The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 05, 1980, Page Page 15, Image 15
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James Brolin struggle,
-
Juggler
big-city c
By David Baker
Gamecock FHm Critic
New York is a dying city, a
decaying concrete jungle filled to
the brim with pimps, whores, surly
cabdrivers, crooked policemen,
youth gangs and homicide
lunatics. At least that's the picture
painted by a countless number of
recent films, including such hits as
Death Wish and The Warriors,
such flops as The Prisoner of
Second Avenue and Blackout, and
Night of the Juggler, a film which
audiences yet have to relegate to
either category.
I'm guessing that Juggler
eventually will be added to the list
of flops, not because it's a particularly
bad film, but it's not a
particularly outstanding one. And
wnen a genre 01 inms reaches its
saturation point, as the big-cityrevenge
thriller has, even an
outstanding member often fails to
win a big following.
Juggler, directed by Robert
Butler, is the story of a mentally
unbalanced sewer worker (Cliff
Gorman) who plans to kidnap the
daughter of a wealthy real estate
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nabs the daughter of a truckdriving
ex-policeman (James
Brolin), instead.
THE FILM IS little more than a
prolonged chase sequence,
following Brolin as he careens
through the city streets on the trail
of the kidnapper. When the ordeal
ends, so does the film itself.
Scattered throughout this
melange ot speeding venicies are
scenes showing a gang of black
youths stripping a van, a gang of
pornographers doing apSPECIAL
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s in Night of the Juggler'
exposes
orruption
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propriately obscene things, and a |
gang of Puerto Ricans causing all
sorts of trouble for the film's white
protagonist.
NO NEW IDEAS about racism,
kidnapping or anything else are
uncovered and few of the actors
seem to care, though Brolin isn't
nearly as wooden as usual and
Abby Bluestone, who plays the
daughter, creates more interest .
around her underwritten role than !
it dpsprvps 1
As the kidnapper, Gorman (a
talented actor who's contributed a
number of fine performances to a
number of very good films, including
An Unmarried Woman and
All That Jazz.)is laughably overwrought.
As his eyes roll uncontrollably
and his mouth snaps
open and shut, he resembles
nothing so much as a flesh-and
blood Daffy Duck, erupting into a
fit of rage because the practical
joke he just played on Porky Pig
backfired. There hasn't been a
performance so toweringly
ridiculous since Peter Frampton
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acting in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely
Hearts Club Band.
THE REMAINING players are
nondescript, with the exception of
Dan Hedaya, whose portrayal of a
deranged policeman is almost as
funny as Gorman's portrayal of the
deranged kidnapper.
Butler keeps the picture moving
at a rapid clip, however, and
there's seldom a dull moment in it.
Whether that's enough to make
Night of the. Juggler worth the trip
to the theatre is up to the individual
viewer.
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