Night of the Juggler (1980)

***SPOILERS*** Crazed and possibly insane New York City sewer worker Gus "The Mole" Soltic, Cliff Gorman, seeks revenge against the city's top real estate mogul, not Donald J. Trump, who destroyed his family's home and neighborhood in the now-1980-bombed out South Bronx by having the area block busted with welfare and unemployed minorities who turned it into the crime infested slum that it became. In an attempt to kidnap the slumlord's 15 year old daughter he kidnaps the wrong girl who turns out to be the daughter of an ex-policeman Sean Boyd, James Brolin,little Kathy played by Abby Bluestone.It's Boyd who's also on the outs with his former fellow cop Sgt. Otis Barnes, Dan Hadaya, who refuses to help him. It's Sgt. Barnes who's job it's to find and rescue little Kathy but instead is out for revenge against Boyd who's accusation of him screwing around behind his wife's back had him transferred out of his police precinct. So it's now left out to Boyd to go out on own in trying to get little Kathy back from Soltic who demands a $1,000,000.00 ransom or as he tells him he'll send her back to him in bits & pieces! With Soltic not knowing that he kidnapped the wrong girl there's no why that Sean an unemployed and part time truck driver can come up with the cash. This leads to a number of wild car and on foot chase scenes all across the city of New York with Boyd ending up almost a cripple by getting hit by cars and trucks and fighting off a violent South Bronx street gang.***SPOILERS*** The final showdown that's place-where else-in the sewers of New York City that the dwelling Soltic knows like the back of his greasy hand. By then despite Boyd getting the $1,000,000.00 ransom, from the city treasury, that Soltic demanded he falls madly in love with his 15 year old hostage Kathy who in fact want's nothing at all to do with him. Gritty and well photographed in the burned out South Bronx and sleazy Manhattan Time Square District makes you forget what a totally ridicules movie it really is. It's Cliff Gorman who really takes the cake as well as acting honors in at first his explanation of why he's become so unhinged over what happened to him in being burned out of his family apartment house by the roving street gangs that were introduced into the neighborhood by the greedy and block busting real estate moguls. But his kidnapping and holding hostage of the totally innocent Kathy who had-that he later found out- nothing at all to do with his problems that lost him any sympathy he first had with the audience. P.S Check out 23 year old porno actress Sharon Mitchell as Suzie who works in a Times Square peep show who gives Boyd an important clue to whom his daughters kidnapper's identity really is.

My word what a ride! Bizarre and spiteful, but dynamically boundless. Now that they don't make urban action thrillers like this any more. They just wouldn't dare. But boy do I miss them. "Night of the Juggler" is a jaunty, outrageous and politically incorrect very late 70s chase thriller filled with a lot running, chaotic driving (stealing police cars), chewy dialogues and ballsy beat-ups. It's a relentlessly raw and intense barrage, as our protagonist violently bounces from here to there encountering cops, corrupt cops, an ex-wife, pimps, prostitutes, bouncers and street gangs along the authentically seedy strips of New York in his quest to find his kidnapped daughter. In what was a bungled napping attempt of mistaken identity… although the kidnapper still believes he has the right girl; that of a wealthy real-estate owner. Now just wait until James Brolin's ruggedly scruffy ex-cop character gets his hands on the madcap kidnapper. There'll be hell to pay! Everyone he comes across that stands in his way have felt it. The pulpy plot might be "heavily" contrived, unpleasant and fairly ridiculous, as it goes beyond and pushes reality many times. However this one-man riot machine provides on-going gritty, seedy and unapologetic excitement. No one is safe from this one man's devotion. "I've got to find my little girl." A chiselled Brolin is fitting in the central role, looking and acting the part. Cliff Gorman is particularly edgy as the scummy kidnapper. Then you have Richard S. Castellano bringing some solidity and Dan Hedaya is memorable as a psychotic cop. Director Robert Butler provides great location staging for its action and keeps a frenetic pace keeping things rough and ready. It might not be high-art, but this grungy, slam-bang action fodder is smashing entertainment.

If you like non stop action and wide excitement, then this movie is for you! You will NOT be leaving your seat to get popcorn! James Brolin does some of his best acting in this movie. Your heart will be ripped from your chest each and every time he gets so close, and fails! This is a sleeper movie. It just didn't get any press.

Truly this film should be called Night of the Jogger. It would make much more sense than Night of the Juggler, which has to be one of the most uninteresting titles ever assigned to a movie. Not only are there tons of joggers everywhere, but all the characters jog everywhere they go. Every time they need to go somewhere, they jog. There is no real reason for this.Brolin and his daughter start out for her school, jogging of course. But then she decides she can jog there by herself, and Brolin turns around for the jog home. About twenty seconds later, Brolin's daughter is kidnapped from the park when she is mistaken for a rich businessman's daughter.Here we come to one of the most implausible parts of the movie. The kidnapper throws her in the car, and she just sits there, calmly. She never tries to get out of the car. At several times they are stuck in traffic jams. Her window is down, her door is unlocked, for gods sake the car can't move, and yet she does not even try to get out of the car.We head into a long chase scene with Brolin getting a cab to chase the kidnapper. After the kidnapper crashes his car, he grabs the daughter by the hand and they run into the subway and catch a ride. Yes, that's right, the kidnapped daughter willingly runs with the kidnapper. They are on a crowded street and yet she never plants her feet and refuses to move, or even screams for help. She just runs along with him.When they get off the subway, the kidnapper steals a phone company van. He helps the daughter up into the front seat, has her slide over to the passenger side....and she sits there. She doesn't even attempt to go open the door or get out. This girl should be charged as an accessory in her kidnapping!The other really annoying part of the movie is that as Brolin tries to find his daughter, he is arrested or stopped by the police. But instead of saying "my daughters been kidnapped." He keeps saying they have to let him go, and either being really vague or trying to explain the whole story. Same thing happens when he tries to find what the kidnapper dropped outside a live girls porno place. He goes into the little viewing booths, and does he say his daughter has been kidnapped and that he needs help. Of course not, the big dope says "I'm looking for a girl..." Oh yeah, that's really going to help in a peep show setting. Sigh....The movie is fairly frustrating as the characters sabotage themselves over and over again. It is only through this contrived sabotage that the kidnapper gets the daughter and Brolin doesn't get her back right away. And the kidnapper is really wacko, but not in a scary way. We find out his motives when he explains the entire reason to the daughter as they are walking to his house - yeah, that's right, the daughter is still walking along with the kidnapper. Hell, he isn't even holding her hand now. So if you can stand the frustration or if you are with friends and want to laugh at the sheer contrivances that keep this movie going, be my guest and watch this movie - and remember the movie is about joggers, not jugglers.