Beverly Hills Cop, City Heat and The Heat is On

In 1978, Time Magazine ran an issue with Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds on the cover, standing back to back and saluted as (I recall) "Hollywood's Macho Men." Both were doing pretty good in 1978, Reynolds with Smokey and The Bandit ('77), Eastwood with his whole career(Leone, Dirty Harry, and soon, the monkey movie.)

Attempts to get "Clint and Burt" in a superstar buddy movie were made off and on through the 70's and into the 80's and finally a vehicle was found: "City Heat" -- a 30's set story pitting cop Clint and private eye Burt against the mob.

"City Heat" was slotted in for a Christmastime 1984 debut. A poster was made with Clint and Burt on the cover and the tag line: "The Heat is On!"

But something went wrong. It turned out that neither Clint -- nor especially Burt -- were as big in 1984 as they had been in the 70's. Eddie Murphy was the new kid in town and his Beverly Hills Cop went head-to-head with City Heat -- and destroyed it.

Adding insult to injury: one of the hit rock tunes in Beverly Hills Cop, by Glenn Frey, was called "The Heat is On."

Uh oh.

Paramount basically waited a civil while for City Heat to leave theaters and then put the phrase "The Heat is On" on...the Beverly Hills Cop posters.

Tough town, Hollywood.

But everything old is new again. It took a decade or so, but Eddie Murphy got cold, too. And Clint Eastwood(if not Burt Reynolds) got hot again.