Fuzz (1972)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Det. Carella	Burt Reynolds
Det. McHenry	Raquel Welch	½
The Deaf Man	Yul Brunner
Det. Kling	Tom Skerritt
Det. Meyer	Jack Weston
Det. Brown	James McEachin
Sgt. Murchison	Bert Remsen
Det. Parker	Steve Ihnat
Buck	Peter Bonerz
La Bresca	Don Gordon
Lt. Amos Byrnes	Dan Frazer
Police Commissioner Nelson	Norman Burton
Pete	Charles Tyner
Teddy	Neile Adams
Rochelle	Tamara Dobson
Baby	Charles Martin Smith

Review

TV director Richard A. Colla's attempt to transfer Evan Hunter/Ed McBain's "87th Precint" novel "Fuzz" was ambitious with regards to form and scope, but Colla clearly lacked the skill and style to make it all work as a whole. He throws us into the character-heavy, bustling offices of the 87th Precint in Boston, trying to create that delicate balance between light comedy and serious detective story in which characters float in and out of focus in MASH-esque narrative style, and plot lines are laid out more or less in parallel, and more or less intertwined. It could have worked had it been done with more sleight-of-hand. As it is, the comedy is either overdone and annoying (such as with the two ridiculous painters) or not clever enough. And the main criminal plot lines, although potentially explosive thematically, aren't portrayed with the sensibility or tension they should have been. Hunter's point here, of course, is that the fuzz lacks the competence and backing to do good police work, but Colla isn't able to illustrate this other than through the clumsiness of the lead characters. I feel sorry for Burt Reynolds, Tom Skerritt and Jack Weston who had to put up with such banalities when they could have created interesting characters with depth. One cannot help but ponder what Robert Altman could have done with this material.