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Brock's Last Case (1973) A 1973 TV movie, which is almost automatically to say a backdoor series
pilot that didn't fly. It opens with an amusing montage of New York
City cop-life as weary Max Brock (Richard Widmark) has a hard time fighting
crime despite unhelpful citizenry and rotten luck, then shows up at
his boss's to hand in his resignation - after a bizarre feint about
corruption in which film of him apparently taking a bribe is explained
as an undercover sting - and relocate out West to an idyllic citrus
ranch where he can sit on the porch and watch the sun go down. Arriving
in small town, USA, he learns that his ranch is a disaster area known
as The Mighty Lemon and that his Indian manager (Henry Darrow) is about
to be arrested for the murder of the Sheriff. In debt and needing a
loan, he is steered to a banker (John Anderson) who agrees only if the
big city cop will help the inept deputy (Michael Burns) investigate
the murder, preferably proving the Injun's guilt. From then on, it's
predictable if amiable: the most friendly of the suspects (David Huddleston)
turns out to be the killer, the arrows found stuck in the Sheriff and
two subsequent victims were stabbed rather than shot, there's a social
conscience side-trip as a liberal lady lawyer-rancher (Beth Brickell,
channelling Gretchen Corbett out West) introduces Max to some angry
Indians and an overlong chase-fight finish as the ageing Widmark and
the tubby Huddleston show unlikely action man moves jumping off roofs
and running at speed. A lot of minor characters (Dub Taylor as a storekeeper/judge,
Pat Morita as a Chinese cook who can't make Chinese food, Vaughn Taylor
as a doctor, Will Geer as a folksy real estate crook) are set up as
possible regulars, while Widmark has nice sparks with the easygoing,
apologetic Darrow, the peppery Brickell and the boyish Burns. Directed
by David Lowell Rich. First Published In: Shock Cinema (issue unknown) Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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