Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Director:

Martin Brest

Writers:

Danilo Bach (story)
Daniel Petrie Jr. (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

5 December 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

In Detroit a cop learns to take the heat. In L.A. he learns to keep his cool. [Theatrical Australia]

Plot:

A freewheeling Detroit cop pursuing a murder investigation finds himself dealing with the very different culture of Beverly Hills.

Plot Keywords:

Gallery | Police | Murder | Art Gallery | Detective

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Eddie Murphy	...	Det. Axel Foley
Judge Reinhold	...	Det. William 'Billy' Rosewood
John Ashton	...	Det. Sgt. John Taggart
Lisa Eilbacher	...	Jeannette 'Jenny' Summers
Ronny Cox	...	Lt. Andrew Bogomil
Steven Berkoff	...	Victor Maitland
James Russo	...	Mikey Tandino
Jonathan Banks	...	Zack, Maitland's Thug
Stephen Elliott	...	Police Chief Hubbard
Gilbert R. Hill	...	Insp. Douglas Todd
Art Kimbro	...	Det. Foster
Joel Bailey	...	Det. McCabe
Bronson Pinchot	...	Serge
Paul Reiser	...	Jeffrey
Michael Champion	...	Casey
Frank Pesce	...	Cigarette Buyer
Gene Borkan	...	Cigarette Truck Driver
Michael Gregory	...	Beverly Palms Hotel Manager
Alice Cadogan	...	Beverly Palms Hotel Clerk
Philip Levien	...	Donny
Karen Mayo-Chandler	...	Maitland Receptionist
Gerald Berns	...	Beverly Hills Cop #1
William Wallace	...	Beverly Hills Cop #2
Israel Juarbe	...	Room Service Waiter
Randy Vasquez	...	Beverly Palms Hotel Bellhop (as Randy Gallion)
Damon Wayans	...	Banana Man
Chuck Adamson	...	Warehouse Crate Opener #1
Chip Heller	...	Warehouse Crate Opener #2
Rick Overton	...	Bonded Warehouse Night Supervisor
Rex Ryon	...	Bonded Warehouse Security Guard
Mike Pniewski	...	Bonded Warehouse Clerk #1 (as Michael Pniewski)
Douglas Warhit	...	Bonded Warehouse Clerk #2
Paul Drake	...	Strip Club Holdup Man #1
Tom Everett	...	Strip Club Holdup Man #2
Sally Kishbaugh	...	Strip Club Waitress
Barry Shade	...	Harrow Club Valet
Jack Heller	...	Harrow Club Maitre D'
Michael Harrington	...	Harrow Club Arresting Officer
David Wells	...	Police Dispatcher
Scott Murphy	...	Det. Owensby
Dennis Madden	...	Detroit Cop #1
John Achorn	...	Detroit Cop #2
John Pettis	...	Detroit Cop #3
Nicholas Shields	...	Detroit Station Cop #1 (as Nick Shields)
Carl Weintraub	...	Detroit Station Cop #2
Anthony De Fonte	...	Detroit Station Cop #3
Darwyn Carson	...	Barmaid
Mark E. Corry	...	Pool Player
Thomas J. Hageboeck	...	Maitland Bodyguard
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Martin Brest	...	Beverly Palms Hotel Checkout Clerk (uncredited)

Directed by
Martin Brest

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Danilo Bach		story
Daniel Petrie Jr.		screenplay
Daniel Petrie Jr.		story

Produced by
Jerry Bruckheimer	....	producer
Linda Horner	....	associate producer
Mike Moder	....	executive producer
Don Simpson	....	producer

Original Music by
Harold Faltermeyer

Cinematography by
Bruce Surtees		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Arthur Coburn
Billy Weber

Casting by
Margery Simkin
Rhonda Young

Production Design by
Angelo P. Graham		(as Angelo Graham)

Art Direction by
James J. Murakami

Set Decoration by
John M. Dwyer
Jeff Haley

Costume Design by
Tom Bronson

Makeup Department
Leonard Engelman	....	makeup artist
Barbara Lorenz	....	hair stylist
Ben Nye Jr.	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Mike Moder	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Peter Bogart	....	first assistant director
Richard Graves	....	second assistant director
Steve McRoberts	....	first assistant director: second unit
Dannielle J. Weiss	....	dga trainee
Thomas J. Wright	....	second unit director (as Tom Wright)

Art Department
Mike Blaze	....	assistant props
John Hutchinson	....	stand-by painter
Robert Müller	....	construction coordinator (as Robert Mueller)
Tommy 'Tom' Tomlinson	....	property master (as Tom Tomlinson)
Charles Breen	....	set designer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Pamela Bentkowski	....	foley editor
Alan Bromberg	....	foley editor
Carolyn Colwell	....	assistant sound editor
Teri E. Dorman	....	sound editor (as Teri Dorman)
Daniel F. Finnerty	....	assistant sound editor (as Daniel Finnerty Jr.)
William Gocke	....	boom operator
Cecelia Hall	....	supervising sound editor
Rick Kline	....	sound re-recording mixer
Bruce Lacey	....	sound editor
Gregg Landaker	....	sound re-recording mixer
Donald O. Mitchell	....	sound re-recording mixer
Alan L. Nineberg	....	adr editor
Bruce Richardson	....	sound editor (as Paul Bruce Richardson)
Gary Ritchie	....	sound recordist
George Watters II	....	supervising sound editor
Charles M. Wilborn	....	sound mixer
Dan O'Connell	....	foley artist (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Ken Pepiot	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Steve Grumette	....	computer effects supervisor

Stunts
Christopher R. Adams	....	stunts
Janet Brady	....	stunts (as Janet S. Brady)
David Burton	....	stunts
Danny Costa	....	stunts
Steve M. Davison	....	stunts (as Steve Davidson)
Vince Deadrick Sr.	....	stunts (as Vincent P. Deadrick Sr.)
Eddy Donno	....	stunts
Ron Ellis	....	stunts
Kenny Endoso	....	stunts
Stephanie Epper	....	stunts
Tony Epper	....	stunts
Jay Fuller	....	stunts (as Jay R. Fuller)
Billy Hank Hooker	....	stunts (as Bill Hooker)
Loren Janes	....	stunts
Matt Johnston	....	stunts
Harold Jones	....	stunts
Gary McLarty	....	stunt coordinator
Gary McLarty	....	stunts
Karen McLarty	....	stunts (as Karen Werner)
Bobby McLaughlin	....	stunts
John Meier	....	stunts (as John C. Meier)
Mike Moore	....	stunts (as Michael W. Moore)
Alan Oliney	....	stunts
Rex Pierson	....	stunts
Mic Rodgers	....	stunts
Danny Rogers	....	stunts
John Sistrunk	....	stunts (as J.E. Sistrunk)

Camera and Electrical Department
Peter J. Breen	....	dolly grip
Al Contreras	....	second grip
John Davis	....	best boy
Jack N. Green	....	camera operator (as Jack Green)
Michael Liakos	....	second grip
Danny Marzolo	....	electrician
Frank McKane	....	best boy
Jeff Miller	....	assistant camera (as Jeffrey Lee Miller)
Don Nygren	....	gaffer (as Donald O. Nygren)
Richard R. Robinson	....	still photographer
Jim Rose	....	dolly grip
Francis X. Valdez III	....	electrician
Peter Wagner	....	key grip
Michael D. Weldon	....	assistant camera
Rick Bota	....	second assistant camera (uncredited)

Casting Department
Maggie Mills	....	casting assistant
Margery Simkin	....	casting
Rhonda Young	....	casting
Franklyn Warren	....	extras casting (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Kathie Gale	....	costumer
Michael J. Long	....	costumer
Chuck Velasco	....	costumer
Haleen K. Holt	....	costume illustrator (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Claudia Finkle	....	assistant editor
John Haggar	....	assistant editor (as John A. Haggar)
Richard Ritchie	....	color timer (as Dick Ritchie)
Markus Schaub	....	apprentice editor

Music Department
Bob Badami	....	music editor
Kathy Nelson	....	music consultant: MCA Records
Greg Fulginiti	....	music engineer (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Sam Edelman	....	transportation captain
Jay Fuller	....	transportation coordinator (as Jay R. Fuller)

Other crew
Chuck Adamson	....	technical advisor
Laurie Allison	....	assistant: Mr. Brest
William Bowling	....	location manager
Stanley Brossette	....	unit publicist
Janis Benjamin Collister	....	assistant: Mr. Moder
Robert C. Decker	....	location manager
Simon Doonan	....	art gallery consultant
Faith Ginsberg	....	assistant: Mr. Brest
Betty Goldberg	....	script supervisor
James Herbert	....	location manager
Barbara Lichtenberg	....	office assistant
Scott Metcalfe	....	assistant: Mr. Simpson
Carol Richmond	....	assistant: Mr. Simpson
David Robertson	....	assistant: Mr. Brest
Robert Thorson	....	production auditor
Barbara Weintraub	....	assistant: Mr. Bruckheimer

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures (presents)
• Eddie Murphy Productions (in association with)

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1984) (USA) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (1985) (Australia) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1988) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Argentina Video Home (Argentina) (video)
• CIC Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• CIC-Taft Home Video
• Paramount Filmes do Brasil (Brazil) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2000) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Paramount Home Entertainment (2002) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (USA) (VHS)
• Paramount Home Video (USA) (laserdisc)
• Prem'er Video Fil'm

Other Companies

• Dolby Laboratories  sound post-production
• MCA Records  soundtrack
• On Tour Productions  transportation services
• R/Greenberg Associates  titles
• White Gloves  negative cutting

Also Known As:

Beverly Drive (USA) (original script title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby | Dolby Digital (Dolby 5.1)

Certification:

Finland:K-14 (re-rating) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Denmark:15 | Finland:K-16 (1985) | Portugal:M/12 | Netherlands:12 | Canada:18A | Brazil:12 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Canada:G (Quebec) | Chile:18 | Ireland:15 | Norway:16 (1985) | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 (DVD rating) | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12 | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills Civic Center - 19606 450 Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

According to Steven Berkoff (Maitland) in a UK newspaper interview, Sylvester Stallone quit the film because of disagreements about which kind of orange juice was to be put in his trailer.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Axel and Mikey are playing pool in the bar at the beginning of the movie, Mikey's wristwatch disappears and reappears between shots.

Quotes:

Axel Foley: [outside the crime scene in front of Axel's apartment building after Mike is killed] Look, I heard a rumor that you're gonna use Rand on this case, and, between the two of us, the guy doesn't know the time of day.
Inspector Douglas Todd: Don't mess with me now, Axel.
Axel Foley: It's the first time he's left his desk in 12 years!
Inspector Douglas Todd: At least he's had 12 years. Anyway, it's a homicide case and it belongs to Rand. Now go to the hospital!
Axel Foley: Well, you don't mind if I ask around a little bit, do you?
Inspector Douglas Todd: Don't do a damn thing! It's Rand's case. Your ass is skating on thin ice as it is!
Axel Foley: Hey, look, we're talking about a friend of mine, here!
Inspector Douglas Todd: Yes, we are, aren't we! Now, let's take a close look at that. One, a hoodlum friend. Two, a professional hit. Three, in a cop's apartment. This whole thing stinks to high heaven!
Axel Foley: How do you know it was a professional hit?
Inspector Douglas Todd: I didn't just walk into this town from the cotton fields! Whoever killed your friend wasn't worried about your little narrow ass. If they were, you'd be lyin' beside him in that meat wagon. Just don't do a damn thing. Stay out of this!
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "HBO First Look: The Making of 'Dr. Dolittle 2' (#8.7)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

New Attitude

Funniest combination of bananas and tail pipes in cinematic history...!

Beverly Hills Cop is by far Eddie Murphy's most popular role, and the movie that officially launched his career as a genuine movie star. It was one of those movies that my dad would let my brother and I watch on weekends, after my mom made him promise not to show us any rated R movies, and over the years it's easy to forget the level of violence and profanity in it that earned it that forbidding rating. Of course, as a kid I was just excited that I was getting to see something that I shouldn't, but in retrospect I tend to think that it was this combination of clever comedy and the ingredients from harder action thrillers that ensured Beverly Hills Cop's status as a cop comedy classic.

You see, Foley has a bit of a criminal past of his own, but he is clearly much more at home on the right side of the law, and he uses his experiences in crime to his advantage in working his way into the criminal underworld, where he routinely attempts to bring down major crime ring kingpins. One day an old friend comes to visit him after having been released from prison and spending some time relaxing in the California sun. The two have a great time at the bar recounting their old criminal days together, until we learn that this guy, who once took the fall for one of Axel's crimes and served prison time for him without ever mentioning his name, now has stolen bearer bonds with him worth millions. Before long the owner of the bonds shows up and is not in a reminiscent mood. Axel is knocked out as they're staggering back to his apartment for the night, and he wakes up to find his friend murdered.

The movie follows one of the biggest 1980s action movie clichés to the letter. Every single line is here, 'take some time off,' 'stay away from this case,' 'if you go after this guy don't bother calling in on Monday,' etc. My eyes tend to glaze over whenever I hear this situation in a movie, probably because I work so much and in such situations can only think of how great it would be if my bosses told me to take some time off, go on vacation, don't let them catch me working or they'll fire me. But Foley's trip to Beverly Hills to perform his own investigation yields results so promising that it keeps the movie moving along at a pretty fast pace. Of course we realize the real life odds of a police officer traveling to the other side of the country and immediately stumbling across the major crime organization that he's looking for, but Murphy's quick-talking wit and street-wise charm makes it pretty easy to root for him.

The movie has the perfect premise to combine with Murphy's personality – he's an urban cop from Detroit named Axel Foley who is always driving his boss insane because he doesn't wait for piddly things like authorization when he wants to do major undercover work. The movie opens with one of these undercover and under the radar missions, which culminates in the police being called and then a major car chase through city and residential streets that must have caused millions of dollars in damage. Of course, when the cops have Axel at gunpoint, he gives them a grin and they shake their heads and lower their guns. Aw shucks, it's that crazy Foley again!

Judge Reinhold and John Ashton play Detectives Rosewood and Taggart, two of Beverly Hillss finest who are assigned to keep an eye on Foley and make sure he doesn't start doing police work while a dozen states or so outside his jurisdiction, from which he's suspended anyway. So Foley moves around among the Ferraris and BMWs and Mercedeses of Beverly Hills in his ancient, beat up Chevy Nova, cheerfully laughing at Taggart's and Rosewood's bumbling efforts to tail him and doing his investigation right under their noses.

In the standard buddy cop movie sitcom, you have two wildly different people thrown together in a police partnership situation and forced to work together. This was a staple of the 1980s and has remained popular to this day, with classic movies like Lethal Weapon, Tango & Cash, 48 hours (one of Murphy's own earlier comedies), Red Heat, Rush Hour (could two cops ever be more different than Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan?), and possibly my favorite, Hot Fuzz. And of course I shouldn't forget Bad Boys, which may very well have so much in common with Beverly Hills Cop as to warrant suspicion of plagiarism. I'll let it go though. I'm sure Eddie Murphy doesn't mind. Anyway, Beverly Hills Cop does follow all of the basic rules of your standard buddy cop movie, but somehow manages to avoid feeling like a formula film.

The combination of Axel's determination to avenge his friend's murder is juxtaposed with hilarious situations involving Taggart and Rosewood trying in vain to keep an eye on him, as well as various police organizations tearing their hair out trying to keep him under control. Picture the police chief in Last Action Hero, a bad movie for which I maintain a certain affection, and make him intelligible and add a lot of profanity and you'll get some idea of what's going on here. I don't know that Beverly Hills Cop can quite be called a comedy classic, but it is definitely an action comedy classic.

Also keep your eye out for the hilarious cameo from Bronson Pinchot, who you may remember as Balki from Perfect Strangers! Eleventh best TV show ever!