User reviews

While not truly "blaxploitation", the integrated cast is of major interest in this story (based on a novel by Wally Ferris) strongly and memorably depicting racial differences. Two detectives, a veteran Italian-American named Mattelli (Anthony Quinn) and an up and coming black, Lt. Pope (Yaphet Kotto), are forced to work together while investigating the case of three black men (two of them disguised as cops) who ripped off money from a Mafia controlled bank. Now it's up to Mattelli and Pope to find the three men before the Mafia is able to get their revenge.

There's some wonderful acting in this tough and gritty film, given straightforward treatment by director Barry Shear and featuring plenty of authentic Harlem locations. It's got quite a lot of hard hitting violence, and may be uncomfortable to watch at times for some viewers. The music by J.J. Johnson is superb and there are also great songs by Bobby Womack on the soundtrack. There's one ingenious cut a little past the 77 minute mark. The pacing is quite effective and the storytelling always interesting and compelling.

Quinn is solid as the old school, bigoted veteran and Kotto is his match as the more disciplined, efficient younger man. Anthony Franciosa is fun in a key supporting role as a mob henchman, and the cast is peppered with many familiar faces. Delivering standout performances are the raspy voiced Richard Ward as gangster Doc Johnson and Paul Benjamin as determined career criminal Jim Harris. Viewers will enjoy themselves spotting actors and actresses such as George DiCenzo, Antonio Fargas, Paul Harris, Gloria Hendry, Gilbert Lewis, Charles McGregor, Robert Sacchi, Marlene Warfield, Mel Winkler, and Burt Young.

Overall this is potent entertainment and deserves its place among the great NYC-based films of the 1970s.

Quinn and Shear were the executive producers.

Eight out of 10.

This top urban thriller was perhaps the best of the films made during the blaxploitation era. The story is grim, bleak and violent and the grit and grime of Harlem is present in every scene. The theme throughout is black vs. white with no subtle shades of gray. Three black men steal money from the Mafia, with predictable results that follow in short order. Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto are police officers with quite different agendas and their relationship is one of mutual dislike. Anthony Franciosa is over-the-top as the Mafia lieutenant and Richard Ward is a gravel-voiced Harlem crime boss who stands up to the Mafia with a brash defiance. Bobby Womack's vocals accompany the film.

I came to Across 11th Street by a very strange route - I heard the title song by Bobby Womack on the soundtrack to Jackie Brown. When I looked up the film in Halliwell's Film Guide it came highly recommended as one of the finest examples of its genre. I wasn't disappointed.

If anything, political correctness and sensitivities to some extent reduce the ability of modern TV and film to examine racial attitudes - but this film meets them head on. It doesn't condone the criminals but it does try to explain their circumstances and it's study of racism within the NYPD is brutal in comparison with NYPD Blue.

The violence is truly brutal - as it should be.

ACROSS 110TH STREET is a tough, no-nonsense Harlem-set crime thriller which boasts some excellent performances and a wonderfully gritty tone that marks this out even in a decade known for its ruthless realism. The film hits the ground running with an astonishingly violent robbery before mixing together various elements to good effect: there are touches of noir, blaxploitation and DIRTY HARRY-style cop thrills here. Anthony Quinn has one of his most interesting roles, and an up-and-coming Yaphet Kotto really shines as the no-nonsense cop. Particularly good is Anthony Franciosa who is criminally underrated in his portrayal of a mob psychopath. A fine film overall and one which commands the attention.

I couldn't agree more with the positive comments on this film. First, the way the film captures grimy, raw Manhattan of the early 70's, beginning with a roaming helicopter shot of the city. OK, the film is slated under the genre of "Blaxploitation". Is it? Who cares, I love them all. If they could only make films like this these days, instead of poor attempts at remakes of classics (Shaft, for example). Although it would be near difficult to get actors nearing the talent of Quinn and Koto. Excellent casting throughout the film for that matter. Yaphett Koto also appears the same year in "Live and Let Die.", probably one of the best 007 movies ever. He puts in a marked performance in that film as well. Pick this movie up (may prove difficult at outlets the likes of Blockbuster) and enjoy the acting, photography, stunts, music (Bobby Womack) etc. You will recognize some other faces in this film including Burt Young (non-speaking role)(Rocky films) and Antonio Fargas (aka - Huggy Bear/Starsky & Hutch).

Paul Benjamin, Ed Bernard and Antonio Fargas rob a cash drop-off between black and white gangsters and it goes terribly wrong. All the gangsters (including Burt Young) and two cops are killed. Anthony Franciosa, the mob boss's son-in-law, is put in charge of finding out who took the money.

Veteran cop Anthony Quinn thinks it's his case, but he finds out that younger Yaphet Kotto is being put in charge of the investigation ... partly to put a better public face on the whole deal. Quinn and Kotto end up working together, fairly uneasily since Quinn's methods are frequently a lot less than legal.

This is not a very elegantly crafted film. It's loose and ragged with a fast pulpy style ... all fast close-ups and rough cuts. It fits the material though which is all about conflict. The black gangsters clash with the white gangsters. The white cop clashes with the black cop. The black gangsters clash with the white cop. Everyone wants to find out who has the money, and newarly everyone ends up dead.

I guess it helps, if you want to reflect near-true-life events, that yours is the first film to use the new, lightweight, almost Arriflex 35 BL camera which allowed hand-held, sound filming in tight locations. I guess it also helps if you have a great title song like so many other black-crime, for want of a better expression, movies of the time written and sung by a notable soul artist, in this case, by Bobby Womack. But above all, it helps if you have a taut script, acted out by a quality, committed cast filmed on actual New York street locations and a credible storyline to boot. Put all these things together and you have a formula for a first-class crime drama, surely one of the best of its era.

Three down-on-their-luck petty criminals from Harlem hijack a Mafia pick-up of ill-gotten gains of some $300000. Members of the mob, cops and the public are killed by the indiscriminate use of a machine gun and when the blood finally dries, the mob, you can bet, is far from happy. The recovery job is given to Tony Franciosa's unhinged Nick D'Salvio by the mob elders as a sort of initiation test and boy, does nasty Nick grab his opportunity employing graphically gruesome methods to track down and punish the perps.

Also on the case, especially given that two of NYPD's finest lost their lives too are the city police. Heading up the investigation are Anthony Quinn's committed but compromised Captain Matelli and Yaseph Kotto's new black kid on the block, Lieutenant Pope who gets to lead the operation. Naturally, Pope has to endure some Virgil Tibbs-like discrimination but his professionalism and integrity win Matelli over as they join the race to crack the case.

Utterly convincing on its realism with its depictions of torture, violence and execution, the cop and mob pursuits hurtle towards their shared destination like ever more out-of-control express trains with a smash-up at the end almost inevitable. We're allowed a window into the three petty crooks' personal lives to learn their motivations but you just knows that's there's little chance of these three blind mice getting away with the cheese.

A convincing and compelling slice of life on the mean streets of NYC you can easily see its influence on hit police-procedural TV series which followed in its wake like "Kojak" and "Hill Street Blues" but I suggest you strap yourself in to see this movie for itself, an unflinching, wholly credible crime-drama which certainly walks the walk and talks the talk.

"Across 110th Street" is one of the best films of its kind. Its gritty realism via being dark, grim and brimming with tension, elevates the film to that of a classic. It is unlikely that "Across 110th Street" shall ever be seen in its full version in Britain, as the British Film Censors demanded that three minutes of excessive violence be removed before the film was granted a certificate and put out on release. Regardless, this film has the ability to shock as well as to enlighten (entertain perhaps isn't the right word). From the violent opening scene to the shattering climax, the pace hardly lets up. Anthony Quinn - a medium star back in his day - takes the lead as the dedicated but corrupt and racist cop. Yaphet Kotto is effective as the more liberal cop whose pairing with Quinn makes for decidedly uneasy working relations. There is nothing remotely pretentious about "Across 110th Street" because the film's content represents every day life in New York for some. There are two plots that become linked with each other but the story of the Mafia family who have $300,000 stolen from them, takes priority. The tension intensifies with each step that the Mafia takes in finding the small-time thieves responsible. The film quickly faded from view with regards to British video releases. Then 14 years ago, it suddenly appeared on DVD. A masterpiece of American cinema of the 1970s.

Slightly niche crime thriller also quite dated now.

I first saw this a long time ago and I liked it but never remembered to find it again.

Doing so thrifting I stumbled upon this very likely the exact copy I saw before.

It was a rental copy from Blockbuster which obviously went out of business and sold off all their dvds.

So back to the movie Yaphet Koto not real well known and Anthony Quinn somewhat but in movies from long ago are the stars.

Oddly most of the hoods the other main characters are all nobodies or at least I had never heard of them.

The mood, acting and presentation is visceral and gritty.

They hold nothing back and this movie is pretty mad.

I like crime thrillers period pieces and abstracts of the two so I enjoyed this.

I will say parts are quite gut wrenching and sad.

No spoilers but if you like anything you heard find this it is a must see.

Great film on black and Italian mobs in 70's New York City, dealing with black question, ageing, the role and duties of policemen, lack of welfare state, among other important issues. Cinematography and art direction are great, and so are acting, dialogs, soundtrack, sets. Deffinitely a must-see for everyone who like police and mafia movies.

Well done action film that's part "blaxploitation" part police procedural. Excellent performances from Yaphet Kotto, Paul Benjamin and Tony Franciosa. Quinn's racist police captain is a little over the top. Permeated by the simmering racism in our society. Gritty and realistic.

Sometime it seems that Hollywood stopped making good movies in 1970's. I was not familiar with this movie before I stumbled upon it in my local independent video store. What a wonderful surprise. This is a crime movie like no other. It doesn't make allowances to anybody. We see Mafia, and black gangs from Harlem, and cops both crooked, honest and those in between. In this dirty and hard world violence is an everyday occurrence and the movie is filled with ugly, horrible things. The director Mr.Shear doesn't use violence to excite or repel the viewers. That's just how it is in this desperate world full of broken people.