A few years ago I became a huge fan of Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, thanks to Terrill Lankford and Michael Connelly. Huge to the point of rewatching it two, three times a year, because I see something new each time. And just a few weeks ago, I was turned on to Night Moves, the Gene Hackman/Arthur Penn P.I. classic, thanks to both Ed Pettit and Lee Goldberg. Now I've found the private eye movie that completes the trilogy (in my own head, anyway): Hickey & Boggs, starring (and directed by) Robert Culp, and written by the legendary Walter Hill.All three films are essentially about the same thing: the death of the private eye as we know it. Altman called his version of Chandler's hero "Rip Van Marlowe," implying that he took a very big sleep somewhere in the 1940s and woke up in the hazy, lazy crazy days of the early 1970s. In Night Moves, Gene Hackman's Harry Moseby is a little more in step with modern times, but not much. He's hopelessly out of his depth, both metaphorically and literally, within the first 15 minutes of the movie, and he sinks deeper, and deeper, and deeper.
The same goes with Frank Boggs (Culp) and Al Hickey (Bill Cosby, in one of his few... maybe only?... non-comedic roles). They're two private eyes so down on their luck, they have to decide between paying the bill for their answering service vs. the bill for their actual phone. And soon, they're embroiled in a case involving a virtual United Nations of bad guys: slick white Organization torpedoes, Latino bank robbers, and a militant black power group. They're hopelessly outnumbered, hopelessly outgunned. But unlike Marlowe and Moseby, Hickey & Boggs are painfully self-aware about their predictament, and more importantly, their obsolescence. "Nobody came, nobody cares," Hickey says at one point. "It's still about nothing."
Culp and Hill also pack a ton of story into small, spare moments. There's a scene where Boggs goes to see his ex-wife, who is hardly ever mentioned, and it still manages to be one of the most devestating moments of the film. There is no backstory given, no voice-over, no expository dialogue... but it's still all there for you, every bitter painful moment of their marriage, in the little details of their exchange. I can think of a dozen films where a subplot like this has been beaten to death, but none packs the emotional punch that Culp gives you here. And Hickey & Boggs is full of moments like this. The film never spoon-feeds you. It forces you to keep your eyes open.
Okay... didn't meant to turn this into a mini essay or anything. But if you love your private eyes pushed to the point of oblivion, if you think the best crime films were made in the 1970s, and love a good neo-noir that plays out in broad daylight, I very much recommend tracking down Hickey & Boggs. I've heard the DVD is a bit of a muddy mess; I bought a digital copy from iTunes and it's crisp and clear.
(For more on Hickey & Boggs, check out Kevin Burton Smith's Thrilling Detective Web Site entry; also, this excellent blog post from Mr. Peel's Sardine Liqueur, a new favorite site of mine.)
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I saw Hicky & Boggs a few months ago. I got it a downloaded DVD from a website on the Internet, and the picture quality was rather poor. To my knowledge, the studio hasn't actually put it out on DVD as of yet. Though the movie does have some really good scenes in it, I'm not sure that it held up as good as some of the other films made from that time period. But Culp and Crosby do an excellent job with their roles, and this was Culp's first film that he directed. I have to be honest and say that the big point for me about the film and why I like it is because of the Smith & Wesson, Model 27, .357 Magnum with an 8 3/4 inch barrel that Culp's character carries around in a paper bag in parts of the movie. The gun is simply too big and long to wear in a shoulder holster underneath a suit jacket, unless you're seven feet tall. Eastwood had already used the Smith & Wesson, Model 29, .44 Magnum with the six inch barrel for the first two Dirty Harry films, so Culp needed to come up with something a little different for Boggs to carry. That's one big handgun with a hefty recoil. It's generally used for hunting bear, mountain lions, and Sherman tanks. Culp by the way is a handgun aficionado and picked out the handguns for him and Crosby on the TV series I-Spy. I know that one of the henchmen, maybe two, were the drivers after Steve McQueen in Bullet in the famous chase scene through San Francisco. Hicky & Boggs is definitely worth seeing, but keep in mind that it is a low budget film that was made back during the Seventies.
Saw this one in the theater and liked it a lot. I have the novelization around here somewhere, but I've never read it.
Man, I'm NUTS about Altman's take on Chandler. I'll have to seek out Hickey and Boggs...
I had never heard of this film until Michael, over at Lazy Thoughts From a Boomer recently sent me both the book and the video of Hickey & Boggs. A very underrated film; the obviously low budget probably repels some viewers. But that recurring statement, 'it's not about anything,' is one you could write an essay on in relation to noir and crime fic in general.
The DVD is way expensive on Amazon. Going to have to drop by the video store after work to see if it is available. Still haven't gotten into watching movies on my computer.
I didn't think the story in this movie was as sharp as in THE LONG GOODBYE or NIGHT MOVES, but it's still a pretty good movie. The scene where Hickey hauls Boggs out of the topless bar is a great one.
This is a gem of a movie. I'm probably one of few who saw it in a theater when it was released in '72. And I think your trilogy set is quite complimentary to each film and each other. I recommend Elizabeth Ward's chapter in Film Noir Reader, titled The Post-Noir P.I., which examines both The Long Goodbye and Hickey & Boggs. The writer nicely analyzes the indifference of the 70's upon those few with a code and their new out-of-place status.
I recommend to all that want to see this crime pick, avoid the travesty of that DVD (it looks like someone placed a digital cam in front a TV/VCR). The VHS tape of it (if you can find it) still provides the better picture (even though it has the wrong aspect ratio of 4:3 rather than the correct 1.85:1). I think we all should campaign Criterion Collection to give it the proper release the film deserves. Thank you for the great post.
p.s., and a thank you to Corey for the call-out.
Holy Kismet, Big D! I just watched this flick a few days ago on Fancast. It's one of my favorite obscure films of the 70s. I've been sending the link out to the actors I'm casting for my next flick just so they can get a taste of underplaying, a lost art in today's cinema. Here's the link for anyone who wants to check it out:
http://www.fancast.com/movies/Hickey-and-Boggs/40116/857072036/Hicky-And-Boggs%3A-Full-Length/videos
You have to sit through a few commercials, but it's uncut and a clean print.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS! SPOILERS SPOILERS!
I'm not sure why people are complaining about the budget on this one. It may have been fairly low, but they got a lot of bang for their buck and I think they spent all they needed to spend. They blow up a car in the middle of L.A., go to a football game, have a shootout in the stadium, have a machinegunning helicopter on the beach blow a million holes in a Rolls, "crash" the chopper and generally carry on through the streets of L.A. moving from locale to locale at a fairly brisk scene clip. Nothing about this indicates a lack of funding to me. Perhaps the stripped down style of the movie is confusing people who are used to movies that cost 150 million to produce and never hold on a shot for more than a nano-second. But back in the 70s they had stories and actors instead of special effects and rapid fire editing to keep your mind off the fact that you were watching a vacuum. And most movies were modestly budgeted because there was no video, or dvd, or cable, or streaming revenue to be had. You had to make your dough the honest way - in the movie theaters. Then if the movie did well theatrically you could pick up some extra coin from Network TV or Syndication rights. But that was it. It was sink or swim in the theaters. So an indy movie like this (that probably cost around 2 mill) was quite a risk for the investors, unlike today where there are many ways to recover the dough.
I think Hickey and Boggs is a very well produced, well made picture. It has sharp writing, very good cinematography, and great performances. And it captures L.A. in the early 70s better than almost any other crime film at that time (except perhaps THE LONG GOODBYE).
Thank you for that link, TLL!
Your welcome.
(I've got it saved on my freakin' Bookmark bar.)
Hey Lankford, didn't you use Marlowe's apartment from LG in something you shot? Thought I recognized it in one of those Connelly shorts.
Why yes, Ayres, I did. We used it for the promo film for ECHO PARK. Unfortunately way back in those days (I think it was 2006!), youTube only allowed 100mb downloads, so the picture quality is hurting. I could probably download it again at higher quality now if I could find the files, but I think it would require a new youTube address and I'm not sure what the point would be at this late date. If you want to check it out in "BlurrysScope" though, here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ndCN3uHinE&feature=related
This is one of my favorite private eye movies. I've had the pleasure of talking about it with both Walter Hill and Robert Culp. Hill I was meeting with about a movie project that fizzled, but he at first seemed puzzled by my interest in H & B, but got into it, and confessed they had broken some interesting ground with the picture. Culp I ran into at San Diego comic con last year. I stopped and spoke with him for a few seconds, and he was polite but understandably glazed, and then I mentioned being a fan of HICKEY & BOGGS, and that got me an enthusiastic five minutes. He seems really proud of it, as well he should be, and indicated rights were tied up and complicating getting a legal DVD out there (there's a lousy boot available).
Terrill: thanks for sharing that link. What a strange coincidence. I'm not even sure what made me go seaching for HICKEY & BOGGS at iTunes, other than procrastination.
And thanks, Max, for sharing that moment with Robert Culp.
My name is Jerry Holt--I teach at Purdue, but I also have a noir novel, "The Killing of Strangers," that got an Edgar nomination last year. I wanted to tell Duane how honored I am that Amazon lists "Severence Package" as another book readers of mine might like, because I am a major fan of his. As for "Hickey and Boggs," I go back to 1972--and I would agree with the trilogy which has been created here, but I'd expand it to four and put in "Chinatown" as well. I would also say that I know of few American films that have the utter heart that "Hickey and Boggs" does: I have rarely seen a film that cares so much about its people. I believe this is because the filmmaker cared so much. I invited Robert Culp to a film history class I taught to celebrate the film and 21 years later he knew every shot; every line. And he was so giving to
the students; fascinated by their take as essentailly a new generation for the film. He also arranged for me to interview Bill Cosby by telephone, and I can tell you that Cosby is just as committed to the movie as Culp is. And he should be--his performance is as crisp and real as Culp's, and the two of them do, for my money, the best ensemble turn on film. "Hickey and Boggs" is something close to "Waiting for Godot" Meets "The Long Goodbye"--the payoff being, of course, that Frank and Al find salvation in each other. I will never forget Robert Culp;s generosity in regard to that event, and it breaks my heart that this film has never found its larger audience. It's good to hear folks with audiences talking about it. Thank you so much--I have really enjoyed reading these posts.
Jerry HOlt
Jerry,
You're definitely right about Chinatown. I've watched that about two-dozen times over the years. It's a true classic.
I've always wanted to meet Robert Culp. I've admired him and his work since he stared on TV in the western series, Trackdown, and then I-Spy. The man is truly a star in the biggest sense of the word.
I checked out The Killing of Strangers on Amazon, and it looks good. I'm going to order it next payday. Have you written any other Sam Haggard novels since 2006?
Hi Wayne--
I have a sequel due next year. It takes place during Y2K. What a strange time that was to revisit!
Thanks for checking into "Strangers"--hope you like it. Re "Hickey and Boggs"--I think Walter Hill's already good script was greatly improved by the jittery rhythms of the sometimed ad-libbed, always grittily real chatter between those two guys. Just remarkable.
Thanks for writing, Jerry. I think it's fantastic you were able to bring Robert Culp to your class. What I wouldn't give to have been one of your students that day...
I finally had a couple of hours to spend with H & B again, via TLL's Fancast link (thanks again). I posted my thoughts yesterday. Thanks, Duane, for bringing needed attention to this gem of a film.
Again I'm one of the few people to have seen this when it came out in the theatres (in the UK) and it left a lasting impression. As a schoolboy, I was an avid fan of I Spy in the sixties with Culp and Cosby. This movie inspired a comic book I produced for Bunch Books in the UK in the 1970's as an art student called 'View from the Void'. You can still find copies on the internet. Check it out and you'll see what I mean. That actually started my career in commercial art so it was quite a trip down memory lane when I caught up with it after thirty five years now it's on iTunes. It has stood the test of time. Some of the music aside, what a film. Tautly plotted, directed and acted - visually sophisticated. A forgotten and totally underrated classic.
Oh-thank-you-Paul! Didn't know it had reached iTunes! The Fancast link was great (even with the commercials). But this, this is fantastic. And the print looks in excellent condition.
Doh! I didn't even think to check iTunes.
I am very happy about the amount of commentary this thread has generated, not to mention the quality of the discussion. Prior to Robert Culp's visit to my class, he arranged telephone interviews for me with Bill Cosby and producer Elliot Schick about "Hickey and Boggs." I am happy to share those with anybody interested. This film needs to get its due at last, and I will help in any way I can.
Jerry Holt
Jerry, put me down on the definitely interested list on whatever you can share on this remarkable film.
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