Synopsis
Harry Mitchell is a successful Los Angeles manufacturer whose wife is running for city council. His life is turned upside down when three blackmailers confront him with a videotape of him with his young mistress and demand $100,000. Fearing that the story will hurt his wife's political campaign if he goes to the police, Harry pretends that he will pay the men, but does not follow through.
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Cast
- Roy ScheiderHarry Mitchell
- Ann-MargretBarbara Mitchell
- VanityDoreen
- John GloverAlan Raimy
- Robert TreborLeo Franks
- Lonny ChapmanJim O'Boyle
- Kelly PrestonCini
- Doug McClureMark Arveson
- Clarence Williams IIIBobby Shy
- Alex HenteloffDan Lowenthal
Recommendations
- 88
Chicago Sun-Times
This is a well-crafted movie by a man who knows how to hook the audience with his story; it's Frankenheimer's best work in years. - 80
Time Out
Excellent performances. Best of all is the casting of Williams as Bobby Shy - as shamblingly conspicuous as the brother from another planet, golliwog hair and a too-tight raincoat that clings like a hobo's fart, this is a guy who wants a good leaving alone. - 70
The New York Times
ELMORE LEONARD'S thrillers leap so easily to the screen that it's astounding so few of them have gotten there. Even with the kind of slapdash, unsightly production that's been given 52 Pick-Up, Mr. Leonard's stories make terrific, unself-conscious B-movies of the sort that are more and more rare. - 50
Slant Magazine
52 Pick-Up loses its sense of social texture in the last third when everyone begins to die by decree of formulaic three-act screenwriting, and its indifference to the plight of Harry’s wife (Ann-Margret) is unseemly, but the film is an often nightmarish gem awaiting rediscovery. - 50
LarsenOnFilm
Oddly inert, except when it’s blithely nasty, 52 Pick-Up may very well suffer from mismatched sensibilities: those of grim thriller director John Frankenheimer and witty crime novelist Elmore Leonard. - 50
Washington Post
52 PICK-UP is "Death Wish" for yuppies...But all the slime and grime can't camouflage the sameness of this standard, divide-and-conquer story. - 50
TV Guide Magazine
One of the most downright sleazy major films in recent memory, 52 PICK-UP works mainly because of its vivid villains, who are more intriguing than the hero. Glover is superb as the totally amoral blackmailer who uses his superior intelligence to keep his dimmer comrades in check. - 40
Variety
52 Pick-Up is a thriller without any thrills. Although director John Frankenheimer stuffs as much action as he can into the screen adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel (previously filmed by Cannon in Israel in 1984 as The Ambassador), he can't hide the ridiculous plot and lifeless characters.
