Continuing my plan to watch every Burt Reynolds movie in his filmography in order, I come to 'Fuzz'My usual Plot In A Paragraph is a bit tricky, as there are several plots, which all take place at the same time, which is probably more realistic than most cop movies, because things are always happening at the same time in a police station. Let's see. Plot In A Paragraph: A gang of bombers led by a mysterious man known only as "The Deaf Man" (Yul Brynner) is blowing up city officials as part of an extortion plot. Some punk kids are setting drunken bums on fire and a rapist is loose in the park.I really enjoyed this movie Reynolds shares great chemistry with Tom Skerrit and Jack Weston, and Yul Brynner and Raquel Welch were both good too!! It had some funny scenes and rather than good police work, the cops stumble on the solution by sheer coincidence (which makes a refreshing change) The nicest scene in the movie is a touching moment between Reynolds and his deaf wife in the hospital, as Reynolds attempts to play down his serious injuries!!

This ambitious but uneven Boston Police action comedy struggles to be serious and superficial at the same time. Although it qualifies as one of Burt Reynolds' more respectable theatrical film releases before he scored with John Boorman's "Deliverance" and Robert Aldrich's "The Longest Yard," "Fuzz" is standard-issue stuff. Affable Burt and his co-stars conjure up a genuine sense of camaraderie that adds credibility to this above-average thriller. Yul Brynner is cast as a ruthless villain with a hearing problem, but he doesn't participate physically in the action until slightly more than an hour has elapsed in this 92 minute law & order epic. Nevertheless, he makes a memorable exit. Sexy Raquel Welch doesn't have as many scenes as she should have had. She has one hilarious scene in a sleeping bag during a stakeout in the park with Tom Skerritt. Future "Cleopatra Jones" starlet Tamara Dobson has a bit part as Brynner's girlfriend. Interestingly, Evan Hunter wrote the screenplay based Ed McBain's literary "87th Precinct" novels. McBain was Hunter's nom de plume. His screenplay moves in circles but laces the loose threads together for a surprise ending. Wait until you learn the truth about the city painters. "Zig Zag" director Richard A. Colla is imitates Robert Altman with the use of an ensemble cast and meandering plot lines and William Friedkin's gritty "French Connection" surveillance and shoot'em up scenes. In one playful scene, Carella and Meyer, garbed in nun's habits, tail a conspicuous man (Don Gordon of "Bullitt") across Boston. Composer Dave Grusin's title music is superb and embellishes the action with its bone-smacking, gut-heaving, pulsative quality of both Isaac Hayes' "Shaft" theme and Quincy Jones' "Dollars" theme. Lenser Jacques R. Marquette's on-location photography in Boston is nice since most thrillers end up on those familiar New York City streets."Fuzz" is a formulaic police procedural that imitates "M.A.S.H." with its multiple characters. Actually, Colla's film looks like the prototype for ABC-TV's sitcom "Barney Miller." Several scenes concern supporting actors and actresses complaining to the detectives while more important activities occur around them. An anonymous phone caller menaces the 87th Precinct with threats of assassinating city officials while a pair of predatory youth roams the streets at night intent on turning drunks into bonfires. The assassins are fodder-as-usual for this kind of cop operas, but the firebugs are just as unsavory as they were back when this film came out. When our heroes aren't dealing with the assassins and the firebugs, they are bickering with a couple of painters painting the precinct premises. Raquel Welch shows up at the precinct to serve as decoy for rapists. This doesn't keep the guys from kidding her. Boston Police Department Detective Eileen McHenry (Raquel Welch of "Bandolero!") listens patiently and grimaces as a woman complains about a flasher. The woman provides almost too many gory details about her assailant. Meanwhile, BPD Detectives Steve Carella (Burt Reynolds of "100 Rifles") and Meyer Meyer (Jack Weston) wheeze with laughter at McHenry's dilemma. She knows that they are playing a prank on her and she realizes it after the woman furnishes so many details. Finally, a group of criminals are planning to rob a liquor store. Consequently, despite the 87th's penetrating investigations, the anonymous phone caller, in reality a deaf man (Yul Brynner of "The Magnificent Seven"), neither vaunts nor tarries about killing police officials. The two youth kindle a couple of drunkards, one being Carella disguised as a rag picker. Carella is momentarily surprised when he sees how young they are before they torch him. Later, an interesting scene occurs as a surveillance technician praises an African-American detective but addresses him invoking the horrendous N-world. The cop belts him out of sight of the camera. The big shoot-out at the end is staged with finesse. Ironically, a couple of liquor store bandits stumble onto the Deaf Man and his accomplice in a police uniform and start shooting. There are some interesting touches. The wife of Detective Carella is deaf, too.

This is billed as a Burt Reynold's vehicle but he is actually part of a great cast in this Ed McBain 87th Precinct comedy-thriller. The police in Boston are searching for an extortionist dubbed "The Deaf Man" who is demanding cash or he kills a high ranking city official. Reynolds along with Tom Skeritt and Jack Weston are the cops on the case. The film really has a great ensemble feel and, I hope, accurately predicts the goings on inside a police station. Raquel Welch co-stars as a female detective out to snag a rapist. Yul Brynner, who must have been having lots of fun at this point in his career, is "The Deaf Man." His screen time is minimal but he does a good job. Familiar faces pop up in nearly every other scene with guys like Charles Tyner, Albert Popwell, Tamara Dobson and a very young Charles Martin Smith in small roles. The film's only major problem is that it neatly wraps up everything in the end. Seriously, every crime the cops are investigating is solved in one scene that relies heavily on convenience.

I thought this was pretty damned neat in 1972.Of course we had yet to be drowned in a morass of Wambaugh clones and a surfeit of Harry Callahan wannabes,and wisecracking cops in grubby squadrooms being re - decorated were relatively thin on the ground.It is unfortunate that films like "Fuzz" when they are considered at all are only seen through eyes that have seen a hundred similar films since and,probably unconsciously,critically assessed to a certain extent within a frame of reference that didn't exist when they were made.I doubt if Nietszche was referring to movies when he said "Life must be lived forwards but can only be understood backwards",but it certainly applies to commenting on "Fuzz". Based on the first "Deaf Man" episode in the 87th precinct stories,it featured Mr Burt Reynolds as Det Steve Carella and Mr.Tom Skerritt as Det Burt(correct spelling) Kling. I always thought the 87th precinct was supposed to be in New York,but the film is set in Boston,later to be very familiar to admirers of Mr Robert B.Parker's estimable Private Detective Spenser. I have never been in a police station in America,but if in 1972 they were not similar to the one in "Fuzz",then they should have been . Far more exciting than our more prosaic Victorian ones in London with their echoes of "The Blue Lamp" and "It always rains on Sundays". I worked in them for 30 years and was always expecting Sidney Tafler or John Slater to be brought in protesting their innocence. I couldn't imagine Burt or Tom exchanging one-liners in the charge room in Walthamstow nick for example,or chasing a milk-bottle thief down Priory Court. Our cells weren't full of whores,pimps,second storey men,hustlers and Murphy artists(whatever they are).We had good old English flashers,blaggers and tealeaves."Fuzz" made The Life in America seem so much more exciting.Mr Yul Brynner takes his foot off the subtlety pedal as the deaf man. It is a pleasingly silly characterisation that sets the tone for most of the film.For Ed McBain readers many of the favourites like Lt Byrnes,Det Brown and Andy Parker will be familiar figures,if not perhaps quite as they imagined them. "Fuzz" and the films that followed it cleared the way for "Hill St Blues" and "N.Y.P.D. Blue",that should not be forgotten.It is not a great film,or even a very good film,but it is far better than its reputation would suggest.