Al Hickey and Frank Boggs
Created by Walter Hill

Actors Robert Culp and Bill Cosby reunited after their very successful run on television's I Spy (ask your parents) to star as AL HICKEY and FRANK BOGGS, two weary, beaten down Los Angeles P.I.s in the 1972 flick Hickey & Boggs, directed by Culp himself. The film is -- I kid you not -- one of the all-time great private eye noirs, from a decade that also gave us such classic gumshoe flicks as Chinatown, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Shaft, The Drowning Pool and The Late Show, among others.

Al and Frank have seen better days -- at one point they're debating whether to pay the phone bill or their answering service, and they're contemplating selling Frank's house. Not that their personal lives are in any great shape either, though -- Hickey (Cosby) is estranged from his wife and child; Boggs is an alcoholoc has just gone through a painful divorce from his ex-wife, a young exotic dancer. This hard-boiled Odd Couple thinks their financial woes will be solved when they're hired by a lawyer called Rice (a definitely creepy character who sunbathes while staring at young children in a playground) to track down his girlfriend, Mary Jane. But not only are the two detectives in way over their heads, they can barely control the film that bears their name. Like Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones, they're essentially spectators to the action, barely effectual, increasingly impotent (a point underlined by Frank's complaints about needing bigger guns and a particularly painful scene with his ex-wife in a nightclub) and growing more and more frustrated (the phrase "We gotta find that bitch" serves as a sort of mantra for the two gumshoes). As extremely well-armed gangsters, black militants and Chicano radicals square off in a battle to control $400,000 from a Pittsburgh bank heist and the bullets fly, the most Al and Frank can do is run for cover.

This is a sort of inverted noir, in terms of style. Whereas most classic noirs are played out in a world of increasingly tight, dark, claustrophobic places like bars, alleys and cheap motel rooms, the bitter weight of gloom and doom pressing down harder and harder, Hickey & Boggs by contrast is played out in a series of wide open, often sun-drenched public places: neighbourhood parks, football stadiums, baseball parks, the beach, parking lots.

Hickey and Boggs (despite the fact that the title makes them sound like one of Frank Gruber's comic detective pairs) is actually quite a bleak, violent, nasty film, a powerful slice of post-war noir. It's also extremely hard to catch these days, was only briefly released on video and hasn't appeared on the tube (at least in these parts) in donkey's ages.

DVD? Well, it exists (I know, because I rented it once from Netflix),but I swear it's one of the god-awful crappiest digital transfers to DVD I've ever seen, a grainy blurry mess with only one special feature: a couple of cheapo text-only, typo-ridden rudimentary bios of the two stars -- and they're none-too complimentary either, particularly towards Cosby.

It makes you wonder if the DVD's even an official release... Could it be that Mr. Pudding Pops was so worried about dirtying his wholesomer-than-thou image that he's refused to have it made available all these years? After all, this is one vicious piece of noir, with a few scenes that are just plain squirm-inducing. No new sweaters for Theo in this one, folks.

But the quality of the DVD aside, the film itself is great, definitely worth watching.

THE EVIDENCE

• "We gotta find that bitch."
  
  
• Al: "It's not about anything"
  Frank: "Yeah, it's about 400 grand."
  
  
• Al (as the smoke clears): Nobody came... nobody cares. It's still not about anything."
  Frank: "Yeah, you told me."

UNDER OATH

• "Watched this last night and then read your review again.  First, you were right about the transfer - the picture quality is probably the worst I've ever seen.  I'm sure I was watching the same DVD you were.  In fact, it may have been the same disc.  Afterc all, how many of those can NetFlix have?
  
  The movie itself was pretty good, although a little confusing at the start. One thing I noticed was that it had a definite "70s movie" feel.  Lost of long shots, crowd shots, etc.  Almost semi-documentary in places.  Reminded me quite a bit of "The French Connection" and other crime films of the era, even "The Conversation".  Directors back then seemed to just set up the camera and watch the actors do their stuff.
  
  I spotted Michael Moriarty and James Woods in the supporting cast, but somehow missed long-time character actor Ed Lauter.  My excuse - he had hair in this one!
  
  Anyway, I saw this on your recommendation and very much enjoyed it.  Just wanted to say that.
  Graham Powell
  

FILM

• HICKEY AND BOGGS....Buy this video
  (1972, United Artists)
  111 minutes
  Tagline: They're not cool slick heroes. They're worn, tough men and that's why they're so dangerous.
  Screenplay by Walter Hill
  Directed by Robert Culp
  Produced by Joel Reisner
  Associate Producer: Fouad Said
  Starring Robert Culp as FRANK BOGGS
  and Bill Cosby as AL HICKEY
  Also starring Rosaland Cash, Sheila Sullivan, Isobel Sanford, Ta-Ronce Allen, Lou Frizzell, Lou Frizzell, Nancy Howard, Bernard Nedell, Jason Culp, Ron Henriquez, Ed Lauter, Caryn Sanchez, Michael Moriarty, Bill Hickman, Vincent Gardenia, James Woods
  

NOVELIZATIONS

• Hickey and Boggs (1972, by Philip Rock) ....Buy this book
  

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.