Warner. Director Richard Rush; Producer Richard Rush; Screenplay Robert Kaufman; Camera Laszlo Kovacs; Editor Fredric Steinkamp, Michael McLean; Music Dominic Frontiere; Art Director Hilyard Brown
Alan Arkin
James Caan
Loretta Swit
Jack Kruschen
Mike Kellin
Valerie Harper
Freebie and the Bean stars Alan Arkin and James Caan as two allegedly 'funny' lawless lawmen. Richard Rush's tasteless film, from a spitball script by Robert Kaufman, utilized lots of stunt and action crews disturbing the peace all over San Francisco.
The purported 'humor' between the two stars largely hinges on Caan's delivery of what are nothing more than repeated racist slurs on Arkin's character's Chicano ancestry. Arkin's performance adds even more concrete nuances to this characterization. What passes for a basic story line is something about their nabbing bigtime gangster Jack Kruschen, and between car chases and mindless destruction of cars and other things, the plot lurches forward.
(Color) Widescreen. Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1974. Running time: 112 MIN.
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