Brannigan (film)

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Brannigan

Directed by Douglas Hickox
Produced by Arthur Garnder
Jules Levy
executive producer:
Michael Wayne
Written by Michael Butler
Christopher Trumbo
Starring John Wayne
Richard Attenborough
Judy Geeson
Mel Ferrer
John Vernon
Ralph Meeker
Daniel Pilon
Music by Dominic Frontiere
Cinematography Gerry Fisher
Editing by Malcolm Cooke
Studio Levy-Gardner-Laven
Wellborn
Distributed by United Artists
CBC (1976, TV)
MGM (Current)
Release dates 26 March 1975
Running time 111 minutes
Country United Kingdom[1][2]
Language English

Brannigan is a 1975 British thriller film[1] set principally in London, directed by Douglas Hickox, and starring John Wayne and Richard Attenborough. It tells the story of a Chicago detective sent to Britain to organise the extradition of an American mobster (John Vernon).

After turning down the role of Dirty Harry,[3] and seeing the subsequent success of the film Wayne made two police thrillers in quick succession. After McQ he made this "cop out of water" film in the same vein as Clint Eastwood's Coogan's Bluff.

Plot

Tough Chicago Police Lieutenant Jim Brannigan (John Wayne) is sent to London to extradite a notorious American gangster, Ben Larkin (John Vernon). Brannigan is assigned a local officer, Jennifer (Judy Geeson), to help while he is in London. Before he can collect him Larkin is kidnapped, by Mel Fields (Mel Ferrer) and Brannigan spends the rest of the film running around London in search of Larkin. Whilst struggling to adapt to the British way of life, and the restrained style of policing, he employs techniques not usually seen in Britain. In the meantime, a contract has been put out on Brannigan's life by Larkin to prevent him from being extradited to the United States. The contract is picked up by Gorman (Daniel Pilon).

Commander Swann (Richard Attenborough), in charge of helping Brannigan get Larkin to America, is a stuffy, titled, upper class, Metropolitan Police commander who's not afraid to get his hands dirty. There is continual conflict between Brannigan and Swann about Brannigan's carrying, and use of, his handgun.

Cast

Production

The film is notable for its well-executed action sequences, including a spectacular car chase through Battersea's Shaftesbury Estate, Wandsworth and Central London featuring Brannigan jumping a yellow Ford Capri coupe across the half raised Tower Bridge. One sequence features shots of the interior and exterior of London's famous Royal Automobile Club, which has changed little since the shooting of the film. The Capri's jump was one of the last significant appearances of Tower Bridge without its now-familiar red, white, and blue paint scheme which was applied in 1977 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

Conversely, the film's opening sequence and first several minutes display Chicago roadways, riverside buildings and an early O'Hare Terminal 1 that have all been razed and replaced. For example, the film opens on a squad car making the former turn on Upper Lake Shore Drive where East Wacker Drive now exists and where Field Drive had been planned to intersect; in the background, iron workers can be seen constructing the connecting portion of Upper Wacker. The 300 block of North Canal Street, where Brannigan conducts an investigation using "enhanced interrogation techniques", rapidly developed between this film, Doctor Detroit, and Raw Deal, and has further developed through to the present day. As Brannigan approaches O'Hare, the Kennedy Expressway is devoid of both commercial development to the north and south, and the Blue Line tracks in the median.

Likewise, West India Quay, immediately north of the Isle of Dogs has become unrecognisable with the development of the Docklands in general, and Canary Wharf in particular. The location is seen as a derelict, nearly-abandoned dockside during Brannigan's confrontation with the motor-scooter messenger (Tony Robinson), and has since been radically transformed. When a hole is blown in Brannigan's lavatory wall, he looks out to see the Albert Memorial, its statue still coated in thick black paint rather than gold leaf. At the time of filming, the Trafalgar Square post office occupied not only its current footprint, but extended throughout the adjoining commercial spaces, and was marked by an unusually shaped sign extending out from the corner of the building.

It contains a unique piece of footage of the inside of the Garrick Club (known as the actors' club) which traditionally does not allow cameras and was only agreed to as Richard Attenborough was a long-term member. In the scene in which Brannigan and Commander Swann are at the bar in the Garrick Club, on the wall behind them are portraits of Laurence Olivier and another of John Gielgud, both in Garrick Club ties.[5]

After a Chicago Police officer was depicted in a less than flattering light in an episode of the 1957–60 television series, M Squad, then-Mayor Richard J. Daley thereafter discouraged motion picture and television location filming in the city for the rest of his administration and its aftermath. Brannigan is one of the few films – along with Cooley High, also released in 1975 – to have been approved and granted police assistance during the two-decade era.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Erickson, Hal. "Brannigan (1975)". Allmovie. Retrieved November 10, 2012. 
  2. ↑ "Brannigan". British Film Institute. London. Retrieved November 10, 2012. 
  3. ↑ Dowell, Pat. - "John Wayne, Man and Myth". - (book review of: John Wayne, American by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson). - Washington Post. - September 25, 1995. - Retrieved: 2008-08-05
  4. ↑ Swann explains to Brannigan that his title of "Sir" is hereditary, having been bestowed upon one of his "ancient ancestors, probably for holding somebody's horse at a coronation."
  5. ↑ http://www.bobvila.com/SmartBuys/Portrait_of_Sir_Laurence_Olivier_1907_1989_by-p628762.html

External links

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