In deference to John Wayne's legendary film career in Westerns, Turner Classic Movies moderator Ben Mankiewicz stated that you could move "Brannigan" out West and it would work. Having seen a ton of Wayne's films, I think it's pretty safe to say that this more closely resembled his Lone Star flicks from the Thirties like "Texas Terror" or "The Lawless Frontier" rather than say, "Rio Bravo" or "True Grit".
I think a lot of it boils down to the writing; there's a lot here that doesn't make sense. For starters, how is it that Jim Brannigan's boss Moretti (Ralph Meeker) in Chicago hands him a passport among other things to go to London. You have to apply for a passport yourself and have your picture taken along with supplying a ton of identification. Then in London, when he becomes aware that assassin Drexel is on the street below the apartment he's investigating, he shouts out to him to stop!! Really? They teach you that in detective school? And how about the continuity lapse when Commander Swann (Richard Attenborough) tells Brannigan he's got a phone call, Swann calls him 'Joe'.
At least part of the story line was interesting though. The Larkin (John Vernon) kidnapping plot kept you guessing as to what was going to happen next, and the hit-man hired by the American mobster started out as a fairly creative fellow in his attempts to take out Wayne's character. But there again, the final face off between Brannigan and Gorman (Daniel Pilon) was written far too clumsily. I can't imagine a professional assassin would be so reckless to put an end to his target that he'd pull out all the stops and try to run him over with his car, giving Brannigan plenty enough time to just shoot him through the windshield. It felt like the writers just needed a quick way to get this thing over with.
Through it all, Brannigan's English partner Jennifer Thatcher (Judy Geeson) is easy on the eyes and gets in that cool line about Americans being 'overworked, over-sexed and over here'. After that quick peck on the cheek she gave Brannigan I groaned a bit thinking the film makers were heading in the wrong direction, but unlike Wayne's early Westerns, this is one film that ended where the Duke didn't get the girl. If that had happened, the film makers would have really pulled a Murphy.
I think a lot of it boils down to the writing; there's a lot here that doesn't make sense. For starters, how is it that Jim Brannigan's boss Moretti (Ralph Meeker) in Chicago hands him a passport among other things to go to London. You have to apply for a passport yourself and have your picture taken along with supplying a ton of identification. Then in London, when he becomes aware that assassin Drexel is on the street below the apartment he's investigating, he shouts out to him to stop!! Really? They teach you that in detective school? And how about the continuity lapse when Commander Swann (Richard Attenborough) tells Brannigan he's got a phone call, Swann calls him 'Joe'.
At least part of the story line was interesting though. The Larkin (John Vernon) kidnapping plot kept you guessing as to what was going to happen next, and the hit-man hired by the American mobster started out as a fairly creative fellow in his attempts to take out Wayne's character. But there again, the final face off between Brannigan and Gorman (Daniel Pilon) was written far too clumsily. I can't imagine a professional assassin would be so reckless to put an end to his target that he'd pull out all the stops and try to run him over with his car, giving Brannigan plenty enough time to just shoot him through the windshield. It felt like the writers just needed a quick way to get this thing over with.
Through it all, Brannigan's English partner Jennifer Thatcher (Judy Geeson) is easy on the eyes and gets in that cool line about Americans being 'overworked, over-sexed and over here'. After that quick peck on the cheek she gave Brannigan I groaned a bit thinking the film makers were heading in the wrong direction, but unlike Wayne's early Westerns, this is one film that ended where the Duke didn't get the girl. If that had happened, the film makers would have really pulled a Murphy.