Cops and Robbers (1973)

Absolutely Fantastic

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I'm Born, raised - and still live in NYC.Seeing this movie made me (like a lot of my fellow NYC'ers) pine for those days.It was a great place to grow up - made you 'get with it' really fast.I'd never heard of this film (and I know Mr. Gorman!), so, when it appeared last night on TCM, I recorded it.What a find!The sights and sounds bring back a lot of memories, as does even the film's stock, and the look. All pitch-perfect.The acting's superb. Instead of the (misguided) idea of using 'star' names, the producers and the director went for ACTORS - New York actors. ANd that makes all the difference.The leads, Cliff Gorman and Joseph Bologna are 2 schlubs - cops, who know they're stuck ion a treadmill.They want SOME way to get out - to 'go sit on a beach,' and enjoy their lives.So, through a meeting by happenstance, with a well-known Mafioso figure 'Pasquale Aniello' aka Patsy O'Neill, they think they've found a way to meet their goal.Everyone in the cast is so New York, the director - Aram Avakian - is a born New Yorker, and it really does help give this film that true feel.You can see it in such things like the ways the cops slouch.The little touches - such as the annoying Muzak that plays in a couple of scenes - gives the humor (this IS a comedy) a real NYC feel. It's dry, it's got a 'been there,' jaded quality that is so typical.I join the chorus in praising this little gem.If it shows up - WATCH IT.

Cliff Gorman and Joseph Bologna star in this movie about two cops who are looking forward to their retirement and want to rob somewhere, but where, for some extra money. (They get paid squat.) One of them goes to a mobster with a proposition in exchange for some information, so that they'll know what and where is the best place. They're told to rob a securities bank for bonds worth a lot of money. But then, there's an unexpected twist.This is a great little film that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was afraid it was going to get really bloody and violent, because it has that feel to it like anything can happen. In fact, at the beginning, there's a fracas that's a little jarring with the yelling and the tension. But essentially we are being shown an average day in the life of a police officer in New York City, from encounters on the street to petty things in the office, which Bologna and Gorman are getting pretty tired of.(Sidenote: It costars Ellen Holly, who was mainly a Broadway actress and made only a few movies and who is known as Carla Gray from One Life to Live as the woman who "passed." I was too young at the time to remember her role, but she was a very beautiful actress.) Getting back to the movie: If you get a chance to see this, which is going to be rare, watch it please. It's a chance to see these stars as cops and as robbers.

i first saw this flick as a kid back in the late 70s, when i lived in Bergen County, NJ. my old man worked in manhattan, so i made plenty of trips to NYC, and this movie just perfectly captured the time & place. Good acting, great story, and some pointed social commentary kept it in my head until i was able to locate a copy on VHS back in the early 90s. If you like caper/crime/cop movies, this one will keep you interested, gasping, and laughing.

Two cops have had enough of the 'system' and decide on a high level robbery. This theme is presented in a somewhat light hearted manner. The film is an effective period piece of New York in the early Seventies. And of the work-a-day person in general.The video (and current tv version) however...Whatever soulless bonehead was allowed to prepare this movie for video release should be thrown in a lake. The story line is still there. But apparently the plodding nature of the film prompted cutting and editing. Many scenes have been awkwardly shortened, re-mixed or completely removed. Hopefully an original copy still exists on the premium cable channels.