Defying orders to lay-off the case, two Los Angeles vice-squad cops go after a local mobster and use unorthodox methods to achieve results.
Acting
Gould's exhausted Everyman vs Blake's feral intensity — electric mismatch.
Direction
Hyams' debut: documentary-style LA that reeks of sun-baked failure.
Cinematography
Vice squad as grime tourism — every frame feels illegally obtained.
Director
Peter Hyams
Elliott Gould
Vice Detective Michael Keneely
Robert Blake
Vice Detective Patrick Farrel
Allen Garfield
Carl Rizzo
Antonio Fargas
Stephen
Michael Lerner
Marvin
Sid Haig
Rizzo's Bouncer
Ivor Francis
Judge Fred R. Simpson
William Sylvester
Mr. Weldman
Logan Ramsey
Dr. Berman
Richard X. Slattery
Desk Sergeant
Margo Winkler
Mrs. Rizzo
John Lawrence
Sergeant Kenefick
Cornelia Sharpe
Jackie Faraday
Danny Goldman
Mr. Crosby
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hyams wrote it after researching actual vice cops and discovering their cases were constantly dismissed by corrupt courts.
The rare 70s cop film that treats police work as demoralizing bureaucracy — it bombed because audiences wanted heroes, not this.
US
