52 Pick-Up (1986)

I love this movie so much

Simply Perfect

Simply A Masterpiece

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) attracts three scumbags (John Glover, Robert Trebor, and Clarence Williams III) to blackmail him. Harry ignores their demands. The trio responds with extremely aberrant and abhorrent behavior and malice. What will Harry do when they start to threaten his wife?The villainy between the three antagonists is believable and a visceral thrill. Roy Scheider makes the most out of a bland and passive main character. Cinematography feels naturalistic. Fans of Elmore Leonard novels may be impressed with "52 Pick-Up." Sadly, I am not impressed.Typical of Cannon Films, the story wallows in sleaze and unintelligible character motivations. "52 Pick-Up" is sleazy because every actress is fetishized, beaten (Spoiler: Doreen portrayed by Vanity is suffocated for several nauseating minutes), or raped (Spoiler: The main villain injects heroin into Harry's wife and rapes her offscreen). The problem is that these scenes forget to provide meaning, context, and nuance. I hate the character motivations because the bad guys continuously show Harry that they mean business (they murder Harry's mistress and invade his house nonstop). What does Harry do? He holds a filibuster and berates these sociopathic criminals. Additionally, the film becomes overlong and the direction from John Frankenheimer lacks understanding. "52 Pick-Up" is enjoyable albeit completely disparaging.

First of all, how plausible is this? In 1986 L.A., the most jaded town in the world, we are asked to believe that a businessman who is not even running for office would be a credible candidate for blackmail because his proto-Hillary-esque wife IS running for office. The sleazeball blackmailers honey-trap him using a love-interest cohort and assume, rightly (this is unbelievable in my opinion), that he will want it covered up to protect his WIFE's political ambitions. Would the average voter in L.A. in 1986 have given a damn about a political candidate's spouse being caught in an extramarital affair? OK, so this piece of nonsense is the MacGuffin to set the plot of this full-of-itself, not-as-clever-as-it-thinks-it-is, self-consciously 'neo-noir' flick in motion.Next, we get a full-bore tour of the world of L.A. porn (complete with cameos by many porn stars from the era), nudie peepshows, and dive bars, the world the sleazeballs (a smirking white pedophile sociopath, a scowling crackhead black sociopath, and a sweaty, cowardly, fat, gay alcoholic non-sociopath who realizes too late that the two other scumbags are heartless creeps who play for keeps and that he is in too deep) inhabit. Long sections of the movie revel in every gamy, seamy nuance of this tawdry subculture- cheap voyeurism dressed up as "realism."Finally, we have our protagonists: Harry ("Mitch") Mitchell (a Korean War vet, tough as nails, etc.- so tough he has not one but two nicknames; you can imagine all the other clichés that attach to this character) who we are asked to believe is really a good-hearted, honest businessman who made one mistake, played with by-the-numbers machismo by Roy Scheider, previously so good in "The French Connection," "Jaws," and "All That Jazz." And his wife, who, when Harry finally tells her about the affair (he has to- the blackmailers have upped the ante in a horrible way that implicates him in things far worse than adultery- to say more would be a spoiler), doesn't care about the human cost or potential victims but only about how it may affect her political ambitions. This character is played by Ann-Margret. She too is supposed to be tough as nails, but her early scenes are simply by-the-numbers wronged-wife haranguing and in her later scenes she is a drugged, submissive, moaning victim- a cliché of female subordination rescued by the macho man in her life. Neither character expresses a whit of compassion, empathy, or love toward each other or toward the third-party victims of their actions or those of the blackmailers.In other words, there are no sympathetic characters in this film, apparently something all the positive reviewers on this thread find commensurate with noir. Maybe they should take another look at classic noir, whether 1946's "The Big Sleep" or 1974's "Chinatown" or 1941's "The Maltese Falcon." All have sleaze and human ignobility galore, but all also have sympathetic protagonists whom we root for in spite of their flaws.The redeeming features of this film are the performances of John Glover, Clarence Williams III, and Robert Trebor as the three blackmailers. All eventually get their comeuppance. There is also one terrific scene of a car and its occupant being blown to smithereens in a satisfying act of vengeance. But otherwise this movie is an over- long, over-blown, full-of-itself, unpleasant waste of time. If this is indicative of Leonard and his literary and cinematic view of noir, then the genre is degraded and devoid of wit since the days of Chandler and Hammett. But then there are people who think that Stephen King's hyperventilated "horror" is fine art and entertainment, and that Joyce Carol Oates is a novelist and essayist who can actually write. There is no accounting for taste and critical judgment.

Roy Scheider is solid as a rock as self-made millionaire Harry Mitchell, one of those kinds of guys who seemingly has it all. But his indiscretion with young stripper Cini (Kelly Preston) has led to unexpected complications: a trio of bad guys with knowledge of his actions attempt to blackmail him. Harry decides to basically tell them to do something obscene to themselves and confesses all to his wife Barbara (Ann-Margret); he loves her enough to not want to damage her budding political career. So the three lowlifes up their game: they abduct Cini, torture and murder her (in a memorably disturbing sequence), and set things up to make it look like Harry killed her. So now Harry *definitely* can't go to the police. He then stubbornly sets about trying to solve the problem on his own.Co-written for the screen by Elmore Leonard, from his own novel, this is compelling every step of the way, with efficient direction by the legendary John Frankenheimer. Granted, it may not be to all tastes: some people may find it overly sleazy, or feel that the leading characters are just a little too cold, but it's fundamentally a good and twist laden story that is well told by Frankenheimer and a talented bunch of collaborators, including cinematographers Jost Vacano ("RoboCop" '87) and Stephen Ramsey. The lurid descent into the slimy universe inhabited by the villains gives the tale an effective edge; for one thing, ringleader Alan Raimy (John Glover) runs a porno movie theatre. At the very least, the villains are set up as being scummy enough that you just can't wait to see them get their comeuppance.Glover is simply perfect in his part, receiving strong support from a genuinely spooky Clarence Williams III as pimp Bobby Shy and an amusing Robert Trebor as pathetic worm Leo Franks, operator of a nude model salon. Also among the cast are the super sexy Vanity as nude model Doreen (she and Preston do show off a great deal of skin along the way), Lonny Chapman as Harry's lawyer Jim O'Boyle, and Doug McClure as politician Mark Arveson. Porn aficionados will note the appearances of stars like Ron Jeremy, Sharon Mitchell, and Jamie Gillis during the party scene.The film does admittedly go on a little long but it keeps its grip thanks to the acting and Leonards' enjoyably sordid tale.Eight out of 10.

52 Pick-Up is directed by John Frankenheimer and written by Elmore Leonard (adapting from his own novel) and John Steppling. It stars Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, John Glover, Vanity, Clarence Williams III, Robert Trebor and Kelly Preston. Music is by Gary Chang and cinematography by Jost Vacano and Stephen Ramsey. Successful business entrepreneur Harry Mitchell (Scheider) finds himself the victim of blackmail by three pornographers who have video evidence of his extramarital affair. With his wife about to embark on a new stage of her political career, the last thing Harry needs is a scandal, but when things take a turn for the worse Harry decides to use unorthodox methods to deal with the blackmailers. A nifty neo-noir this, certainly deserving of being better known in neo- noir circles. The presence of Leonard at the writing table ensures that the story doesn't drift too far away from his own source material, though location is moved to L.A. as opposed to the Detroit of the novel. Thematic thrust centres around Mitchell being caught for his indiscretions and what the consequences of his actions means for all around him, quite often with devastating results. Mitchell has to move about a seedy world of pornography, of cheap peekaboo bars, strip joints and snuff movies, he has to get to the level of his blackmailers so as to enact his plans with conviction. The three weasels played by Glover, Williams and Trebor are in turn slimy, menacing and a twitchy neurotic, an off-beat trio suitably framed by Frankenheimer's sleazy and cold world. It may not be prime Frankenheimer but the director knows his noir onions, both in performances garnered from his strong cast and via his visual ticks. Characters are more often than not smoking or drinking liquor, sweating or looking pained as the camera gets up close and personal, the director even finds place for a bit of slatted shadow play in one sequence and menacing angled shards for another. Some contrivances are more annoying than hindrances, it's a bit bloodless for a picture not lacking in action scenes, and although the finale is signposted without due care and attention, it is still sufficiently rewarding. Decadence, sleaze, greed, paranoia and moral decay come crashing together to create a sadly neglected piece of 1980s neo-noir. A yuppie revenger where there are no heroes, just sinners and victims. 7.5/10