Directed by:
Don SiegelCinematography:
Russell MettyComposer:
Don CostaCast:
Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Inger Stevens, Harry Guardino, James Whitmore, Susan Clark, Michael Dunn, Steve Ihnat, Don Stroud, Sheree North, Warren Stevens (more)Plots(1)
Richard Widmark portrays the veteran Big Apple detective who is given only a few hours to track down a vicious killer. Henry Fonda is the humane yet relentlessly forceful police commissioner who orders Widmark into the streets to solve the case, even though he knows it might be his last assignment. (official distributor synopsis)
Reviews (2)
Madigan seemingly has everything a good crime show should have, namely tough detectives, dangerous criminals, beautiful women, and a big case, and yet it ultimately falls short. There are too many dialogues, the pace is too sluggish, and it feels trapped in the 50s in spirit, although there are a few scenes that show that it tries to keep up with the times. I'll give it three stars, but they are completely different three stars than I usually give. I squint my eyes a bit and think that it wouldn't be fair to go any lower when it comes to the veteran Siegel. Overall impression: 50%.
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The "good boy of Hollywood" Henry Fonda is again a respectable good guy in every way, Richard Widmark is again the right stubborn policeman, there's some fine jazz music and the atmosphere of New York at the end of the 1960s is very classy, but the plot in the first two acts is not engaging at all, it doesn't draw you in and there’s too much dialogue dealing with utter banalities. I was expecting something much sharper from Don Siegel, a specialist in the crime genre and macho films, and I didn't get it until the last twenty minutes, which ooze with the charge so typical of his films.
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