Brannigan (1975)

Please don't spend money on this.

Lack of good storyline.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Rogue cop who is "out of control" (in a now-cliché'd Dirty Harry sort of way) John Wayne goes to England to retrieve the Sheriff from KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE. Once there, the chief/old guy from JURASSIC PARK assigns him to the possessed alien mom from INSEMINOID as his flirty tease of a partner. While on the case, they shake down the warden from ALIEN 3 while spied on by the cowardly soldier "Hookie" from ZULU, here teamed up with one of the Death Star generals from STAR WARS. However his only real lead comes in the form of a shifty lawyer, the guy who married Audrey Hepburn before going blind and trying to poison Caesar in THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.As you can see, the cast of this movie is just marvelous and features a lot of "that guy"s from other movies you've seen. The chemistry between Wayne and the guy who directed GANDHI works really well as they have to team up from such opposite viewpoints to solve the mystery. Unfortunately for those seeking lots of action (Wayne enters the movie by kicking down a door and hitting a guy in the head with a 2x4), there's not much here. Wayne merely gets in one mediocre car chase and has a few close calls with a creepy hit man who tries to sneak up on people with the most conspicuous car possible and who would be a better shot if he hadn't hacked his broom handle Mauser pistol to fire full-auto. More often than not, the film decides to protract what would be smaller scenes in an American movie into 20 minute episodes. For instance, did we really need to witness every darn detail with the first money drop sequence? Or would our time have been better spend seeing Wayne (who looks quite tired) beating up a few more henchmen and spouting one-liners?All in all it's only made watchable by the cast and director Douglas Hickox's assured ability to enliven a lot of scenes that would otherwise have dragged far worse. There's a few nice surprises and some suspense, but you'd be better off just watching an full-blown Euro-crime movie than this tame and watered-down cross-pond excursion.

The problem with any John Wayne film is that he always comes across as if he is in a western. There was never an attempt made by the Duke to change this situation in non-western roles. Therefore, he must have been right at home with that British bar-room brawl.That being said, we have an interesting film here dealing with the Duke as a Chicago cop sent to London to get a known criminal back in the states. The latter is soon kidnapped, or is he?The car chase scenes, bar-room brawl and the ending are a joy to watch. If nothing else, you get a great tour of London. There is a lot of comedy here as well.

In deference to John Wayne's legendary film career in Westerns, Turner Classic Movies moderator Ben Mankiewicz stated that you could move "Brannigan" out West and it would work. Having seen a ton of Wayne's films, I think it's pretty safe to say that this more closely resembled his Lone Star flicks from the Thirties like "Texas Terror" or "The Lawless Frontier" rather than say, "Rio Bravo" or "True Grit".I think a lot of it boils down to the writing; there's a lot here that doesn't make sense. For starters, how is it that Jim Brannigan's boss Moretti (Ralph Meeker) in Chicago hands him a passport among other things to go to London. You have to apply for a passport yourself and have your picture taken along with supplying a ton of identification. Then in London, when he becomes aware that assassin Drexel is on the street below the apartment he's investigating, he shouts out to him to stop!! Really? They teach you that in detective school? And how about the continuity lapse when Commander Swann (Richard Attenborough) tells Brannigan he's got a phone call, Swann calls him 'Joe'.At least part of the story line was interesting though. The Larkin (John Vernon) kidnapping plot kept you guessing as to what was going to happen next, and the hit-man hired by the American mobster started out as a fairly creative fellow in his attempts to take out Wayne's character. But there again, the final face off between Brannigan and Gorman (Daniel Pilon) was written far too clumsily. I can't imagine a professional assassin would be so reckless to put an end to his target that he'd pull out all the stops and try to run him over with his car, giving Brannigan plenty enough time to just shoot him through the windshield. It felt like the writers just needed a quick way to get this thing over with.Through it all, Brannigan's English partner Jennifer Thatcher (Judy Geeson) is easy on the eyes and gets in that cool line about Americans being 'overworked, over-sexed and over here'. After that quick peck on the cheek she gave Brannigan I groaned a bit thinking the film makers were heading in the wrong direction, but unlike Wayne's early Westerns, this is one film that ended where the Duke didn't get the girl. If that had happened, the film makers would have really pulled a Murphy.

Is it John Wayne's best movie? Far from it. Is it is his worst? Again, no. But in regard to the latter it is down there. I didn't like Brannigan at all, I tried to but it didn't work. The cinematography and location shooting are good but little else works. A big problem I regret to say is John Wayne himself. He is very miscast here, and I have only seen one other movie(The Conqueror) of where he is so out of place and disconnected. Another big problem is the story, as others have noted it tries to follow in the footsteps of (the much better) Dirty Harry, but it comes across as convoluted and dull. The script is very clunky, the action is unexciting, the film is overlong and drags and the direction is sloppy. The remainder of the cast don't make much amends either, Richard Attenborough especially comes across as too earnest and overwhelmed. So all in all, in most respects it is a clunky mess. 3/10 Bethany Cox