Warning Shot (1967)

Fresh and Exciting

Better Late Then Never

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

This is an absolute gem of a movie. David Janssen is charismatic and sympathetic in his role as a police sergeant desperately trying to clear himself of a manslaughter charge stemming from when he shoots a doctor in self defense. The doctor was making a house call at midnight at an upscale apartment building. Ed Begley as his superior and Keenan Wynn as his partner are both fine. But this is David Janssen's movie. He's not getting much help in solving this case. No one really believes his story so he has to investigate it all and figure it all out on his own. He interviews all these people - the little old lady in the apartment building, the playboy pilot living next door, the doctor's assistant, the doctor's widow, the doctor's stockbroker, and others - and we go along for the ride, including a plot twist or two.The female supporting cast members seem to get only one or two scenes with him.Lillian Gish plays the forgetful, eccentric old woman whom the doctor was seeing at the apartment. She's very good in a stereotypical role. Stefanie Powers is the assistant/nurse who worked for the doctor. She has an easy, light touch; similar to David Janssen, she doesn't look like she's acting. She's very believable. I wish her character's part had been bigger.Joan Collins plays David Janssen's soon-to-be ex-wife. Never one of my favorite actresses, she appears here like everywhere else I've ever seen her. She does a lot of posing and looks pretty but can't deliver a line. Eleanor Parker, meanwhile, is something else. As the boozy widow of the dead doctor, her scene was a lot of fun to watch. That scene together with the one right after, when someone gets dumped into the pool, is worth the price of admission. This is one of David Janssen's better roles. I highly recommend it.

Warning Shot features a grimly determined David Janssen trying to find out why a respected doctor pulled a gun on him and he was forced to fire and kill him. Janssen is a cop and he's got District Attorney Sam Wanamaker just itching to put him away. Janssen and partner Keenan Wynn were on stakeout looking for a serial rapist and they were both anxious enough on that assignment. Now suspended Janssen has to rely on his own instincts in pursuing his own\ investigation for vindication.Besides those already mentioned Warning Shot has a galaxy of film names of many generations going all the way back to Lillian Gish down to Joan Collins playing Janssen's estranged wife. As the film progresses these folks move in and out with some memorable and some perfunctory cameos.Janssen who carries the film handles the burden well. I have to say that Warning Shot does not carry all that much suspense in that the real villain of the piece is obvious from when we first meet the character. Still it belongs on a list of fine made for television films

Warning Shot is a good, old-fashioned movie. David Janssen is the star, and acts in his usual style, like a cross between Alan Ladd and Jack Webb. The film is a murder mystery about a cop who claims to have killed a man in self-defense, only he can't find the gun he said the man was aiming at him. Buzz Kulik was a gifted director, and he handles this one well. Some people don't like this movie because it resembles a television show, as it does suggest in its visual style and art direction an episode of Mannix. This is too bad. It doesn't bother me at all, and the film is a hundred times better than Mannix ever was. Janssen was always at his best when hunted or woebegone. There was a quality to him,--I wouldn't call it sensitivity exactly--vulnerability, "hit-ability"; whatever it is, it's on full display here, and he does get badly beaten up at one point. The supporting cast is outstanding, with Ed Begley, Eleanor Parker, Keenan Wynn, Stefanie Powers and George Grizzard all first-rate. There's less for Walter Pidgeon and Steve Allen to do, though it's always nice to see them in anything. George Sanders has a small part as well, though he doesn't get a chance to shine, he seldom did in his later years.The movie was one of several attempts to revive the forties crime film, whether of the noir or detective variety, probably inspired by the burgeoning Bogart cult of the sixties. Frank Sinatra and Lee Marvin appeared in a few like this, and Warning Shot is Janssen's crack at it. This is my favorite of the group. It's lean and fast-paced, a bit episodic, but in a good way. There's a lot of exposition, and a few false leads, but it's never tedious. I like the downbeat, depression in the orange groves, west coast Chandleresque aspect of the film, with palm and stucco everywhere, and cars that seem the size of today's SUV's only they're just Fords and Plymouths. Warning Shot's a period piece, but an entertaining one.

During a 1966 break from filming The Fugitive TV series, David Janssen joined with producer-director Seymour "Buzz" Kulik and screenwriter Mann Rubin to film Warning Shot. The film finds Janssen in familiar territory as a man wrongly accused and having literally no recourse but to defend himself, and his performance as LAPD Sgt. Tom Valens can be seen as another alter-ego of Richard Kimble. The presence of Fugitive alum such as Carroll O'Conner and Ed Begley Sr. adds to the familiarity for Fugitive fans. Jerry Goldsmith composes a strikingly strong score for the film, from the mildly bombastic opening theme through its more mournful renditions throughout the movie.Janssen's performance as Richard Kimble made The Fugitive a television clasic, and here he imbues Sgt. Tom Valens with identical sympathy. Valens, on a stakeout for a prowler, encounters a doctor, James Rustin, who pulls a gun on Valens and is shot. The gun flies out of Rustin's hand, and is lost. Because the gun cannot be found, Valens is suspended, and faces even greater trouble because Dr. Rustin has earned a striking popularity with neighbors of his for his medical efforts, both in LA and in his frequent flights to Baja. When Valens digs into Rustin's past, he finds some discrepencies with the doctor's image, but it all blows up in Valens' face in the death of a model Rustin was having an affair with.Nonetheless, despite persistent pleas from his friends to admit to guilt, Valens pushes his investigation of Dr. Rustin, and he hits paydirt when he finds a curious truth about one of Rustin's elderly neighbors (and her dog), and when someone tries to kill him and then Dr. Rustin's nurse is found dead, leading to a confrontation between Valens and his ex-partner.Janssen shines in this film, but gets superb help from his supporting cast, including George Grizzard as a playboy pilot who is always missing out on the action - or so he says.