Leonard here. The following column is written by my colleague Mark Searby highlighting British cinema past and present. Please enjoy A Bit of Crumpet.
Taxi Driver. Death Wish. The Warriors. These, and more, New York set films really captured the grime-y look of the city in the 1970s. That sort of look where all colours are washed out. Grey is the brightest colour on the spectrum, and even then, it’s a dull grey. There’s a sea of brown too. That unpleasant look of 70s New York was captured many times in the cinematography of some of the grittier films of that decade.
Night of the Juggler, which came right at the start of the next decade, still has that look to it. A sleaze-y look that really makes you feel uncomfortable. Even more so when its part of the kidnapping plot at the centre of the film. Burly Sean Boyd is on the hunt for the psychopath who kidnapped his daughter while they were out in the park. The kidnapper has taken the wrong child though. He thinks he has a millionaire property developer’s daughter and is demanding a ransom from the family, even though their daughter is safe at home. As Boyd races against the clock across the city and into undesirable neighbourhoods, he finds help in the most uncommon of places and people. But he also finds that the cops aren’t on his side.
Shortly after striking it big starring in The Amityville Horror, James Brolin took on the lead role of Sean Boyd in Night of the Juggler. A very difference performance from him compared to fighting against a haunted house. Here Brolin is running and jumping and gunning around the city streets. Lumberjack shirt half open, bushy beard and a mop of hair. It’s as if the filmmakers decided to put a sex symbol in a gritty crime thriller and hope that it would attract the female fans. It seems it didn’t work as the film disappeared pretty quickly upon release in 1980. However, Brolin is terrific as the man who will stop at nothing to rescue his daughter. This isn’t so much a performance about brawn, but about brains. Boyd has to figure out who this kidnapper is via a series of clues. Which then see’s him running into dangerous areas. It doesn’t help that he has a run-in with Sgt. Otis Barnes, who wants Boyd’s head on a stick after, it turns out, he used to be a fellow Policeman but narced on some of his fellow officers for taking bungs (another Frank Serpico). Barnes, played by character actor Dan Hedaya, is a relentless, unhinged officer of the law that thinks of nothing of firing off a shotgun in the middle of a busy New York City street as Boyd escapes jail. The shootout is an explosive sequence, and one that I’m surprised isn’t mentioned more when talking about big shoot out scenes in downtown city centres.
For all the action this film offers, some of the more intriguing parts are discussions about gentrification and dirty politics. As the kidnapper drags Boyd’s daughter across demolished apartment blocks, he spits out vitriol about the state of housing in the city and how it’s now being taken over by lesser citizens and races. He remembers when everyone in the area knew each other and everyone could leave their doors unlocked at night. Now it’s full of… well, you get the drift. While the dialogue is racist and homophobic, it does speak at great depth about the state of gentrification, and housing in general, around that time. Those who saw themselves as real New Yorkers being pushed out in-favour of large apartment blocks stacked high with tenants. It’s also a sharp barb at the politicians who don’t care how they treat their tenants, they just want the money. This is no political movie. However, it’s unafraid to throw politics in there and not lose any of its bite.
But the film does struggle with several implausibility’s. For example, the way the kidnapped girl doesn’t try and escape every time. The one time she does try it, it’s almost like she is waiting for the kidnapper to catch up with her. Also, she doesn’t shout or scream for help. One might even think it wasn’t really a kidnapping with the way the teenager girl doesn’t react to actually being kidnapped. It also seems very easy for Boyd to walk into more salubrious neighbourhoods without being questioned, or attacked, by its residents. You could be forgiven for thinking that this film doesn’t actually like anyone in New York City except the mega-rich. Such as it seems to paint everyone as a lesser person. Some more than others.
Night of the Juggler is unmistakably an exploitation flick, and it plays up to it (possibly with a bit of tongue in its cheek). Grimier, grislier, sleazier and seedier than most.
Night of the Juggler is available on UHD and Blu-ray from Radiance Films.
