Coogan’s Bluff (1968)

Directed by Don Siegel. Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Susan Clark, Tisha Sterling, Betty Field, Don Stroud, Melodie Johnson, Tom Tully, Seymour Cassel. [R]

Early Eastwood vehicle, and not one of his best; here he plays an Arizona lawman who travels to the Big Apple for a fugitive extradition, which, of course, does not go smoothly. Benefits from Siegel’s tough and stylish direction, nice use of the Fort Tryon Park locale, and Lalo Schifrin’s energetic jazzy score, but the story is thin and the characters are sketched in the vaguest of terms (the antagonist is especially nondescript and forgettable). Meanwhile, the premise itself is hardly milked at all for material; plenty of missed opportunities for fish-out-of-water observations/humor, especially the scene where the square cowboy enters a psychedelic free-love nightclub. Most notable today for its time capsule qualities (hippie culture, freewheeling misogyny, etc.) and being the inspiration for the television series “McCloud.”

54/100