Movie review: ‘The Seven-Ups’

FloridaGator80
A promotional photograph from the 1973 movie “The Seven-Ups.”

Crime films have always been a staple of Hollywood. But just as noir gave way to action, so did finding great car chases. From the then-seminal Steve McQueen chase in “Bullitt” in 1968 (click here to read my review) to the now-iconic chase in William Friedkin’s Oscar winner “The French Connection” in 1971 (click here to read my review), the car chase has become the defining mission of some crime films (just ask Vin Diesel or Nicolas Cage – “The Fast and the Furious” and “Gone in Sixty Seconds”

A promotional photograph from the 1973 movie “The Seven-Ups.”

respectively). Well, there’s a neat little-remembered film from the early 1970s called “The Seven-Ups” that has a chase that is solid competition to “The French Connection” since the same group of filmmakers and stuntmen did both. Of course, neither one of these 1970s efforts can hold a candle to today’s stunt and CGI spectaculars, but it’s truly nice to see a good bit of old-school reality filming.

‘The Seven-Ups’
(1973; 103 minutes; rated PG; directed by Philip D’Antoni and starring Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco and Victor Arnold)

WHEN UNDERCOVER GETS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

(NOTE: I expanded this review with additional opinion, more trivia and the updating of links on Feb. 3, 2018. I again expanded the review on Oct. 5, 2024.)

“The Seven-Ups” is past 50 years old in 2024 and in many ways shows it: the land-boat cars; the hideous taste of what was “rich” décor; as well as the production values in general. However, some films make up for that deficiency by not just relying on special effects. Although “The Seven-Ups” has a great car chase, it is just one example of a film made better by its story and acting. It’s good cops-and-robbers stuff and Roy Scheider is pitch-perfect as the undercover cop on a mission.

(CLICK here … for all my reviews of movies)
(CLICK here … for a chronological list of my reviews)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of ‘007’ movies)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of sports movies)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of war movies)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of Christmas movies)
(CLICK here … for all my reviews of horror movies)

In the wake of “The French Connection” in 1971 and “The Godfather” the next year, crime films were back in style with a vengeance. Sonny Grosso, one of the real-life cops from William Friedkin’s Oscar winner and who had a small part in that film would go on to be a technical adviser in 1973 on “The Seven-Ups.” Grosso, who was a technical consultant on the film, was also an uncredited adviser to “The Godfather” and would do the same for several other crime films. He would also be executive producer on several dozen projects (mostly crime stories on TV and in movies).

So, “The Seven-Ups” has that 1970s signature touch of cop films: the maverick undercover guys who get the job done while traditional officers look askance at them.

In “The Seven-Ups,” Scheider plays “Buddy Manucci,” who is the leader of the “Seven-Ups” – a special undercover squad that targets big crimes that usually gets the crook a sentence of seven years and up. Scheider’s got ties back to the old neighborhood where the mob guys hang out and he’s very good at his job. As the film progresses, a two-man team is kidnapping criminals for ransom and the whole thing blows up when Scheider’s undercover partner is unmasked and accidentally killed by one of the kidnappers. Now, Scheider is in high gear to find them.

Along the way he has to deal with crooks; cops who are distrustful of his unit’s unconventional ways; and police brass looking, as usual, for a scapegoat for just about anything. After the killing of his partner, he gets into the movie’s signature car chase with the two homicidal kidnappers and it’s a doozy through the streets and onto an expressway.

The film takes a nice, unexpected twist at the end for Scheider and one of his informants and it all closes up nicely.

The one thing about films of this era is that they don’t force the action and actually manage to use time to develop plot and characters. “The Seven-Ups” moves smoothly from one scene to the next and never looks, like so many do today, that the filmmakers were just looking for a smash cut to the next stunt to move the film along. While there isn’t much character development, there is character development.

Here’s a look at some of the principal cast:

  • A promotional photograph from the 1973 movie “The Seven-Ups.”

    A two-time Oscar nominee, Scheider does his usual good turn here as the tightly-controlled cop who is driven by his job. He takes it personal and makes it personal and despite a somewhat stoic delivery throughout, Scheider conveys his character with aplomb. Schedier was of course better in “Jaws” but that role was certainly nothing to compare to his two nominated works: “The French Connection” and one of my favorites – the Bob Fosse spectacle about that legendary man’s life “All That Jazz” (click here to read my review). He was in “Klute” and died at 75 in 2008 of multiple myeloma.

  • A promotional photograph from the 1973 movie “The Seven-Ups.”

    After Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco is the biggest star in name and importance to the film. Lo Bianco, who was also in “The French Connection,” is an informant with problems. He gives a nice low-key effort as “Vito Lucia” and is playing all sides against each other. However, he really isn’t given the chance to develop the character and we don’t really understand his relationship with Scheider. Lo Bianco was in “The Juror” as well as “Nixon” and “The Honeymoon Killers.” He died at 87 in 2024 of prostate cancer.

  • Ken Kercheval, who would go on to much more fame as “Cliff Barnes” on TV’s “Dallas” (both 1978 and 2012 versions), plays Scheider’s doomed partner “Ansel.” Like Lo Bianco, he doesn’t get much of a chance to develop the character and you get to know him more by what’s said about him than his actual work. Kerheval was also in “Network” and the bulk of his resume is TV roles. He died at 83 in 2015.
  • Two officers on the “Seven-Ups” play key roles, but get shunted off to the side most times. Victor Arnold is “Barilli” and Jerry Leon is “Mingo” and both should have gotten a little more time to flesh out their characters, but, remember, this is a cop movie and too much character development goes too far. Arnold was in “… and justice for all.” and “The Incident” while Leon has a very brief career adding only one “Kojak” episode on TV and an uncredited role on “The Gambler” with James Caan. Arnold died at 75 in 2012 of emphysema and Leon died at 52 in 1987.

The two kidnappers make a really nice duo here.

  • A promotional photograph from the 1973 movie “The Seven-Ups.”

    Richard Lynch plays “Moon” and Bill Hickman plays “Bo.” Lynch is the volatile one who is impulsive, while Hickman is stoic and keeps his cool at all times. Both men do a good job conveying their characters to the audience and make the most out of their screen time. Lynch was also a bad-guy killer in “Little Nikita” and had 161 credits in six decades of work before his death of a heart attack in 2012 at the age of 72. Hickman is most noted as a stunt driver and he

    A promotional photograph from the 1973 movie “The Seven-Ups.”

    was responsible for the wonderful one here as well as the cinematic chase classics in “Bullitt” and “The French Connection.” “The Seven-Ups” is Hickman’s last of 62 acting credits. He died of cancer in 1986 at the age of 65.

The rest of the supporting cast is good and does its job, but none are great here. From some of the mob guys to a garage employee who helps the kidnappers, there’s a number of actors getting fact time, but none manages to take their character to the next level and so I won’t single any out now.

A quick Google search did not turn up any complete box office totals for “The Seven-Ups.” However, Wiki reports that it was made on a budget of $2.4 million. The No. 1 film of 1973 was “The Sting” with $156 million and the No. 2 film was “The Exorcist” with $128 million. Actually, the No. 3 film was much better than the first two (“The Sting” was close, though) and it was “American Graffiti” with $96.3 million. Here are the films from 1973 that I’ve reviewed:

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • Victor Arnold’s birth name was Arnold Ratner.
  • “The Seven-Ups” is the only directing credit for Philip D’Antoni, who is best known as a producer. D’Antoni was the producer for car-chase films “Bullitt,” “The French Connection” and this one.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “According to Dennis Farina on Dinner for Five, this film was the most realistic in its depiction of cops. Farina was a cop in Chicago.”
  • The car driven by Scheider in the big chase scene is a 1973 Pontic Ventura Sprint, while the bad guys’ car is a 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville sedan.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The movie’s integral car chase sequence was filmed on location in the Upper West Side of Manhattan area, on the George Washington Bridge, on the Taconic State Parkway in New York, and on the Palisades Interstate Parkway in New Jersey.”
  • At least 15 members of the cast and crew also worked on “The French Connection.”
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The finale to the car chase is a homage and tribute by the movie’s stunt driver and stunt coordinator Bill Hickman‘s to the car accident death of movie star Jayne Mansfield. The end to the car chase, where the Pontiac Ventura driven by Roy Scheider‘s character drives into the back of a semi-trailer, was the idea of stunt driver William ‘Bill’ Hickman. It is an ‘homage’ to the death of Jayne Mansfield, peeling off its roof like a tin of sardines. Bill Hickman was also the stunt driver of the Charger in Bullitt (1968).”

© Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples
©2014, ©2018, ©2024
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without
express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner
is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that
full and clear credit is given to Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples
with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Unknown's avatar

Published by FloridaGator80

Leave a Reply