***SPOILERS*** Crazed and possibly insane New York City sewer worker Gus "The Mole" Soltic, Cliff Gorman, seeks revenge against the city's top real estate mogul, not Donald J. Trump, who destroyed his family's home and neighborhood in the now-1980-bombed out South Bronx by having the area block busted with welfare and unemployed minorities who turned it into the crime infested slum that it became. In an attempt to kidnap the slumlord's 15 year old daughter he kidnaps the wrong girl who turns out to be the daughter of an ex-policeman Sean Boyd, James Brolin,little Kathy played by Abby Bluestone.It's Boyd who's also on the outs with his former fellow cop Sgt. Otis Barnes, Dan Hadaya, who refuses to help him. It's Sgt. Barnes who's job it's to find and rescue little Kathy but instead is out for revenge against Boyd who's accusation of him screwing around behind his wife's back had him transferred out of his police precinct. So it's now left out to Boyd to go out on own in trying to get little Kathy back from Soltic who demands a $1,000,000.00 ransom or as he tells him he'll send her back to him in bits & pieces! With Soltic not knowing that he kidnapped the wrong girl there's no why that Sean an unemployed and part time truck driver can come up with the cash. This leads to a number of wild car and on foot chase scenes all across the city of New York with Boyd ending up almost a cripple by getting hit by cars and trucks and fighting off a violent South Bronx street gang.***SPOILERS*** The final showdown that's place-where else-in the sewers of New York City that the dwelling Soltic knows like the back of his greasy hand. By then despite Boyd getting the $1,000,000.00 ransom, from the city treasury, that Soltic demanded he falls madly in love with his 15 year old hostage Kathy who in fact want's nothing at all to do with him. Gritty and well photographed in the burned out South Bronx and sleazy Manhattan Time Square District makes you forget what a totally ridicules movie it really is. It's Cliff Gorman who really takes the cake as well as acting honors in at first his explanation of why he's become so unhinged over what happened to him in being burned out of his family apartment house by the roving street gangs that were introduced into the neighborhood by the greedy and block busting real estate moguls. But his kidnapping and holding hostage of the totally innocent Kathy who had-that he later found out- nothing at all to do with his problems that lost him any sympathy he first had with the audience. P.S Check out 23 year old porno actress Sharon Mitchell as Suzie who works in a Times Square peep show who gives Boyd an important clue to whom his daughters kidnapper's identity really is.

Night of the Juggler is set in New York City & starts as ex-cop, truck driver & loving father Sean Boyd (James Brolin) arrives home to wish his fifteen year old daughter Kathy (Abby Bluestone) a happy birthday, Sean decides to walk with Kathy to school through the park. Meanwhile the bitter & psychopathic sewer worker Gus Soltic (Cliff Gorman) has been watching a girl named Virginia Clayton (Robyn Finn) the daughter of rich property developer Hampton Richmond Clayton III (Marco St. John) who has used gangs of thugs to drive people of of his neighbourhood in order to buy the land cheaply, Gus plans to kidnap Virginia & hold her to ransom for one million dollars but his plan goes wrong & he ends up kidnapping Kathy Boyd by mistake. Having seen his daughter taken Sean sets out on a mission to find & rescue her, he has to deal with bent cops, pimps, gangs, his ex-wife & Gus himself in a final showdown to the death...This oddly titled late 70's New York set action thriller is apparently also known as New York Killer here in the UK, Countdown in Manhattan in Germany, New York Connection in France & Pursued in Canada & was directed by Robert Butler, under any name Night of the Juggler was based on the novel by William P. McGivern & is a pretty decent film that probably doesn't deserve to be as obscure as it currently is. The plot is pretty good, the script doesn't waste much time in getting going & once Kathy is kidnapped the pace is pretty relentless as we get car chases, fights, a brawl at a peep show, hostile gangs, pimps, dirty cops & a variety of oddball character's from stripper's to homeless drunks & surprisingly helpful taxi cab driver's. I wouldn't say any of Night of the Juggler is breathtaking & I wouldn't describe it as a lost masterpiece (it's neither lost nor a masterpiece so why would I?!) but for what it is I liked it enough. The New York setting really helps, in fact the city & it's inhabitants & locations are as much the star as any of the character's, I suppose it's a touch predictable & maybe a little bit too long at 100 minutes but I had a decent time watching it. The character's are alright & serve their purpose & the script has a reasonable go at tackling some themes like racism, poverty, corruption & the basic concept of community or the lack of it.From the skyscrapers of the city to Central park to the graffiti covered trains & tube stations to the porno district with pimps, hookers & peep shows to the dark underground sewer system to housing estates that look like someone dropped a nuclear bomb on it Night of the Juggler spans just about most of New York & it's gritty, sleazy late 70's early 80's cesspool feel & look. If nothing else Night of the Juggler is a bit of a nostalgia trip as the New York seen here is very different to the New York of today. The action scenes are pretty good, from an impressive car chase to a shoot-out in the middle of New York to fights & the final somewhat forgettable climax inside the sewer system. There's some nudity & a fair bit of violence but nothing gory or sadistic.Filmed on location in New York you could not make Night of the Juggler now, apart from the landscape of New York looking completely different just think how much it would cost to stage the car chases & shoot-outs in filming permits alone. There's very little information about Night of the Juggler out there, as far as I am aware at this point it has never even been released on DVD. The acting is pretty good as various actor's bring the odd assortment of New York character's to life. Richard S. Castellano from The Godfather (1972) looks like he is one fry-up away from a heart attack.Night of the Juggler is a decent action thriller with some seriously sleazy overtones, it has a decent story & good action scenes while the Big Rotten Apple as it was back then provides some stark settings. I liked it & despite the awful title I would recommend it, I didn't love it but I liked it.

As gritty, dirty, grungy urban thrillers go, The Night Of The Juggler manages to be a pretty unpleasant experience, and that's NOT a recommendation. Car chases, fist fights, sleazy porno joints, gangland violence and a maniac cop are all thrown into the mix but to little avail. Director Robert Butler expends all his energy on the seedy elements but forgets to create sympathetic characters and situations, resulting in one long wallow in cinematic filth. At least the pacing is fairly relentless, though that alone is hardly reason enough to watch.Ex-cop Sean Boyd (James Brolin) witnesses his daughter's abduction by unhinged weirdo Gus Soltic (Cliff Gorman). After giving chase but losing them in the busy streets of New York, Boyd has to reluctantly seek the aid of the NYPD in tracking down his little girl. Finding that the cops are pretty unhelpful, Boyd goes on a destructive rampage through the impoverished streets in search of his daughter. Along the way he upsets mad cop Sgt Otis Barnes (Dan Hedaya), who pursues him with a shotgun and causes more mayhem than the average criminal might consider pertinent in a day's work. Eventually Boyd discovers that his kid was not the intended target of the kidnapper – it was actually a millionaire businessman's daughter that the deranged villain meant to snatch. Still, with his daughter in the hands of the maniac he relentlessly hunts for clues as to her whereabouts and eventually tracks down the abductor and his victim to an underground lair beneath a ruined tower block, where a bloody final confrontation takes place.Brolin goes through the film wearing a fixed snarl and solving all his problems and frustrations by beating the hell out of everyone who stands in his way. Amazingly, he's the good guy in all this, but if you were to wander into the film late you might not realise that, such is the nature of his destructive and volatile character. Gorman is hopeless as the kidnapper, in a role that provokes more unintentional laughter than fear. Hedaya creates the most memorable character, playing the maniac cop - who becomes a hindrance rather than a help to our hero - with over-the-top glee. The lensing by Victor J. Kemper makes New York appear squalid and unappealing in the extreme – now that might be fine in a film like Taxi Driver, where the squalor and filth was dwelled upon very deliberately and added to the disintegration of the De Niro character, but in Night Of The Juggler the setting isn't supported by the bubble-gum plot, and succeeds only in making the film look ugly. There's plenty of foul language and car wrecking going on here, if that's your kind of thing, but on the whole Night Of The Juggler is an unconvincing urban thriller that will have most viewers reaching for the "off" button.

If you like non stop action and wide excitement, then this movie is for you! You will NOT be leaving your seat to get popcorn! James Brolin does some of his best acting in this movie. Your heart will be ripped from your chest each and every time he gets so close, and fails! This is a sleeper movie. It just didn't get any press.