I love this film. It is a true 70's cop classic. Mattau gives a rare serious subduded performance and Dern's work ranks among his best. Great S.F. locations, good camerawork. Excellent screenplay and casting. Sharp direction from Rosenberg. A true gem.
filmmakeracf
I agree. This is one of THE most underrated cop thrillers of the '70s and realistic to boot. There are some highly shocking scenes, too, such as the opening bus massacre, Matthau slapping Cathy Lee Crosby about after finding that photo of her and the dead cop and the ending when that nutjob is ready to kill again on another bus, only this time, he fails, thanks to Larsen and Martin. I feel these two characters deserved a sequel.
Matthau should have done more films like this, but alas, his heart lay in comedies.
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Over here in the UK, it was shown twice on TV, both in 1986 and 1991. I am sure another channel must have screened it in either the late '90s or early '00ies.
shareMatthau did another gritty police drama in the same era - The Taking of the Pelham 1,2,3. I just rented both LP and Pelham from Netflix to see both these great movies again.
Checkout Pelham if you want to see another great performance by Matthau. They are currently remaking this movie with Denzel Washington and John Travolta.
You forgot " Charley Varrick ". I hope you don't feel that it's inferior to the other two. I've probably seen " Pelham 1, 2, 3 " twenty-five times. Unfortunately, it's being remade by the very mediocre Tony Scott. That disappoints me, because you just shouldn't mess with perfection.
shareI watched it last night on AMC. It's still a good movie in a dated way. I think the reason it hasn't been shown on TV is because it has thee "F" word in it.
Of course all the boobs showing up would have been hard to get rid of too.
I agree. Just rented this through Netflix, and as I had remembered, it was a great movie. They used to show this in the NY area on Sunday afternoon television in the late 70's early 80's. It was on at least once a year. Then our local station became Fox, and Fox started showing football on Sundays. I miss just being able to turn on the TV and seeing lost gems like this.
I do have one plot question, though, having just seen this again -
SPOILER ALERT - Don't read further unless you've seen the movie -
if Dave Evans is following Niles hoping he'll lead him to Camarero, why doesn't Dave Evans recognize Camarero when he gets on the bus?
Either he didn't take much of a close look at him when he got on or he perhaps never saw his photo.
shareI always liked this movie, ever since seeing it in the theater.
It's true, it used to get more play on TV, but thanks to Encore cable a lot of films like this are showing up.
Pelham 1-2-3 has always been a favorite of mine. I didn't care too much for the TV remake at all. I am interested in seeing this new version of course. I hope Denzel and Travolta do it proud, though it would be hard to better the original. That look on Matthau's face at the end was priceless.
~LjM
Step on it! And don't spare the atoms!
Dirty Dave was too busy to notice the shooter; he was trying to keep an eye on Gus Niles at the same time as he was trying to hit on the Joanna Cassidy character's lesbian roommate. Remember, he sat down next to her on the bus when there were plenty of seats?
shareHe certainly gave her some funny looks and you can tell she wasn't interested.
shareSeveral posts have questioned why this film isn't better known today. For starters, it was not a big box-office hit when originally released and quickly disappeared from theaters.
Unlike other box-office failures that find a second life on TV, TLP was far too raw for pre-cable TV broadcasts of the era and simply disappeared until the advent of loosened broadcast TV standards in recent times.
As is, the storyline is pretty hard to follow. Yet so many key scenes involve the type of graphic gore, violence, nudity, profanity and sleazy sexual situations (seems like about a quarter of the scenes are set in all-too-real looking strip joints, porn theaters and leather bars--none of that sanitized Starsky & Hutch stuff here), that to edit them out would have rendered the plot completely incomprehensible. Not to mention robbing the film of the very same gritty aunthenticity the movie's fans appreciate today.
the book is equally good .in fact the whole wahloo series is entertaining.
share Perhaps, the viewing public was unwilling, or unable, to accept Walter Matthau in a serious dramatic role; although he was well equipped for the part. He had ventured into straight frama in 1957's. "Gamgster Story."&and directed). as well as yje Kirk Gouglas film, "Strangers When We Meet." Matthau was also quite effective in the Don Siegal classic, "Charlie Varrick,"
with Joe Don Baker.
While. agreeably, "The Laughing Policeman," was a breakthrough police drama for it's time, with noteable performances by Bruce Dern, Lou Gossitt, Val Avery, and Tony Zerbe, and Albert Paulsen. The plot was, however, conoluted, and often contradictory. Why the manhunt for a killer on a city bus- when Matthau knew all along who it was? It made very little sense. However, the film did provide a window into early 1970's San Francisco, 'tenderloin,' district; and yes, the black stripper was definately, 'eye candy.'
This film, along with, "The Great Gatsby," the following tear, and Jane Fonda's, "Coming Home," should have propelled Bruce Dern to a higher status. However; it wasn't to be. After being cast for a decade in television parts as a pshycotic hit man, Dern remained there; and seldom enjoyed a better opportunity.
Leo Larsen is quite possibly the most likeable character he ever played. A very politically incorrect man, true, but that was the norm back then, wasn't it? I liked his uneasy relationship with Matthau in this one and how they eventually team up to flush out the killer.
That is a very good point about Matthau knowing who the perp was from the start. I guess him not working on that from the beginning allowed the producers to pad out the film with scenes where they made the most out of the SF locations.