Plays a copy as equally hardassed as Dirty Harry. Dern is not to be taken lightly in this. Who'd of thought he could pull it off.
shareI thought he was the best character in this film. He was a lively contrast to Matthau's more gruff, seen-it-all-before-type veteran, but there's no way he'd wipe the floor with Dirty Harry. If Harry and Leo came face-to-face, Harry would whupp him. Well, that's what Clint Eastwood did to Bruce Dern in Hang 'Em High.
shareI haven't seen this movie yet but Bruce was magnificent as an obsessed cop in "The Driver". If his performance in "The Laughing Policeman" is of equal sort, I have to check this flick out. Well, I have to check it out anyway.
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(Six years after the initial post, but hey, you never know what you'll stumble across on IMDB.)
I very much liked Dern's role in this movie, but I think he's had much better--say, in Smile, Silent Running, Posse, Family Plot, and even Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood. Even his near-cameo in Castle Keep, as Billy Byron Bix, the preacher whose sect was too small.
Loved him in 'Castle Keep', but yes, I think this is one of his best performances.
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He looks like Borat in this.
"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan
This was a big deal for Dern, finally getting billing above the title in a "major movie." I don't think that "Silent Running" quite counted at the time.
I offer Dern up in this movie to people who are used to seeing only the "wizened old white-haired Dern" of today's movies like The Hateful Eight, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Nebraska.
Let's go back to the 70's when Dern was young. For the few years he was an above the title star, he was very tall on the natural(so is Matthau; they "fit" together in this movie); handsome in a toothy way, very lanky(a fit long distance runner) and just this side of his buddy Jack Nicholson in the "ya know what I mean?" twanging and entertaining way of talking.
When Hitchcock hired Dern for Family Plot(after Dern's pal Nicholson turned down the role) Hitch said he was depending on Dern to bring his quirky personalilty to the role. In this movie, noted Hitch, the villain would be more straight-laced and staid so Dern --as a good guy -- needed to be as eccentric and quirky as he could be. He was.
In "The Laughing Policeman," Dern's a good guy, too. He's tough. He rubs people the wrong way. But eventually, the tables turn for him: he manages to attract a sexy nurse as a lover and he offers his beleaguered partner Matthau a very big, friendly grin of friendship when the chips are down and Matthau is at his breaking point; Matthau responds. Its a good role for Dern, one of his best.