wes-connors Middle-aged used-car salesman Andrew Duggan (as Bill Lennox) and his blonde, bikini-clad wife Joyce Van Patten (as Bernadette) lounge by the pool at their swanky Southern California estate. Their home and property look like the best in the area, but there are troubled waters ahead for the Beverly Hills couple. While swimming, Mr. Duggan discovers a rat in the pool's side skimmer. Both he and Ms. Van Patten are horrified. Unable to remove the creature, they call for help and are suddenly joined by aggressive, jive-talking Yaphet Kotto (as Bone). Although he gets rid of the rat, Mr. Kotto is really there to rob the couple and rape Van Patten...Subversively subtitled "A Bad Day in Beverly Hills", this was the first feature film directed by TV writer-producer Larry Cohen. Usually responsible for populist entertainment, Mr. Cohen may have thought "Bone" had counter-culture appeal. It's a seldom funny "black comedy" that clearly understands the role played by Duggan while aiming poorly for some sort of parity of attention with Mr. Kotto's character. Not surprisingly, Duggan's character is the clearest drawn...The "imaginary" opening minutes show Duggan peddling his trade in a yard of car wrecks, with bloody bodies still inside. This would have been more effective if intercut later, perhaps during the bank withdrawal scenes. Shown first as an attention getting device, the bloody opening takes away from the disarming introduction of the three main characters. A pre-"Heartbreak Kid" Jeannie Berlin has featured role and a pre-"Match Game" Brett Somers is seen briefly. "Bone" is generous with ugly close-ups and an annoying soundtrack. You do get a good look at old Los Angeles and 1970s smokers will identify with dropping a cigarette in the car while driving.**** Bone (7/12/72) Larry Cohen ~ Yaphet Kotto, Andrew Duggan, Joyce Van Patten, Jeannie Berlin

princebuster82 This movie didn't have much to offer in the way of well, anything.Everything's kind of played for laughs and made in the semi-surreal documentary style of filming that was sort of in vogue at the time.The acting was OK by everyone except Yaphett Kotto who never has learned how to not overact. You can argue that he's supposed to be playing a maniac, yet he acts the same in every movie he's been in.I had high hopes for this movie, Larry Cohen's directorial debut, Yapphet Kotto playing a racist homicidal rapist, etc. But Kotto seems about as harmless as a parakeet and the story is just very flat. Just mediocre all the way around.

whist In my opinion, this film was before its time – by about 5 years. If only it had been made in 1977, I wouldn't have bothered renting it and would have saved myself $3 and 90 minutes of tedious American culture bashing. 'Bone' attempts to be a vehicle for social commentary. White, upper-middle class people who have settled in Southern California from the east coast have become bored and shallow; their lives are as empty as their joint bank account. *yawn* An African American comes along to shake them out of their lethargy. Racial tensions, sex, and murder ensue. If the plot strikes you as cliché, superficial, or boring, then you're with me.None of the characters is likable really. This is what happens when a director is determined to exploit rather than explore people. On top of it all, Bone, the interloper-rapist-lover main character, turns out to be a figment of . . . two people's imaginations? Reality not very apparently becomes fantasy at some point in the movie – you get to decide where – and then reasserts itself, I guess, at the end when murder is committed, although how, since it's been fantasy so far, is unclear. But when a director plays the exploitation/fantasy card, rationality goes out the window. Some folks might find this disclarity entertaining. Me, I think it's cheap.

alastairdreid The film starts with a rat in a pool then a black man appears and it is the interaction between these three unpleasant characters what makes the film. The three are an unsuccessful car dealer his wife and a robber/rapist/murderer. The films improv style acting and unreal sequences serve to give an intensively unpleasant atmosphere as the characters are revealed and their lives decay. Cohen has produced an underground masterpiece and while it defies comparison there are similarities to Apocalypse Now or Crash. It is a crime that this film is not better known and this is probably only because the majority of viewers will hate it.