52 Pick-Up

Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) is a wealthy specialty manufacturer in L.A. with beautiful wife Barbara (Ann-Margret) running for city council. Hooded blackmailers with a video tape of Harry and his mistress Cini (Kelly Preston) want $105k. Harry has a cold relationship with his wife. Cini and her friend Doreen (Vanity) are porn strippers under the thumb of Alan Raimy (John Glover) and his underlings Bobby Shy (Clarence Williams III) and Leo Franks (Robert Trebor). Harry doesn't go to the cops but also refuses to pay. The situation escalates as Alan elevates the blackmail and demands. However Harry counters with negotiations and schemes which pitch the blackmailers against each other.

The three bad guys are terrific. There are some dark things going on in this movie. There is a snuff film of Cini. Vanity has a memorable stripper scene. She has a great line after Harry says her picture is a little dark. "That's me, honey." Roy Scheider is a little bit too cold and distant. He needs some more emotions. In a way, he is overpowered by the dark crazy villains because they are such compelling characters.

By all accounts, 52 Pick-up is a nasty piece of cinema; a thriller that wholly benefits from Frankenheimer's direction, Elmore Leonard's characters and a hateful edge.

This is a movie that grabbed me fairly quickly and pulled me right in as Roy Scheider's industrialist had to outsmart his blackmailers. The players both behind and in front of the camera are expert, the plot turns are wicked and while the ending is ... unique ... this tawdry little crime movie delivers.

Seems out of place in time where the main emphasis in American films were on action and horror. 52 Pick Up(1986) is a film that's more suited to the middle years of the film noir genre during the mid 1940s. Many old and modern themes are put together to create a gripping and well acted thriller. Its roots are deep in Film Noir traditions and notions.

The main villain is one of the most memorable heavies in thrillers of the last twenty years. What makes the film so compelling are the realistic behavior of the villains who are into to something that's way over their heads. The main villain, Alan Raimy is a cool talking but vicious blackmailer and murderer who goes into a war a nerves with nemesis, Harry Mitchell. He is truly a frightening villain unlike in many crime thriller who's can explode at anytime or any second.

52 Pick Up(1986) is based on a novel by Elmore Leonard whose work has been adapted into the big screen or television. In the 1980s most of the Elmore Leonard based features were noirish, serious, and violent films..I.E., 52 Pick Up(1986), Stick(1985), Glitz(1987), and Cat Chaser(1989). During the 1990s films based on Elmore Leonard's work tended to be more lighter and less sleezy and serious like for example, Get Shorty(1995), Jackie Brown(1997), Touch(1996), Out of Sight(1998), and the made for TV movie Pronto(1998). 52 Pick Up(1952) is one of my favorite films based on the crime novels of Elmore Leonard.

The snuff murder sequence involving the murder of Cini played by Kelly Preston is chilling presented. Similiar to the scenes of snuff that the main character sees in 8MM(1998). A disturbing moment as disturbing as the Family massacre and torture home video of Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer(1986) from that same year. Realisticly directed with emotional impact by director, John Frankenheimer.

Filled with a good or excellent plot twist at every turn of the story. The Plot twists in 52 Pick Up(1986) unlike in Reindeer Games(2000) are more believable and well toned. Its the kind of plot twists shown in 52 Pick Up(1986) that shows Elmore Leonard's strengths as a writer and a master of surprising plot twists. My favorite plot twist ocurrs at the end of the motion picture.

Many of the actors of this motion picture give tight convincing performances that supplements the brilliantly crafted direction of John Frankenheimer. Roy Scheider gives his character of Harry Mitchell a combination of human vererability and mental toughness. Ann Margret pulls some surprises as the dissappointed but understanding wife, Barbara Mitchell. John Glover puts on a charismatic performance as the ruthless but suave Alain Raimy.

Carried by mood and attitude for the whole duration of the motion picture. Strong mood is what makes or breaks a Film Noir or crime thriller. 52 Pick Up(1986) has enough mood to last two films. The mood in here is so tense to the point of glass breaking and walls shaking.

There are no heroes in the world of 52 Pick Up, only Criminals and survivals. Harry Mitchell is the ultimate anti hero that is part of Film Noir lore. He is akin to many anti heroes played by Robert Mitchuim, Kirk Douglus, and other tough guys of the Film Noir period. The toughest of tough guys portrayed by Roy Scheider in his long career.

Clarence Williams 3 plays a character which he would do a varation of in the horrible Reindeer Games(2000). He was much better in 52 Pick Up(1986) than he is in Reindeer Games(2000). The blackmail aspect of 52 Pick Up(1986) appears in Reindeer Games with pathetic results. Directed with gritt and intensity by the talented but inconsistent John Frankenheimer.

Kelly Preston brings to her role a sense of naivity and tragedy all in one package. The final moments are nail biting in the tradition of nail biting crime thrillers. Overlooked film that is the type of film rarely made today in Hollywood in our PC world. 52 Pick Up(1986) shows that a crime thriller is more than action set pieces and flashy actors.

I've only read one of Leonard's crime novels and it didn't impress me much with its style. The guy writes as if he's producing a technical manual with people instead of parts. But the plot was interesting and dense, as it is in this movie.

Roy Scheider never turns in a bad performance, and here his face is beginning to look comely and battered with time. He's also from Orange, New Jersey, which is a good place to start from. Scheider is Harry, a morally flawed businessman with a mechanical bent. Ann-Margaret is breathtakingly good looking, and her performance is exceptional. The same could be said of Vanity, but her part is rather small. The villains are all superb. John Glover is a delight to watch on screen -- and to listen to -- with that slimy smile and midlands Maryland accent that descends into working-class vulgar when the situation calls for it. He's the kind of villain who would enjoy pulling hooks out of fish. He and Scheider played well off one another in "The Last Embrace." Clarence Williams is a sort of doggedly cunning and brutal muscleman, done quietly but effectively.

There's something oddly amusing about Williams' villainy. After Scheider and Ann-Margaret have clobbered him following a botched murder attempt (a little hard to believe), he sits in a chair having his picture taken while Scheider implants in his mind a few seeds of doubt about the probity of his partners in crime. An expression of dumb comprehension creeps slowly over his face and his eyes squint over his bleeding nose.

Robert Trebor (terrific name, by the way, a palindrome) gives a nearly perfect imitation of a guy who is a sweating, shaking, desperately twitching nervous wreck, but still with his eye pinned on profit and, mostly, survival. What a trio of villains.

The plot is, as I say, dense, but not difficult to follow. The story is in a style that Northrop Frye called low mimetic: Scheider is no hero, and in fact no better than the rest of us. That's what makes his outwitting of the trio so interesting. Frankenheimer's direction is fine, no flashy shots or dazzling fireworks. The story pulls a viewer along on its own terms. Not a masterpiece, but a cleverly done genre piece, it's worth seeing. Can't imagine why people flock to schlock while a movie like this goes by mostly unnoticed.

And the moral of the story is... If you're an aging fairly well to do business-owner with a wife running for city council, might be a good idea to keep it in your pants. I mean, hey, thats what the porno theaters are for and all, right?

52 Pick Up is sleazy, practically X rated (I imagine it got edited down to an R) and would be an excessive neo noir, practically an exploitation flick with the grit it's spitting out, if not for Elmore Leonard being a cracker-jack master at s***bag sometimes-smart-but-also-stupid characters (you know, f-ups), and the delicious twists and turns this takes, which are ultimately all about how Mitchell (Scheider) manages to get the upper hand just enough to keep things moving his way.... Until it doesn't. And good God do John Glover and especially Clarence Williams III own their roles so complerely and make them equally terrifying and campy (Williams's squeaky voice, one for the ages, man).

There are some odd/off technical beats early on - maybe it was because I was seeing it on 35mm on a big screen, but certain tracking shots seemed ragged, and I dont know if that was by design or because Frankenheimer had a lax crew - and I can't shake that Ann-Margaret's character is too smart, or seems to be, to make some of the dumb choices she does at times. Like say, I dunno, leave the house for a while and don't stay where you know these dummy porn jackals will come by since they know where your husband lives - hell, he shouldve moved them out after the first video, but whatever, not a killer to the whole story. So moments like those where logic leaves for plot convenience aren't solid.

For all the illogic and flagrant disregard for good taste that this as (many real world porn stars appear, including Ron Jeremy), this is a helluva good movie because Frankenheimer understands what Leonard is going for: nobody here is exactly likeable, but it's more about watching how one guy will scheme with the other, and Scheider nearly becomes a Sanjuro among these three dangerous boobs. Not to mention on top of everything there is that 80s synth score that I believe is playing the Melodies of the Pile of Cocaine from Scarface. My only regret was not having a glass of scotch to go along with it.

(PS: .... Too bad we didnt get the denouemont where Ann-Margaret divorces his jazz-convertible self and takes him for everything he's got (I mean, you cheat on Ann friggin Margaret, youre lucky she doesnt beat you in the head with roller skates like Roller Girl in Boogie Nights, but I digress).