IMDb RATING
6.5/10
1.2K
YOUR RATING
After being fired for insubordination, homicide detective Mike Carter is hired as bodyguard by the owner of a local meat-packing plant where a meat inspector has been murdered.After being fired for insubordination, homicide detective Mike Carter is hired as bodyguard by the owner of a local meat-packing plant where a meat inspector has been murdered.After being fired for insubordination, homicide detective Mike Carter is hired as bodyguard by the owner of a local meat-packing plant where a meat inspector has been murdered.
Erville Alderson
- Adam Stone
- (uncredited)
Bobby Barber
- Little Man in Street
- (uncredited)
Charles Bedell
- Cop
- (uncredited)
Claire Carleton
- Zinnia
- (uncredited)
Russ Clark
- Cop
- (uncredited)
Marcelle Corday
- Madalena
- (uncredited)
David Cota
- Pachuco
- (uncredited)
Joe Devlin
- Detective Sgt. Burch
- (uncredited)
Ray Dolciame
- Frankie
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFinal film of Priscilla Lane.
- GoofsAfter Mike quits the force, he and Doris attend a baseball game which is tied in the bottom of the 9th inning, with two outs against the home team. The first pitch shown is a strike that the batter swings at and misses while a player on first base steals second base. The second pitch shown becomes a double into left field, scoring the runner from second base. At this point, the game should be over since the home team broke the tie in the bottom of the 9th. Nevertheless, the game is shown as continuing with the first batter now on second base. The next pitch shown becomes a single into right field, scoring the player who was on second. The home team now has scored twice in the bottom of 9th, yet the game continues further, with the next batter hitting a grounder to the shortstop, who gets a force-out at second. Finally, the game is over and Mike and Doris seem suddenly upset that their team (the visitors) have lost on that last out when in fact the game was lost two batters earlier. Even worse, a last shot of the scoreboard shows only one run for the bottom of the 9th instead of two.
- Quotes
Mike Carter: I keep the meat warm.
- ConnectionsReferences Gone with the Wind (1939)
Featured review
Where's the rest of it?
A consensus seems to exist among commentators on Richard Fleischer's Bodyguard, based on a story by the young Robert Altman. The consensus is that, as it stands, it fails to satisfy; the background to this verdict is that somewhere there is or at least was a longer cut of the picture that probably would have been, if not a little masterpiece of film noir, a less nettlesome movie.
Feral Lawrence Tierney, a detective fired from the force for insubordination, gets offered the job of bodyguard to a old woman whose wealth comes from the meat-packing industry. At first reluctant, he accepts when shots shatter a mirror in the woman's home. Following her on a nocturnal errand, he's coshed on the head and comes to in his car parked on railway tracks; riding shotgun is the police officer who fired him, dead. Now the prime suspect, he lams up.
Assisting him in his efforts to clear himself is Priscilla Lane, his mole in police headquarters. (They devise a curious means of communication. She reads the files onto 78s and delivers them to a record store where he listens to them in a booth.) It turns out that his murdered superior investigated the death of a meat inspector at one of the plants owned by his employer....
What remains of the movie is directed with pace and even some style by Richard Fleischer (The Narrow Margin, Armored Car Robbery, The Boston Strangler; he showed a lot of sass in his early days, before he ossified into a hack.) But what we lack compromises what we have. The 13 minutes excised from the movie somewhere along the line no doubt patch up the holes in the leaky plot like, who knew Tierney was off to the optometrist's office and set up the ambush?
A fuller version would probably make, as has been remarked, for a more grisly final confrontation, a la Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, in the meat-processing plant; in the print in common circulation, it abruptly fizzles out. Certainly, that's the lack most keenly felt. What with the meat saws whining and the meat grinders rumbling, surely Fleischer did not conclude the story with the malefactor hurling an empty pistol, bootlessly, at Tierney to be followed, almost instantly, with Tierney and Lane leaving on their honeymoon. Somewhere out there, a few links of blood sausage are missing.
Feral Lawrence Tierney, a detective fired from the force for insubordination, gets offered the job of bodyguard to a old woman whose wealth comes from the meat-packing industry. At first reluctant, he accepts when shots shatter a mirror in the woman's home. Following her on a nocturnal errand, he's coshed on the head and comes to in his car parked on railway tracks; riding shotgun is the police officer who fired him, dead. Now the prime suspect, he lams up.
Assisting him in his efforts to clear himself is Priscilla Lane, his mole in police headquarters. (They devise a curious means of communication. She reads the files onto 78s and delivers them to a record store where he listens to them in a booth.) It turns out that his murdered superior investigated the death of a meat inspector at one of the plants owned by his employer....
What remains of the movie is directed with pace and even some style by Richard Fleischer (The Narrow Margin, Armored Car Robbery, The Boston Strangler; he showed a lot of sass in his early days, before he ossified into a hack.) But what we lack compromises what we have. The 13 minutes excised from the movie somewhere along the line no doubt patch up the holes in the leaky plot like, who knew Tierney was off to the optometrist's office and set up the ambush?
A fuller version would probably make, as has been remarked, for a more grisly final confrontation, a la Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, in the meat-processing plant; in the print in common circulation, it abruptly fizzles out. Certainly, that's the lack most keenly felt. What with the meat saws whining and the meat grinders rumbling, surely Fleischer did not conclude the story with the malefactor hurling an empty pistol, bootlessly, at Tierney to be followed, almost instantly, with Tierney and Lane leaving on their honeymoon. Somewhere out there, a few links of blood sausage are missing.
helpful•232
- bmacv
- Jun 14, 2002
- How long is Bodyguard?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 2 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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