Hickey & Boggs (1972)

October 4, 1972 (US) • Crime, Action, Mystery, Drama, Thriller • 111m

Overview

Two veteran private eyes trigger a criminal reign of terror with their search for a missing girl. | Al Hickey (Cosby) & Frank Boggs (Culp) are two jaded private investigators who get hired to find a missing woman and quickly find themselves submerged in a world of murder and untruths.

Director

Robert Culp

Writer

Walter Hill

Top Billed

Bill Cosby

Keywords

vietnam veteran helicopter private detective suitcase full of money neo-noir

Where to watch

Free / Included

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Top Billed Cast

Bill Cosby

Al Hickey

Robert Culp

Frank Boggs

Ta-Ronce Allen

Nyona's Daughter

Rosalind Cash

Nyona

Lou Frizzell

Lawyer

Nancy Howard

Apartment Manager's Wife

Bernard Nedell

Used Car Salesman

Isabel Sanford

Nyona's Mother

Sheila Sullivan

Edith Boggs

Carmencristina Moreno

Mary Jane

Jason Culp

Mary Jane's Son

Ron Henriquez

Quemando: Florist

Louis Moreno

Quemando: Prisoner

Caryn Sanchez

Mary Jane's Daughter

Robert Mandan

Mr. Brill

Michael Moriarty

Ballard

Denise Renfro

Brill's Daughter

Bernie Schwartz

Bernie

Matt Bennett

Fatboy

Bill Hickman

Monte

Gerald Peters

Jack

Tom Signorelli

Nick

Keri Shuttleton

Playground Kid

Wanda Spell

Playground Kid

Winston Spell

Playground Kid

Jack Colvin

Shaw

Vincent Gardenia

Papadakis

Ed Lauter

Ted

Joe E. Tata

Coroner's Assistant

James Woods

Lt. Wyatt

Lester Fletcher

Rice

Dean Smith

Bagman

Gilchrist Stuart

Farrow

Jerry Summers

Bledsoe

Sylvester Words

Mr. Leroy

Bob Harks

Detective (uncredited)

Roger E. Mosley

Black activist (uncredited)

Crew

Robert Culp

Director

Walter Hill

Writer

Joel Reisner

Associate Producer

Lynn Stalmaster

Casting

William Ware Theiss

Costume Design

Bill Butler

Director of Photography

David Berlatsky

Editor

Ted Ashford

Original Music Composer

Fouad Said

Producer

Richard L. O'Connor

Executive In Charge Of Production

Elliot Schick

Production Manager

Edward Teets

Assistant Director

Fred J. Brown

Sound Editor

Gene S. Cantamessa

Production Sound Mixer

Roger Sword

Sound Editor

Ross Taylor

Sound Editor

Joe Lombardi

Special Effects

Paul J. Lombardi

Special Effects Supervisor

James W. Gavin

Stunts

Bill Hickman

Stunts

Dean Smith

Stunts

Earl Clark

Assistant Camera

James R. Connell

Camera Operator

Joseph Edesa

Gaffer

Rexford L. Metz

Camera Operator

Kenneth Peach Jr.

Camera Operator

Gary Polzel

Key Grip

Eddie Rio Jr.

Assistant Camera

Jack Willoughby

Camera Operator

Doug J. Campbell

Dolly Grip

Rex Hosea

Camera Operator

Richard Weber

Assistant Editor

Ted Ashford

Conductor

Hope Williams

Script Supervisor

Paul Casella Jr.

Transportation Captain

Al Nicholson

Production Coordinator

Don Smith

Property Master

Reviews

John Chard

⭐ 9/10

March 16, 2014

When you pull a gun, you've gotta be ready to kill somebody, and I'm telling you it's better to run.

Hickey & Boggs is directed by Robert Culp and written by Walter Hill. It stars Culp, Bill Cosby, James Woods, Ta-Ronce, Carmencristina Moreno, Rosalind Cash, Lou Frizzel, Isabel Sanford and Sheila Sullivan. Music is by Ted Ashford and cinematography by Bill Butler.

Al Hickey (Cosby) & Frank Boggs (Culp) are two jaded private investigators who get hired to find a missing woman and quickly find themselves submerged in a world of murder and untruths.

I don't think the title does it any favours, because in no way does it imply what a bleak and potent neo-noir that this is. In many ways Hickey & Boggs is the anti private investigator film, it portrays two men failing in life who are just about clinging to the last vestiges of their work, that of the private dick. Robert Culp and Walter Hill strip everything back to unglamourous terms, there is nothing remotely sexy or invigorating about this detective agency, Al and Frank do it because it's all they have, all they know in fact.

The film makers push the two men through a grimy and fetid Los Angeles, pitching them in amongst an array of weirdos, killers, revolutionaries, sexual deviants and angry officials. There's actually a lot of bold colours on show, the two PI's themselves wearing bright lurid blue and green suits, but all the colour coding on show in the film is a front, a misdirection tactic, this Los Angeles is on the surface colourful and sunny into the bargain, but Hickey & Boggs firmly operates on a seedy and downbeat level, the urban milieu as far removed from a holiday brochure as you can get.

Al and Frank, bless their shabby souls, are damaged goods, incapable of the kind of human interaction that most take for granted. Even between themselves they have lost the will to interact outside of work orientated chatter. In fact chatter is a key issue in the film, or lack of as it turns out. There's some beautifully zippy dialogue throughout, real spiky barbs straight out of noirville, but the pic is at its best, away from the action scenes, in how periods of silence involving Al & Frank say so much. One will either rant or repeatedly ask a question, while the other stares off into space or nurse yet another alcoholic beverage to forget his pain. As a character study, this wades through the sludge and blood to show a clinically cynical hand.

Then there is the action scenes, excellently constructed by Culp. Two shoot-outs especially are high grade in quality, and extended they are as well. Aurally they are like a Panzer Division unloading its armoury, visually it's intentionally comic book as per bullets used, but excitement is guaranteed, while the finale, is played out on a beach that gives great carnage and then cuts like a knife to close the pic down in the most suitable of fashions. The screenplay is at times a little too aware of trying to be a convoluted nudge nudge wink wink to the halcyon days of film noir, with Walter Hill on his first writing assignment proving to be wet behind the ears, though the eagerness and respect of the style of film making is genuine in the extreme.

Three absolutes come out of viewing Hickey & Boggs nowadays. One, is that Culp the director, some minor pacing issues aside, really shouldn't have let the film's poor box office prevent him from directing further assignments. Two, is that Cosby shows here he was capable of great character based drama, his performance is simply terrific. Three? Hickey & Boggs is under seen, under valued and should be a requisite viewing for anyone interested in neo-noir. 9/10

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Status

Released

Original Language

Budget

$1,000,000

Revenue

—

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Hickey & Boggs (1972)

Where to watch

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

John Chard

Recommended Movies

Forrest Gump

No Country for Old Men

First Blood

Kong: Skull Island

Status

Original Language

Budget

Revenue

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