Pendulum *** (1969, George Peppard, Jean Seberg, Richard Kiley, Charles McGraw) – Classic Movie Review 12,372

The undervalued 1969 neo noir crime thriller film Pendulum stars George Peppard, Jean Seberg and Richard Kiley. The gripping screenplay is an original, written by the film’s producer Stanley Niss, unravelling a slick and complex mystery.

Director George Schaefer’s undervalued 1969 Columbia Pictures American neo noir crime thriller film Pendulum stars George Peppard, Jean Seberg and Richard Kiley. The gripping screenplay is, unusually, an original, written by the film’s producer Stanley Niss.

Pendulum is a slick and complex mystery-melodrama policier, which starts with a murderer released from jail who kills the wife of the Washington DC police captain (Peppard) who put him away, as well as her lover, and also succeeds in framing Peppard for the murder. Now Peppard is jailed, but he manages to escape to find the killer.

Peppard excels himself in the juicy role of the innocent Police Captain Frank Matthews, and Seberg is excellent as Adele Matthews in one of her best acting opportunities, before she was effectively blackballed by Hollywood. Screen-writer Stanley Niss’s well-constructed plot grips and involves, though perhaps it could seem rather overfamiliar today with its theme of urban vigilante justice, but it was fresh in 1969, predating Dirty Harry (1971) and Death Wish (1974). The plot twists and turns until its inevitable violent ending.

Also in the cast are Richard Kiley, Charles McGraw, Madeleine Sherwood, Robert F Lyons, Frank Marth, Marj Dusay, Diana Elcar, Paul McGrath, Stewart Moss, Isabel Stanford, Harry Lewis, Mildred Trares, Robin Raymond, Phyllis Hall, Richard Guizon, and Douglas Henderson.

Pendulum is directed by George Schaefer, runs 102 minutes, is made by Pendulum Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Stanley Niss, is shot in Technicolor by Lionel Lindon, is produced by Stanley Niss, is scored by Walter Scharf, and is designed by Walter M Simonds.

It was released on 21 March 1969 (New York City).

Quentin Tarantino must like it as he references it in his 2019 film Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood on the cinema marquee that Sharon Tate walks past just before first seeing her name on The Wrecking Crew at the Fox Bruin Theater.

George Peppard stars in another hard-boiled thriller in 1974, Newman’s Law.

The cast are George Peppard as Police Captain Frank Matthews, Jean Seberg as Adele Matthews, Richard Kiley as Woodrow Wilson King, Charles McGraw as Deputy Chief John P Hildebrand, Madeleine Sherwood as Mrs Eileen Sanderson, Robert F. Lyons as Paul Martin Sanderson, Frank Marth as Lt. Smithson, Marj Dusay as Liz Tennant, Paul McGrath as Senator Augustus Cole, Stewart Moss as Richard D’Angelo, Isabel Sanford as Effie, Dana Elcar as Det. J J ‘Red’ Thornton, Harry Lewis as Brooks Elliot, Mildred Trares as Mary Schumacher, Robin Raymond as Myra, Phyllis Hill as Mrs Wilma Elliot, S John Launer as Judge Kinsella, Jock Mackelvie as US Attorney Grady Butler, Richard Guizon as Deputy Marshall Jack Barnes, Jack Grimes as Artie, Logan Ramsey as Detective Jelinek, Douglas Henderson as Detective Hanauer, and Gene Boland as Garland.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,372

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