Mr. Ricco

Dean Martin's final lead role has somehow managed to slip under the radar of his fans and 70s crime thriller aficionados. Watching this, I expected to find some critical flaw that accounts for it, but found none. Maybe playing against genre expectations hurt the reception. To me that is not a flaw.

Like others have said, this is a very 70s movie. This time the renegade is not a cop but a defense lawyer. Cop is not the law, he's there to enforce it, is the running theme. There are delightful gags involving Ricco's dog that could be from Columbo, and Dino makes fun of his own golf playing. Cindy Williams plays a spunky aid that Ricco tries to help find a man. Philip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice fame has a memorable early performance.

Inspite of the mellow insider group, pay attention to the case. The action is on the streets. Not much happens inside a courtroom. You may think you are about to see an open and shut case, but there are twists and turns. There are clues as well. To avoid spoilers, avoid Robert Ebert's review that misses the point.

It's possible that Dean Martin might have taken the title role in Mr. Ricco because every player likes doing a courtroom drama and Mr. Ricco is a high priced San Francisco defense attorney. But other than the very beginning when Judge Harry Wingreen dismisses with prejudice the charge of murder against Dino's client Thalmus Rasulala we don't see a courtroom again.

Right after that a rash of killings start breaking out and there is an attempt in fact a couple of attempts on Martin's life. Eyewitnesses identify the sniper with a rifle as Martin's own client. That doesn't make sense to Martin, why would the man he just got off be trying to kill him? But somebody is certainly using him for target practice.

Dino looks pretty bored with the whole business, he's got an air of disinterestedness throughout the film. According to Nick Tosches's fine biography of Dean Martin, his co-star Thalmus Rasulala said he never was able to connect with him on any level during the production of Mr. Ricco. At the time Martin was going through a lot financial and romantic entanglements and the film was clearly one he did for the money.

Geraldine Brooks plays a woman who Dean's friends try to fix up with and Cindy Williams plays a girl Friday assistant. Mr. Ricco has the look and feel of a television pilot and Dino had shown some spark might have been picked up as a series.

As it is he saunters through the film like it was his nightclub act in Vegas.

I always enjoy watching '70's movies, even when it are bad ones. '70's movies always have a certain atmosphere and are made with a great style of movie-making, that is realistic, gritty and straightforward and also always makes uses of some experimental, non-formulaic techniques when it comes down to its storytelling and cinematography, among other things. "Mr. Ricco" might not the the best '70's movies around, it still is a good example of good old film-making from the golden '70's.

The movie its story is quite messy and weak but still made look interesting at times, due to its style of film-making. It provided the movie with a couple of nice moments, including a typical '70's-like car chase trough the streets of San Fransico.

San Fransico serves as a pretty good backdrop for the entire movie, as it always does in any movie.

The storytelling makes sure that is hard to keep track on the movie, with as a result that all the movie its weaker points become less notable as well. The movie its story is actually quite unlikely and ridicules at points but due to the muddled way the entire story is told, it becomes less obvious and notable all. Lots of things don't really make sense in the movie once you start really thinking about them and to make it all the more confusing, the movie features many, unneeded, characters, that don't add enough to the movie and only provide the story with some needless and distracting subplots.

Dean Martin of course already had his best years behind him but he still puts down a pretty good main character for the movie. The character is well developed and deepened out more thanks to Dean Martin's performance, who makes the character likable, by playing him mostly in a non-likable way.

The movie on all accounts is a pretty average one. Nothing too exceptional, just another good enough movie from the golden '70's but you're just as good off watching a "Law & Order" episode, or something along those lines.

6/10

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San Francisco defense attorney Joe Ricco (Dean Martin) gets his black militant client Frankie Steele (Thalmus Rasulala) free from murder charge and then Steele murders two cops. Ricco's friend's young son is the witness identifying Steele. Jamison (Cindy Williams) is his faithful assistant. His friend George Cronyn (Eugene Roche) is the police detective in charge of the case. During a raid of Steele's group, the Black Serpents, an unarmed Calvin Mapes is killed by a cop and his brother Purvis Mapes (Philip Michael Thomas) is framed with a planted drop-gun.

Who is Joe Ricco? That's the main question left hanging. Dean Martin is basically out of his elements. He's not doing much with the character and it's not asking much from him. He's in a perpetual hangover but he's never shown drunk. It reminds me of The Verdict with aging actors doing flawed aging lawyers. The comparison is not in Martin's favor. He's old and tired which fits the character but it's not terribly compelling. This has the slower 70's pacing without the action to jack up the intensity and the acting to create more depth. It's on the border and I put it slightly below grade.

A real departure for Dean Martin.. usually he's singing his way through a detective story. In this one, Martin is lawyer (Joe Ricco) defending a black man in a murder charge. Things get more wack when the latest two victims are cops. Is it a frame-up, or not? Cindy Williams (Shirley!!) is in here as "Jamison", Ricco's assistant. and you'll recognize Gene Roche (was the archbishop in "Foul Play.... fun film!) Here, Roche is Cronyn, head of homicide, investigating the moidah. It's pretty good. Certainly entertaining. It was the 1970s, so lots of issues to confront.. black rights, militant groups. Proper police procedures. All the things still relevant today! This was towards the end of Martin's acting career... he only made five more appearances after this, and two of those were in TV series. Cute gag where Joe (Martin) trains his dog to go fetch his ball when he slices into the woods. A fair amount of cussing and racist language and issues, so probably not for the young ones. Some clever banter between Ricco and Roch. Only rated 5.8 as of today, but that's only 400 votes. must not show this one very often. Directed by Paul Bogart, who did some REALLY well known stuff... All in the Family, Golden Girls, and the film version of the Torch Song Trilogy. It's pretty good. Surprised at the really low rating.