After pairing together delightfully and successfully for the television series I Spy, Robert Culp and Bill Cosby tried the big screen for Hickey & Boggs. With Cosby top-billed and Culp behind the camera as well in front of it, Hickey & Boggs is very much a cinematic crime drama of its era mixing a nihilistic view of the world with its indifferent citizens, sadistic villains, and innocent human lives that aren’t worth a plug nickel with two laconic do-gooders wondering if risking their lives is really worth all the bullets, blood, and bruises for a few measly dollars. Hickey & Boggs doesn’t paint a very rosy picture of the human condition circa 1972, and its consistent downbeat tone kept it from finding much success with audiences of the time, too.
Hickey & Boggs (MGM MOD)
Directed by Robert Culp
Studio: MGM
Year: 1972
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 anamorphic
Running Time: 112 minutes
Rating: PG
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono English
Subtitles: none
MSRP: $ 19.99
Release Date: now available
Review Date: September 29, 2011
The Film
2.5/5
Down-on-their-luck private investigators Al Hickey (Bill Cosby) and Frank Boggs (Robert Culp) are given a $500 retainer (money they really need) by the mysterious Mr. Rice (Lester Fletcher) to locate Mary Jane Bower (Carmen). Once they start poking into the matter, however, bodies begin to pile up, and they learn her disappearance is tied to a $400,000 robbery of a Pittsburgh bank some years previous. With a $25,000 reward being offered for the return of the money, the two private eyes have a much better reason for wanting to locate the missing Mary Jane, but they aren't the only ones searching for the woman.
Walter Hill’s terse screenplay never makes clear how the various groups all vying with one another to retrieve that money figure into the plot, and at some point, we cease to care how they all fit in. With our heroes being under attack not only by two rival gangs of thugs but also by the Los Angeles Police Department whose lead detective Papadakis (Vincent Gardenia) will give almost anything to be able to strip the boys of their P.I. licenses, it’s little wonder the two protagonists are so morose through the entire film (not aided by Hickey’s bitter separation from his wife (Rosalind Cash) and child and Boggs' addiction to alcohol and prostitutes). Besides the overall glum atmosphere of the investigations, Hill’s script is also prone to another obnoxiously typical 1970s artifact: a clearly misogynistic view of the opposite sex with every adult female involved in the story being referred to as “bitch” or worse at one point or another. Robert Culp’s direction has its odd quirks: he seems to love close-ups on inconsequential objects, but when the action starts to rev up, he covers his bases quite professionally. A tense shootout at the Rams' stadium is wonderfully sustained, and the climactic duel on the beach also keeps the pulse racing (though it's a bit anticlimactic after the prior gunfight).
The two stars play well with one another, but their sullen dispositions (probably deliberately to counter their more lively and jovial performances on their TV series) get to be a drag long before the picture (which seems overlong for the story it’s telling) is concluded. Rosalind Cash is fairly one-note as the unhappy and fed-up ex-Mrs. Hickey. The bad guys get all of the juicy, emotional scenes with Robert Mandan commanding as the head hood Mr. Brill and the young Michael Moriarty excellent as his sadistic henchman Ballard. Look quickly, and you’ll also see James Woods in a small role as another raving police detective fed up with Hickey and Boggs and Isabel Sanford as Hickey’s mother-in-law, even more dyspeptic than her daughter toward the risk-taking Hickey.
Video Quality
4/5
The film is presented in its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions. Despite the age of the movie, the transfer is very clean with no age-related dust specks or scratches to mar the viewing experience. Sharpness is very good throughout, and color is solid and nicely saturated without any problems with an excess of hue. Flesh tones do veer a bit to the rosy side of the spectrum, and there are some minor aliasing problems here and there, but nothing serious inhibits the transfer from looking about as good as it’s possible for it to look. The film has been divided into 12 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track is decoded by Dolby Prologic into the center channel. Dialogue is decently recorded and is mixed expertly with the Ted Ashford music score and the sound effects into the single track, very typical of its era. There’s not a lot of resonance to the sound, and multiple gunshots and explosions don’t have much weight either. There is some hiss present, and its volume rises and falls noticeably during the film’s running time.
Special Features
0/5
There are no bonus features on this made-on-demand disc.
In Conclusion
2.5/5 (not an average)
Hickey & Boggs is a very typical crime drama for the early 1970s. Its downbeat world view and morose storytelling fit the general tone of the times of that era. The made-on-demand disc looks surprisingly good, and fans of the movie or the stars will likely enjoy seeing it again.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
