Director: Barry Shear
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto, Anthony Franciosa

One of the countless things I have learned in my lifetime is that some things improve over time. I've learned this many times in my prime hobby, which of course is watching movies. I'll give you an example. When I was a teenager, there was a time where I was obsessed with watching any movie that had the same kind of vibe that was found in the movie Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Though since I lived in a somewhat isolated community, the pickings for these kind of movies was kind of slim, so I had to do other things like pick up and read the H. Rider Haggard novel King Solomon's Mines, which I enjoyed despite some aspects of it being dated now in this modern age. But back to movies now. Anyway, one day I was reading the TV schedule when I saw that coming up on late night television was the 1950 movie King Solomon's Mines. I was very excited, especially since my research of the movie uncovered raves for the movie from some prominent movie critics. So using the family VCR, I taped the movie that night, and shortly after I sat down to watch the movie. But imagine my surprise when I found the movie was not what I expected. Certainly, I didn't expect to see cool things from the Haggard novel like people getting bloodily decapitated, or being ripped in two by elephants. But throughout the movie, I kept asking myself, "Where is the action?" and "Where is the breakneck pacing?" In the years that followed, I came across more adventure films from the proclaimed golden age of Hollywood that also seemed tame by today's standards. Say what you will of modern day Hollywood (and there's certainly a lot of negative things to say), but Hollywood today seems able to make more pulse-pounding movies of a Raiders vein than back in the golden age of Hollywood... though their full effect is today, I admit, often greatly hampered by shoddy CGI effects, one reason I admit why I found Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull to be significantly far from being as pulse-pounding as I wanted it to be.

While it is certainly true that some things have improved over the years, it can also be successfully argued that the saying "They don't make 'em like they used to" has some validity. No doubt you know that this applies to the movie industry as well. For example, there is the feature-length animated movie genre. I don't know about you, but as I mentioned a couple of reviews ago, I think that generally the animated movies made today don't hold a candle to animated movies in the past. Hand drawn animation to me has a charm and beauty that you just can't do with modern day CGI. Also, animated movies in the past were somewhat more serious and sedate in tone than the frantic and gag-filled (gag!) animated movies of today. There is another movie genre that I think was done better in the past than today, and that is the cop movie. To me, I think that the cop movie genre peaked in the 1970s. Why? Several reasons. For starters, cop movies in the 1970s were a lot dirtier than cop movies of today. When I use the word "dirtier", I am talking about the general tone of these movies, though certainly cop movies in the 1970s didn't have that clean slick (and unnatural) polish most cop movies today have. Cop movies all those years ago had real grit. The characters in the movie (both the good guys and the bad guys) were more often than not flawed, so much so that often you couldn't tell what their fates would be until the end credits started rolling. Also, the atmosphere of these cop movies in the past was a lot more cynical. It acknowledged that life was not fair for many people, just like it is in real life.

I really would like to see the cop movie genre get back to those days where the offerings were dirtier than most of the cop movies being made today. But I acknowledge that movie audiences' tastes have changed dramatically since the 1970s. Most audiences today go to the movies to be both entertained and to escape from reality, and would probably not welcome a cinematic reminder that life is not always so great. Fortunately for people like myself who want something with a little bite to it, options like streaming and home video make it possible to sample the cynical past. VHS was in fact how I first came across Across 110th Street years ago when I was a teenager. I remember it leaving quite an impression on me, so much so that when I recently came across it again (this time on DVD), I thought it worthy enough to revisit for this web site. The events of the movie take place around New York City. In the Harlem district, an outlet that collects and counts cash for the Mafia is one day interrupted when armed thieves dressed as police officers break in, kill everyone, and make off with the money that is there. When the thieves kill two real police officers during their escape, the incident definitely becomes a high priority assignment for New York's finest. The two cops put on the assignment are Captain Frank Mattelli (Anthony Quinn, Deaf Smith & Johnny Ears) and Lieutenant Pope (Yaphet Kotto, Out Of Sync). Both police officers do not relish having to work together, one reason being that Mattelli is bigoted towards African-Americans, but soon they realize that their dislike of each other is small potatoes compared to the trouble that's brewing because of the robbery. To be specific, the Mafia wants revenge and their money back, and they hire "fixer" Nick D'Salvio (Anthony Franciosa, Firepower) to do just that before the cops can get their hands on the culprits and also get their hands on the dirty money.

How I would have loved to visit New York City in the early 1970s! Certainly, my first order of business there would be to go to all the grindhouse movie theaters on 42nd Street, but afterwards I would have soaked up all the local color that was on display before in subsequent years the spoilsport N.Y.C. government cleaned things up. And local color is what you get to a great degree with Across 110th Street. While the movie was a major studio project, director Barry Shear (who also did The Deadly Trackers and Wild In The Streets) isn't afraid to show the extremely rough side of The Big Apple of 1972. He eschews studio sets and shoots instead in crumbling tenement buildings, old police precincts, dimly lit bars, and rubble-filled abandoned lots. Certainly, none of this stuff is fancy, but it all the same gives off a great mood and feeling, and captures what the environment was back then. The atmosphere made me resolve to take a baseball bat with me should I ever have the opportunity to go back in time to the place and era, because I could always sense while watching the movie that heavy violence could easily pop up around any corner at any moment. There may be somewhat less violence on display than in many modern police movie, but what there is on display really hits home. People are viciously beaten, burned alive, pushed off of buildings, and other times are machine-gunned and burst out into multiple bright red paint blood spurts (Why blood was a different shade and thicker all those decades ago, I cannot say. The fault of the cinematographer? A fear of being "too real" for the MPAA ratings board? Pasta sauce makers having a monopoly with the Hollywood studio F/X departments in the era?) The violence does not feel the least bit choreographed or overdirected, so it's very convincing, and you'll remember it for a long time afterwards, especially the crackerjack lengthy climactic action sequence.

As for other aspects of Shear's direction of Across 110th Street, there are a few notable flaws with it. There are a few instances of obvious continuity errors, for example. Also, there are a few moments where footage seems to be missing, particularly one moment when the character of Nick gets his hands on one of the thieves, abuses the unlucky fellow greatly before getting his henchmen to take the battered man away with the to be questioned... and then suddenly the battered and dying thief is seen in a back of an ambulance with cops Mattelli and Pope. While in later scenes there are a few trickles explaining what happened in-between those scenes, all the same there is an unfinished feeling to this part of the movie. There's also the fact that there are long gaps in the narrative where Mattelli/Pope or Nick are offscreen for significant periods of time, making us wonder what they are doing while they're away. Despite these and a few other flaws, however, Shear does keep the movie moving at a fairly speedy pace, so we don't dwell on the flaws too much. There is also often a slight documentary-style feeling that adds to the more realistic feeling than usual the entire package has. Shear also well directs a lot of "aside" moments that add flavor, like in one scene where a Caucasian cop only pays $1 of a $1.07 bill to an African-American drycleaner. But African-Americans also get their own moments in the movie, such as one scene where an African-American gangster confidently tells Nick that's he's just "an errand boy", implying Nick's only where he is because he married into the Mafia.

More interesting in the script for Across 110th Street is showing the racial attitudes of Caucasians and African-Americans who happen to be in positions of power, legal or illegal. The Caucasian Mafia feel they should be in control of Harlem, at one point saying as they discuss the crisis, "If we lose Harlem, we lose more than the money." The African-Americans who are working for the Mafia don't seem that willing to protest having Caucasian control over themselves, or if they see Nick abusing one of their own race. It's made clear that the almighty dollar and any kind of power (limited or unlimited) are more important to any of these criminals than having humanity or compassion to anyone of any race. As for the police, they have their interesting aspects as well. While the African-American Lt. Pope has some strong convictions (he refuses a bribe, and later he tells Mattelli that while he wants Mattelli's job, he wants it on his "own terms"), at the same time he seems almost accepting of the racism from Mattelli and some other Caucasian police officers. Possibly he is afraid to rock the boat too hard, and this is one of the interesting things seen while watching him. Mattelli, on the other hand, may come across as racist sometimes, but at the same time he clearly comes from another era, and does not seem to fit this new age (he laments his age while being on the force, and dreams of retirement.) Both actors Yaphet Kotto and Anthony Quinn are excellent in their roles, and generate a good deal of potent chemistry when they are together. Actor Anthony Franciosa also deserves mention for being very memorable (showing a gleeful sadistic edge at times) despite having fewer opportunities to appear than you might think. While Across 110th Street is not without those flaws I mentioned earlier, its rough but interesting and captivating edge does make it still stand out from almost all others in the 1970s crime film pack, and stands out even more when compared to many of the cop films being turned out today.

(Posted June 18, 2023)