to tell, Tony Lo Bianco gets his ass kicked at the San Genaro festival in Little Italy, which to my knowledge happens in September. I know Cohen had to shoot crowds when he could, but anyone with just a cursory knowledge of NYC through the year would know... Eh, forget it.
This doesnt always have the sharpest direction, if anything some of the cinematography and editing is slapdash if not sloppy and direction of some (but not all) of the supporting actors results in flat work. And yet that almost doesnt matter because of the 1000% grit level of this thing, shot all without permits and by the seats of their pants (on some of the same streets Scorsese was shooting Taxi Driver at the same time), Lo Bainco makes for a convincing and stable presence as this flawed but dogged cop in the lead surrounded by bad cops and uncanny citizens, and the script has such a magnificently tense first act and bizarre turns with this supernatural WTF bent that I was always engaged, never totally bored, and it's a unqiue entry in mid 70s paranoid New York cinema.
And despite my griping on the direction and editing, Cohen gets some intense set pieces (that boiler room is eerie as all get out) and shots at times, in particular in the first half, and then Sylvia Sidney shows up, and... Look, you can see the seams in this, and Cohen in some respects did a not remake so much as reimagining of this into Q years later, but when it works, it's a one of a kind "B" movie.
This doesnt always have the sharpest direction, if anything some of the cinematography and editing is slapdash if not sloppy and direction of some (but not all) of the supporting actors results in flat work. And yet that almost doesnt matter because of the 1000% grit level of this thing, shot all without permits and by the seats of their pants (on some of the same streets Scorsese was shooting Taxi Driver at the same time), Lo Bainco makes for a convincing and stable presence as this flawed but dogged cop in the lead surrounded by bad cops and uncanny citizens, and the script has such a magnificently tense first act and bizarre turns with this supernatural WTF bent that I was always engaged, never totally bored, and it's a unqiue entry in mid 70s paranoid New York cinema.
And despite my griping on the direction and editing, Cohen gets some intense set pieces (that boiler room is eerie as all get out) and shots at times, in particular in the first half, and then Sylvia Sidney shows up, and... Look, you can see the seams in this, and Cohen in some respects did a not remake so much as reimagining of this into Q years later, but when it works, it's a one of a kind "B" movie.