The Hang Up (1969)
** (out of 4)
Sgt. Walsh (Tony Vorno) is a tough-as-nails detective who will do whatever it takes to keep scum off the streets. His attitude changes when he meets a young prostitute named Angel (Sharon Matt) and soon he finds himself falling for her as well as getting pulled into the underworld.
THE HANG UP isn't an awful movie but at the same time it needed a bit more sleaze to be more memorable. As it stands, this John Hayes film has a couple decent performances, some at times bizarre nudity and a decent story but there's just not enough bite here to make it more memorable and more entertaining.
As I said, the biggest problem with this movie is that the Hayes screenplay simply doesn't go far enough in the sleaze factor to make it more entertaining. If you've seen the director's THE CUT-THROATS from the same year then you'll know that he was certainly capable of doing more in the sexploitation genre but sadly none of that is to be found here. While you're at least mildly entertaining in what's going on, at the same time you can't help but feel you're watching something a bit too tame.
I will say that I enjoyed the performances of both Vorno and Matt. I thought of two of them at least had some nice chemistry and I thought both of them fit their roles quite nicely. As I said, there is some nudity throughout and a couple action scenes but just not enough to keep you more glued to what's going on.
