Coogan's Bluff

Deputy Sheriff Walt Coogan (Clint Eastwood) may be a headstrong loner, but this straight shootin’, slow talkin’ son of a gun always gets his man. A thorn in the side of his boss and sheriff of Piute County Arizona (Tom Tully), Coogan may play by the rules (seein’ as how he’s makin’ em up as he goes along) but he ain’t no one’s subordinate, you hear?

With a view to getting him as far from Arizona as possible, Coogan, his boots, and his stetson, are sent to NYC to oversee the extradition of psychopath James Ringerman (Don Stroud) to face some good-old Arizona justice. However, when Ringerman is admitted to the prison hospital for a sudden (and quite convenient) drug overdose, it seems Coogan may have to cool his heels awhile in the Big Apple. Needless to say, this arrangement is not to Coogan’s liking, even though he’s already making moves on a beautiful parole officer named Julie (Susan Clark). Apt to take matters into his own hands (and to the fury of the NYPD), the Arizona deputy bluffs his way into the prison hospital and secures Ringerman’s release, only to receive a blow to the head and see his prisoner off on his toes.

Faced with the daunting task of retrieving Ringerman from the bowels of NYC, and with only his string necktie to keep him company, Coogan begins to track down his fugitive. But the NYPD, and in particular the arrogant detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb), will be damned if they’re going to let some country bumpkin play policeman in their town...

"A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do." "Is that it Wyatt Earp?"

Slickly written and perfectly acted, Coogan’s Bluff marked a cementing of Clint Eastwood’s burgeoning Hollywood star-power. Part western and part cop thriller, here we see the further refinement of Eastwood’s signature ‘lone-wolf’ persona; an identity that he and director Don Seigel would draw on as the basis for both westerns and urban cop films in the decade to come. As with many of these roles, Eastwood’s Coogan is a tough guy whose bravado belies his intrinsic character flaws; a facet that Eastwood conveys with trademark subtlety. Complimenting Eastwood’s performance is the ever-dependable Lee J. Cobb, whose self-assured yet world-weary McElroy provides the perfect authority figure to clash heads with Coogan.

Matching the fine performances is Seigel’s direction, which sharply contrasts the dog-eat-dog world of ’60s New York with the relative peace of the nation’s interior. In addition to providing a window on the hippy culture of the day, the film’s cinematography captures beautifully both the stark contrast between the desert and urban landscapes, and their inherent similarities; contrasting the wild, dusty plains with the wild, gritty urban streets. Seigel almosty seems to beg the question, where now is the real frontier?

Whilst Coogan’s Bluff may have been a significant film in terms of Clint’s Hollywood career, it does represent (rather unfairly) one of his less-celebrated roles. This may be enough to explain the relatively poor quality of the image we are served up on this DVD release. However, with the problems stemming almost exclusively from the source material, it’s entirely possible that what we have here is about as good as Coogan’s Bluff is ever going to look!

Providing an anamorphic widescreen (1.75:1) transfer with no MPEG or film-to-video artefacting, Universal have certainly put the time in on the digital translation, but ultimately it’s an over abundance of film grain that spoils all their good work. A constant, albeit minor, distraction for the entire duration of the film, the film grain to be seen in Coogan’s Bluff is almost the worst I have ever witnessed; having a marked effect on the amount of detail reflected in the transfer.

Other aspects of the print are acceptable. It displays good colour and realistic skin-tones and the black-level is spot-on. Shadow detail is a little on the low side, but this is to be expected given the age of the film. Overall, Coogan’s Bluff will be rather a disappointment to you Eastwood fans. We can only hope that Universal has a negative or better source material lying around the place. Given the state of this print, however, I doubt it.

No spectacular audio remaster here folks, with only the original mono source material being provided by Universal. As you might expect it’s unspectacular, and yet it's serviceable enough, with the all-important dialogue remaining clear and distinct throughout and displaying no dropouts or noise of any kind. And whilst there are one or two instances of poor ADR work, lip-synch is fine.

Remarkably, my trusty Prologic decoder did find something for the subwoofer to do; adding low-end to Coogan’s jeep, various motorcycles, and the bass riffs of Coogan’s western-inspired theme. But overall, you’re going to need a reason other than the soundtrack to be giving Coogan’s Bluff a spin.

Sorry, no. This disc’s as bare as the Arizona plains.

If you’re a fan of Clint Eastwood, then chances are you’ll enjoy Coogan’s Bluff, despite Universal’s rather poor video presentation. With his signature rattle-snake cool, Clint provides attitude aplenty, and we get glimpses of both Dirty Harry and the heroes of many of Clint’s future Hollywood westerns. If nothing else, seeing the Pale Rider wade through a sea of writhing flower-children at the psychedelic ‘Pigeon-Toed Orange Peel Club’ with a look of utter contempt on his face is worth the cost of rental alone.