| Warning Shot | |
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DVD cover of Warning Shot |
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| Directed by | Buzz Kulik |
| Produced by | Bob Banner Buzz Kulik |
| Written by | Whit Masterson (novel) Mann Rubin |
| Starring | David Janssen Ed Begley Keenan Wynn Joan Collins |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | Joseph F. Biroc |
| Editing by | Archie Marshek |
| Studio | Bob Banner Associates |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | January 18, 1967 |
| Running time | 100 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Warning Shot is a 1967 movie about a police sergeant who kills a man in self-defense while on a stakeout. He must clear his name when the gun pulled on him disappears. It is based on the novel 711 - Officer Needs Help by Whit Masterson.
David Janssen stars as the accused officer, with supporting performances from Ed Begley, Keenan Wynn, Joan Collins, Stefanie Powers, Sam Wanamaker, George Grizzard, Carroll O'Connor, Steve Allen, Eleanor Parker, Walter Pidgeon, George Sanders and Lillian Gish.
Baseball stars Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale signed to appear in this movie during their 1966 holdout, but never made it onto the screen when both agreed to contracts with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Filming took place between the third and fourth seasons of Janssen's television series The Fugitive. The script was written by Mann Rubin, who had authored the "Fugitive" episode "A Taste of Tomorrow", while the film was directed by Buzz Kulik with a jazz score by Jerry Goldsmith. It was released by Paramount Pictures.
Contents |
Los Angeles police sergeant Tom Valens is on a surveillance stakeout near an upscale apartment complex when he is forced to defend himself from a mysterious figure who aims a gun at him on a foggy night. The trouble is, the dead man turns out to be a prominent physician and pillar of the community, Dr. James Ruston, and there is no gun to be found.
Valens is in trouble with his department, specifically Roy Klodin, his captain. It doesn't help that Valens is still carrying the memory of having once been shot while on duty. He is placed under suspension by the force while a prosecutor named Sanderman with a grudge against trigger-happy cops files manslaughter charges against this one.
Setting out on his own to clear his name, Valens meets resistance from many including Ruston's financial adviser, Calvin York, and the doctor's alcoholic and flirtatious widow, Doris Ruston. Also unwilling to be of help to Valens is the doctor's nurse, Liz Thayer, who knew Ruston only as a humanitarian who made many trips to Mexico to unselfishly aid people in need. The controversial cop's lone defender in public is acerbic television personality Perry Knowland, who turns out to be doing so only to increase his viewership (upon learning this Valens acidly tells Knowland, "Be against me, I'd feel cleaner").
Even the elderly lady whom Dr. Ruston often came to visit, Alice Willows, speaks only with devotion to the doctor, who was very kind to her beloved dog. Valens tries in vain to find some reason why Ruston would have been skulking in the fog near the apartments and brandishing a gun.
Among the few offering a sympathetic ear are his estranged wife, Joanie, and another apartment resident, Walt Cody, a playboy pilot. Cody volunteers to fly Valens down to Mexico to see first-hand why Dr. Ruston commuted there so often. Complications arise when a dead body is discovered in Ruston's ransacked office, obliging Valens' partner, Sgt. Ed Musso, to try to place his friend under arrest.
Valens has only a few more hours to solve the mystery. The trail leads to a cemetery, where, once again, Valens must decide whether to pull the trigger on someone who is pointing a gun directly at him.
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