The Laughing Policeman

Decent 70's police procedural with Matthau in a serious role. He is predictably good, and so are Dern and Gossett Jr. As others have noted, there are some pacing problems that interrupt the flow of the story, especially during the saggy second act, but Rosenberg films well in gritty San Francisco locations, and with a bit of fine tuning in the script department, this could have been a memorable genre film from the era. As it stands, it's a curiosity for 70's cop film lovers and/or Matthau fans.

It's a pretty good cop movie at a time when there weren't too many of these that were heavy on the investigation side. Matthau was all right, but the gum chewing was getting on my nerves, and I never have anything bad to say about Dern.

Solid 1970's cop movie, that has some pacing problems but has solid performances from Walther Matthau and the ever reliable Bruce Dern. Dern is so watchable he could fart into a bag for 90 minutes and I'd enjoy the hell out of it. Not quite a hidden gem, but infinitely better than the dross that passes for crime cinema at present

Viewed July 21, 2021. Not the most compelling cop movie by any means, but gets a lot of world-weary mileage out of the dynamic between Matthau's beaten down older cop and his sleazy partner Bruce Dern.

Some good 70s sleezy police action