The Don's First Eastwood Picture

The first film to pair director Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood was the 1968 release "Coogan's Bluff." They would go on to make six films together including the film that made Eastwood a superstar "Dirty Harry." Eastwood's directing style is also largely indebted to Siegal. Both men like to shot at a fast pace, trusting their instincts and their collaborators. In some ways,the character of Arizona Deputy Sheriff Walt Coogan  is a prototype for Harry Callahan, they share a ask questions later take on police work and sneering dislike for big-city bureaucracy, but this is a lighter picture.

The film gets most of its comedic mileage from its fish-out-of-water elements, whether Coogan is encountering cheating taxi drivers, big-city tough guys, or goofy hippies. The NYC police are primarily represented by Lee J. Cobb's hard-nosed Lt. McElroy, and while his character is a bit of a stereotype, he manages to imbue it with some personality. Susan Clark provides the requisite romantic interest as probation officer Julie Roth, and while some of their interludes are a little on the dull side, she is a bit of a spark plug who puts an interesting spin on her dialogue. 

Action sequences are solid, with a spirited, messy pool hall fight and a motorcycle chase as highlights. Its impressions of the hippie scene, on the other hand, feel more than a little out of touch - like a forty-something screenwriter's idea of what a hippie club would be like. "Coogan's Bluff" is a flawed, minor Eastwood picture, but still interesting, primarily for its place in his iconography; we see him tinkering with his image, moving away from the cowboy image of his television work and Spaghetti westerns and into a more brutal, urban landscape.Plus it points to great things in store for the Siegel/Eastwood combination.