Movie Review: Coogan’s Bluff (1968) directed by Don Siegel
Deputy Sheriff Coogan (Clint Eastwood) is sent from his native Arizona to New York City to extradite escaped felon James Ringerman (Don Stroud). He expects it to be a quick process, but Ringerman had a bad trip on LSD and is currently under observation at Bellevue. NYPD Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb) explains a bit of the bureaucratic process in a rather dismissive fashion (he’s got his own worries.) While at the police station, Coogan becomes interested in parole officer Julie Roth (Susan Clark) though they start off poorly due to his misunderstanding of how her job works.
Despite Julie warming up to him a bit, Coogan is generally unimpressed by New York City’s people and culture, becoming impatient to pick up his prisoner. He bluffs (thus the title) the Bellevue staff into thinking he’s got the releases needed to get Ringerman out of the hospital. But his carelessness and rush to be done results in him losing Ringerman and his gun. Despite being warned off by the New York police and taken off the case by the Arizona sheriff’s office, Coogan’s pride has been damaged, and he will not rest until he’s personally recaptured the criminal.
This was Eastwood’s first go-round as a “cowboy cop”, before the much better received Dirty Harry series. It’s notable here that Coogan’s antics make life much more difficult for himself and everyone around him, and are ultimately a big waste of time. He could have accomplished just as much by taking Lt. McElroy’s advice and waiting it out, with much less personal injury and property damage. Yes, New York City is disgusting in this late Sixties setting, with its permissiveness and criminal coddling and chiseling, not to mention the hippies. Ringerman’s girlfriend Linny Raven (Tisha Sterling) is a particularly rancid example of the Love Generation gone wrong. But if he’d just held on, Coogan would have gotten what he wanted. Heck, there’s even a moment where Julie suggests an activity that would have shortcut his search by Ringerman by a day by coincidence if he’d been able to turn off his pride for a moment.
At the beginning of the film, we see Coogan in his native territory, ignoring orders from his sheriff to apprehend a fugitive in his own way, then chaining the man up so he can visit a girlfriend before taking the man in. Coogan repeatedly shows a tendency to not listen to instructions or suggestions, defy protocol and violate privacy laws, and will gladly seduce women and betray them to get what he wants. (Apparently he does make some apologies offscreen at the end of the movie, since McElroy and Julie act as though he’s mended fences.)
A highlight of the movie is one scene where Coogan tries to get information out of Ringerman’s mother Ellen (Betty Field) only to be outmatched by her brazenness. (He did have a follow-up plan but he’d screwed up the NYPD’s investigation in the process, canceling out both.) There’s a nifty scene in a psychedelic nightclub, and general glimpses of New York City in the late 1960s, like the Pan Am helipad. (No scenes of the actual Coogan’s Bluff, though.) Oh, and the motorcycle chase is pretty good.
Content note: Gun violence and fisticuffs, hospitalization but no deaths. Female nudity and male shirtlessness. Sexual assault. Extramarital sex. Drug abuse. Coogan breaks a lot of laws and ultimately faces no legal consequences. Older teens should be okay.
This is a lesser Eastwood film, to fill in checklists for his fans, or for fans of the cowboy cop subgenre in general.
