Madigan (1968)

Directed by Don Siegel who had a foot firmly planted in classic Hollywood and who was also a trailblazer in modernizing American action films, "Madigan" serves the perfect bridge between the two. Co-written by Abraham Polonsky, who'd previously been on the Hollywood Blacklist for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, the film follows two different NYPD police officers. One is Madigan, a tough no-nonsense detective played by Richard Widmark trying to catch a killer, and the other is the straight-arrow police commissioner, Henry Fonda, who's balancing justice, politics, and an extra-marital affair. The film was based on a book titled "The Commissioner" and Fonda's character was the original focus of the story, but the producers instead changed the focus to Widmark's Madigan character, so the film unfortunately ends up a an odd combination of two different stories. Both Fonda and Widmark's stories involve them having to balance their work-life and home-life, but neither of those story elements seemed all that interesting. The most interesting part of the story concerned Widmark and his partner, Harry Guardino, on the trail of criminal Steve Ihnat. Watching Widmark and Guardino push the boundaries of acceptable law enforcement in their investigation makes this film an interesting bridge to director Don Siegel's controversial and highly influential vigilante cop film "Dirty Harry" he'd make a few years later. Siegel also makes great use of NYC locations that give ether film added grit and realism, much like we'd later see in William Friedkin's "The French Connection" and Siegel's use of San Francisco in "Dirty Harry." Siegel also skillfully demonstrates his own directional action sequences chops with a memorable showdown in the film's finale, which features with three characters in tight quarters, all with John Woo-style double-fisted pistols in each hand. Overall, "Madigan" features an old style police detective story (with a nice plot nod to Kurosawa's "Stray Dog") that abandons the stylistic German Expressionist roots of American film noir and instead takes the genre into new more realistic and gritty of territory, even if those stronger elements get somewhat undone by dull and unoriginal subplots involving the marital lives of Madigan and the commissioner.

I believe this is a great film, one of Don Siegle's best. Some reviewers did not appreciate the two plots. They thought the Henry Fonda story line was soapy. Actually the contrast between the two plots was the central theme of the movie. The first shot is of the old New York Central train (now Metro North) emerging from the underground to the elevated tracks. It sets the tone. You're still on Park Avenue but you're leaving the wealthy Upper East Side and entering East Harlem which in those days was a tough Italian American neighborhood (my old neighborhood) now known as Spanish Harlem. Fonda, once a street cop is now Police Commissioner his world is among the elites of the City. Widmark and Harry Guardino are two hard nosed detectives who were embarrassed by a psycho who took their guns and then killed another officer. Now they have to track him down. The difference between the two worlds and the different types of decisions that have to be made is what the film is about. The cast is excellent Fonda, scrupulously by the book, Widmark who throws the book away to do what's required of him James Whitmore. the more human Chief of Department, Guardino and the luminous Inger Stevens, the brilliantly filmed final gunfight all make for an unforgettable film.

When I saw Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda as the stars with Don Siegel directing, I expected at least a half decent movie. Instead, this movie was a total bore. Not much police action and everyone was sleeping around committing adultery. Henry Fonda, roughly 63 at the time of this film, is sleeping with a married 28 year old of 3. Way to go Commissioner, you Hippocratic moron. Richard Widmark, 54 at the time has a hot wife 20 years younger, and pays no attention to her. He sleeps around on her with some saloon singer. Widmark is not that good looking. Widmark's wife cheats on him. Its a whole soap operary mess.Madigan and his partner are suppose to be chasing a killer, who got the drop on them because Madigan can't take his eyes off a young woman's ass. The killer didn't seem that bad. We see him briefly at the beginning and end. Henry Fonda did this role after doing Once upon a Time in the West(which he was excellent in). He seemed tired from that role and in this movie was constantly in a daze looking like he wished he were somewhere else, even when he was with the hot young woman.This movie was so far fetched with the older actors with hot younger women. It dragged and dragged and dragged and when the end came, I was glad Madigan acted like a fool, not wearing his bulletproof vest (he threw it off) and went straight in that apartment in the line of fire. There was no immediate threat and swat was there. Madigan did everything a detective should not do, so good riddance. Its so hard to believe they made a TV series after this movie. I guess Madigan got struck by lightning and came back from the dead for the TV series. Don't waste your time on this movie.

Madigan is a movie that inhabits a weird cultural limbo. It's stuck in between the morally upright cop dramas of the 1950s and the vulgar realism of police stories in the 1970s. Add in a heavy dose of soap opera and glacial pacing and the result is a film that isn't technically bad, but is so dated as to be halfway to unwatchable.The story focuses on three days in the lives of two men; New York City police lieutenant Dan Madigan (an intermittently jowly Richard Widmark) and the city's police commissioner Anthony X. Russell (Henry Fonda). When Madigan and his partner Rocco Bonara (Harry Guardino) try to pick up a minor hood named Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat) for questioning, Barney gets the drop on them, steals their guns and escapes. Madigan and Rocco are given 72 hours to bring Barney back in and they turn to everyone from a midget bookie (Michael Dunn) to apparently the last white pimp in 1968 America (Don Stroud) to get the job done. In the meantime, Madigan also has to deal with his bored and lonely housewife, Julia (Inger Stevens), and the old girlfriend he never stopped seeing (Sheree North). While fretting over Madigan's exploits, Commissioner Russell also has to deal with the discovery that his chief inspector and best friend (James Whitmore) is caught on tape in collusion with a known criminal, mollify a prominent African-American (Raymond St. Jacques) who feels his son was mistreated by police and figure out what to do with the married woman he's sleeping with (Susan Clark).I'm not sure how provocative this film was back in the last gasp of the 1960s but by the standards of the early 21st century, Madigan is milder than Amish hot sauce. Madigan and Rocco are supposed to be two cops who bend the rules and live life on the edge, but their daring behavior consists of rapping a suspect on the knuckles like a nun with a ruler and menacing a woman by threatening to rearrange her furniture. When Madigan goes to his old girlfriend's apartment instead of home to his wife, he doesn't have sex with her. He takes a nap. These filmmakers seemed to think it would be quite shocking to show a police commissioner, especially one portrayed by Henry Fonda, having an affair with a married woman. Watching that today is not only not shocking…it's kind of sarcastically funny. It gives you the mental image of the people who made Madigan as a bunch of 4th graders who think saying "fart" all the time is daring and naughty.It certainly doesn't help matters than this movie is…so…very…slow. If this film tried to run the 100 yard dash, you could time it with a sun dial. Everything in Madigan takes for-frickin-ever to happen. There's no sense of tension or danger or movement. The story just trundles on from one overly long scene to the next until it becomes a chore to sit through.It's a bit of a shame because, aside from Fonda's performance never being much more than having a stern look on his face, the substance of this movie is relatively okay. The acting is effective, the dialog is snappy, the plot is reasonably intelligent and the direction is clear and visually engaging. But its tone is so antiquated and its tempo is so sluggish that you can't enjoy any of the movie's positive aspects.Unless you want to make a drinking game out of watching Madigan and downing a shot every time Richard Widmark's second chin shows up, you really shouldn't waste your time with this film.