BY LEE PFEIFFER

By the early 1970s, America's cities seemed to be on a permanent downward spiral. The middle class was fleeing the inner cities in droves for the safety of suburbia while the major urban centers deteriorated rapidly into an abyss of crime. This trend, of course, was realistically reflected in such films as "Taxi Driver", "Mean Streets", "Death Wish" and "The French Connection". The latter became the Oscar winner for Best Picture of 1971 and helped set in motion the "dirty cop" movies that characterized this era of filmmaking. Gene Hackman's performance as New York City detective "Popeye" Doyle seemed to inspire any number of other memorable celluloid cop heroes who didn't waste time worrying about constitutional rights. Instead, they took matters into their own hands in order to bring criminals to justice- by whatever means necessary. Clint Eastwood had a smash hit employing such behavior on screen as Dirty Harry and before long, seemingly every major male star was lining up to play cops who routinely gave the middle finger to police brass as they set out to use vigilante methods to ensure the successful resolution of cases. Producer Philip D'Antoni had struck pay dirt with one of the first maverick cop movies, "Bullitt", in 1968. The title character, memorably played by Steve McQueen, routinely ignored orders from his superiors but wasn't exactly as "dirty cop", as he pretty much respected suspect's rights  in the course of his assignment. However, D'Antoni's second crime classic from the era, "The French Connection" was the epitome of celebrating the notion that the end justifies the means when it came to law enforcement. The film was such a major hit that D'Antoni decided to do a follow-up titled "The Seven-Ups". 

Released in 1973, "The Seven-Ups" shamelessly borrows on key elements of both "Bullitt" and "The French Connection", but at least does so with a considerable amount of style. D'Antonio hired "French Connection" co-star Roy Scheider and justifiably cast him in his first lead role. D'Antonio then came up with a winning recipe for another gritty urban crime film: cast numerous actors from both of his previous films in supporting roles then add a spectacular car chase as in "Bullitt", sprinkle in a driving, hard-hitting score by "French Connection" composer Don Ellis, then enlist real-life "French Connection" detective Sonny Grosso as a writer and consultant and - presto!- you have another winner. To make sure the project didn't stray too far from the formula, D'Antonio directed the movie himself.  Ironically, despite obviously plagiarizing his own films, D'Antonio did emerge with a winner. Although "The Seven-Ups" is certainly not of the same caliber of "Bullitt" and "The French Connection", it does stand as a highly polished, engrossing action film. More importantly, it proved that Scheider was a credible leading man, a fact that undoubtedly lead to him being cast as the star of "Jaws" a couple of years later. 

Scheider, who gives a yeoman performance,  plays New York city detective referred to only as "Buddy". He heads up a top-secret four man unit called "The Seven-Ups", so-known because all of the suspects they arrest end up doing at least seven years or more in jail. The squad employs blatantly illegal methods to obtain whatever information they deem necessary from the low-lives that populate the crime-ridden areas of the city. It turns out that prominent, affluent loan sharks are being systematically kidnapped by two rogue cops and being held for ransom. The Seven-Ups are assigned to the case and Buddy relies on information from Vito (Tony Lo Bianco), a childhood friend with a shady past who leaks relevant scuttlebutt to him about the case. In the course of the investigation, however, the kidnappers prove more resolute than Buddy had imagined. Before long, one of his team has been murdered and Buddy finds himself employing increasingly desperate methods to track down the corrupt cops. The film is packed with realistic street-wise dialogue and convincing performances including real life stunt man Bill Hickman, who performed much of the driving in the "Bullitt" car chase; cult actor Joe Spinell, Ken Kercheval and Richard Lynch. Director of Photography Urs Furrer convincingly captures the gritty feel of New York's streets during this era, though much of the film was shot in the outer boroughs. The highlight of the movie (fully exploited in the trailers) is the spectacular car chase. It's a truly thrilling sequence that rivals the chases in "Bullitt" and "The French Connection", though die-hard "Bullitt" fans will recognize certain scenes from that film's chase carried over virtually intact into "The Seven-Ups".

There is a sobering aspect to watching dirty cop movies like this today. With crime rates in America having plunged dramatically over the decades and many of the cities having undergone an amazing Renaissance, the tactics employed by our "heroes" in these films suddenly look especially distasteful today. The trailers for "The Seven-Ups" rather sickeningly play up the fact that "you can't tell the cops from the killers", as though this was an attribute for a police officer. These "heroes" dispense with due process, break and enter suspects' homes and in one case threaten a man's innocent wife with with disfigurement. It's hard to imagine anyone who has evolved beyond Neanderthal status in these more enlightened times cheering such behavior. Nevertheless, one must view such films as products of their time- and as such, "The Seven-Ups" reminds of a less-than-glorious period in American history, one that has thankfully been replaced by better times.  

The Fox DVD is poorly designed. One side of the disc contains the film in widescreen format with two bonus extras: the teaser trailer and full length trailer. The DVD sleeve indicates there is also an original production featurette but you'd have to be Sherlock Holmes to discover that you have to turn the disc over to the apparently blank "B" side (there is no writing or graphics) and deduce that if you insert this into your DVD player, you will get access to the film in cropped, full screen format along with the production featurette. The featurette, though extremely grainy, is quite interesting.  It details the considerable logistics of filming the movie's signature car chase sequence, as planned by D'Antoni and Bill Hickman. It's nice that Fox included this but it's puzzling as to why they made it a challenge to locate it. 

CLICK HERE TO ORDER