McQ ** (1974, John Wayne, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, Colleen Dewhurst, Clu Gulager, David Huddleston, Al Lettieri) – Classic Movie Review 3414

John Wayne stars as Detective Lieutenant Lon McQ, a Dirty Harry-style cop on the trail of the hood who killed his best friend and partner. This leads McQ to uncover corrupt elements in the police department dealing in confiscated drugs in director John Sturges’s busy but undistinguished 1974 action thriller McQ.

This disappointment is only very moderate, journeyman stuff from an ageing star, then 66, with the old chestnut of police corruption spurring the weary plot. However, Sturges does keep the direction brisk and capable.

This is the very first time Wayne ever played a cop. It is an odd, intriguing novelty to find Wayne in a car rather than in the saddle, but he doesn’t seem entirely comfortable there. Unsurprisingly, Sturges was opposed to Wayne’s casting as McQ because of his age of 66. And he does seem too old. The tired Wayne performance and pedestrian writing by Lawrence Roman put a wet damper on proceedings.

But the good support cast helps the film out, especially Eddie Albert as the police captain, Kosterman. There’s nothing at all wrong with the performances from a cast that is headed up by Diana Muldaur, Colleen Dewhurst, Clu Gulager, Al Lettieri and David Huddleston.

Also in the cast are Jim Watkins, Julie Adams, Roger E Mosley, William Bryant, Richard Kelton, Stefanie Powers, Chill Wills, Richard Eastham, Dick Friel, Joe Tornatore, Fred M Waugh, Chuck Roberson and Kim Sanford.

Undeterred, perhaps because he was desperately trying to compensate for his mistake in turning down playing Inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry (1971), Wayne went on to play another cop in Brannigan (1975), which also failed.

Dirty Harry director Don Siegel said: ‘Wayne couldn’t have played Dirty Harry. He was too old. He was too old to play McQ, which was just a poor rip-off of Bullitt (1968).’ Indeed, McQ is heavily influenced by Bullitt and was intended as a vehicle for Steve McQueen and much re-written.

Stuntman and future director Hal Needham performed the very first car stunt using a black powder cannon charge to help to flip the car without ramps in this film.

Clu Gulager (born 16 November 1928) died of natural causes at the Los Angeles home of his son John on 5 August 2022, aged 93.

Clu Gulager’s first major film role was The Killers (1964), followed by the racing film Winning (1969) opposite Paul Newman, Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show (1971) and McQ (1974) opposite John Wayne. Gulager’s final screen performance was as a book store owner in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3414

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/