The Blue Knight (1973)

Since the mid-60s, enough made-for-TV films have been made that one could spend the rest of their existence watching just these types of movies. Don't do that to yourself. The reputation for made-for-TV films still stands over 50 years later. Usually quickly shot, many not visual or acting challenges. Quite often when movies stars couldn't carry a major film anymore, they moved over to television.

The early 70s had three films made for television that made film fans stop reaching for the chips and take notice. The 1970 jock-tearjerker Brian's Song (music by the recently departed Michel Legrand. Merci, Michel). The 1971 man vs. truck thriller Duel, directed by some upstart named Spielberg. Duel was so popular, Universal released it in the cinemas after its original broadcast.

The third was finally released on home video. The 1973 cop drama The Blue Knight, starring William Holden as Bumper Morgan, a 20-year cop of Los Angeles looking at his final week on the streets and settling down with his college teacher girlfriend (Lee Remick). There's just one final case of a dead hooker that he's got to close first.

OK, the cop-on-the-verge-of retirement-bit was still fairly new when this film was made. Some of my favorite cinema cops on the verge of hanging it up include Charles Durning in Sharkey's Machine (who's not afraid to tell you he has two years before he retires) and Robert Duvall having one hell of a last day on the force in Falling Down.

The film was originally aired in November 1973 in four parts, one of the first TV miniseries. A huge benefit of this video release is you get 3:08 of the film uninterrupted. One could see a two-hour theatrical film version, but it would all be about the case of the dead hooker and five minutes with Lee Remick, which would be a tragic waste. We get Morgan investigating the case, on patrol that establishes his relationship with the community even if it doesn't necessarily move along the plot ala Elmore Leonard. Because of it's length and devotion to the character, it was not primarily a "will he catch the killer?" story.

We also get him spending quality time in his girlfriend's academic world. Once scene in particular where's he accompanies her to a academic gathering and he gets grilled about his job by a law student. Questions about liking his job, police brutality, drugs ("What about marijuana?" "Do you have any,?" he replies). A scene that could have hit like a sledge hammer, but doesn't.

The only parts of the film that screamed "TV" are the non-ethnic L.A. locations and the 70s cop music courtesy of Nelson Riddle, especially at the end of scenes that led to a fade out for commercial. The director Robert Butler (who won the Emmy for Best Director) has a resume that went 50 years. He won another directing Emmy for Hill Street Blues and was nominated for episodes of Moonlighting and Lois and Clark. His three hour Blue Knight does not drag.

Law enforcement in cinema gravitated towards detectives in 70s suit jackets (Badge 373, The Laughing Policeman, Magnum Force, The Stone Killer) or undercover if you're Serpico. That same year, Holden walking the streets in a short-sleeve dress blues with his nightstick. One of the complaints geared towards Bumper is that instead of leaving the police radio on for call, he walks the streets, watching and listening for trouble.

In fact Officer Morgan seems more verbally hostile towards men on his side of the law than the other. Early on, we a meet young homicide detective assigned to the dead hooker case bugging Morgan for help (played by a young, clean-shaven, voice hadn't totally-dropped yet Sam Elliott). This would have been a buddy-cop film a decade later. Then again, Elliott starred in Shakedown with Peter Weller 15 years later.

There's a locker room scene where Morgan, dressed in a conservative suit and tie, notices younger police officers wearing white bell-bottom pants and one officer using hairspray. With a Clint Eastwood, front porch look, he tells the rookie he would "throw the book" at the person who invented hairspray.

The film is based on the best-selling novel by former police officer (14 years on the LAPD) turned author Jospeh Wambaugh. A number of this novels were made into films in the 70s and early 80s, including The Onion Field, The Choirboys, The New Centurians, The Black Marble and The Glitter Dome. He has a fine ear for police and street dialogue and eye to detail in and out of the police station. What was surprisingly not a distraction was the lack of so-called bad words in The Blue Knight since it was for television. This comes from a writer who feels that the words rape, cancer and genocide are worse than fuck and shit. Also, Morgan's first weapon is his nightstick. He doesn't bring gun out of holster until the final five minutes of the film. Very little gunplay in this film.

The film is anchored by one of the best late-career performances from William Holden. He had late-career surge with the Sam Peckinpah masterpiece The Wild Bunch in 1969. After his follow-up films didn't live up to expectations, The Blue Knight earned him a well-deserved Best Actor Emmy and three years later, he would have his last cinematic high-point with his final Academy Award nomination for Network (1976). His combination of gruff and calm as Bumper Morgan was quite the contrast to hot-headed cinema cops of the era.

There's a couple moments of levity at Bumper's expense. Walking on a college campus to visit his sweetheart, a snarky student sings "Old Dick Tracey has a farm," which Bumper replies "E-I-E-I-O." Following a female student up a set of stairs, he reaches the top and stops because he is winded. She turns and smiles and he says "I'm hitting the gym first thing in the morning." Little comedic moments to remind us of his young, dashing days. Holden's character is almost 50 (at the time of filming, he was 58). Remick was 20 years younger. In real life, Holden had just started a relationship with actress Stephanie Powers, who was in her early 30s.

As a bonus of the era, a slew of familiar faces from the 70s keep popping up. Joe Santos as a police sergeant and Bumper's Jiminiy Crickett, Jamie Farr as a victim of a scam thwarted by Bumper, Vic Tayback (who has one impressive monologue near the film's end) as a fellow retiring officer, Eileen Brennan as an aging and still-active dancer and Bumper informant, and Anne Archer as call-girl turned informant. The film's success spawned a short-lived series version starring George Kennedy. However, this is not The Television Series Yap.

Combining television with guitarists, if Netflix and Hulu are Joe Bonamassa and Sopranos-era HBO is Stevie Ray Vaughan, when it comes to quality films made for the smaller screen, The Blue Knight is Muddy Waters. An excellent William Holden performance and a non-Quinn Martin Production.

Matthew Socey is host of Film Soceyology for WFYI 90.1 in Indianapolis