Poseidon-3 The complex, yet banal, inner workings of a Boston police department are depicted in this serio-comic film featuring a style that, at times seems similar to that of Robert Altman. Reynolds plays a detective who's going undercover as a bum in order to flesh out attackers who are going around setting homeless drunks on fire. Welch arrives at the precinct as a decoy intended to draw out a serial rapist. As if there isn't enough crime and depravity taking place, a mysterious caller announces that he wants monetary payment or he will kill a city official! When that whole scheme goes awry, the caller increases his demands and moves up the food chain to another official. Detectives Reynolds, Westin, Skeritt , Welch, Inhat and McEachin all take part in various plans to eke out the mastermind before he can carry out his plot. Meanwhile, the office is being repainted by wisecracking oddballs Conforti and Hiken. The various story threads eventually come together in a deliberately coincidental climax. In what is really an ensemble film, Reynolds is low-key and entertaining, his patented smirky humor in place, but tempered by some tender and serious moments. Weston, a vastly underrated actor who excelled at playing nervous and put-upon types, is excellent throughout the film. Skerritt enjoys the playful aspects of his part which include getting stuck in a sleeping bag with Welch (worse things could happen to an actor!) Welch is clearly trying to project something beyond the typical sexpot image she had at the time, something not helped by the exploitive and inaccurate poster (which also promises more than Reynolds is permitted to deliver, though he does have a prominently staged shirtless scene.) Welch and Reynolds, having clashed during "100 Rifles" do not share any scenes to speak of here. Brynner appears as a wealthy, hard-of-hearing man. So bleak, natural and believable are the precinct scenes that when Brynner appears in his more glamorous surroundings, it almost feels cut in from another film (in look and tone, actually!) A mother lode of familiar character actors play various cops, crooks and witnesses. Reynolds, who always had a strong tendency to work with friends and former associates, had worked with Weston on TV years before. He also utilized his then-girlfriend Shore to sing the end credits number. The performers speak in mostly understated tones, over one another and frequently in the middle of activity, increasing the verisimilitude of the piece. The humor is mostly laid back and subtle, but the characters become rather endearing and amusing. This being 1972, political correctness is not always at the forefront! It's not a film that's for everyone, but for fans of the stars and of absurd situational humor, it does have its rewards.

udar55 This is billed as a Burt Reynold's vehicle but he is actually part of a great cast in this Ed McBain 87th Precinct comedy-thriller. The police in Boston are searching for an extortionist dubbed "The Deaf Man" who is demanding cash or he kills a high ranking city official. Reynolds along with Tom Skeritt and Jack Weston are the cops on the case. The film really has a great ensemble feel and, I hope, accurately predicts the goings on inside a police station. Raquel Welch co-stars as a female detective out to snag a rapist. Yul Brynner, who must have been having lots of fun at this point in his career, is "The Deaf Man." His screen time is minimal but he does a good job. Familiar faces pop up in nearly every other scene with guys like Charles Tyner, Albert Popwell, Tamara Dobson and a very young Charles Martin Smith in small roles. The film's only major problem is that it neatly wraps up everything in the end. Seriously, every crime the cops are investigating is solved in one scene that relies heavily on convenience.

ianlouisiana I thought this was pretty damned neat in 1972.Of course we had yet to be drowned in a morass of Wambaugh clones and a surfeit of Harry Callahan wannabes,and wisecracking cops in grubby squadrooms being re - decorated were relatively thin on the ground.It is unfortunate that films like "Fuzz" when they are considered at all are only seen through eyes that have seen a hundred similar films since and,probably unconsciously,critically assessed to a certain extent within a frame of reference that didn't exist when they were made.I doubt if Nietszche was referring to movies when he said "Life must be lived forwards but can only be understood backwards",but it certainly applies to commenting on "Fuzz". Based on the first "Deaf Man" episode in the 87th precinct stories,it featured Mr Burt Reynolds as Det Steve Carella and Mr.Tom Skerritt as Det Burt(correct spelling) Kling. I always thought the 87th precinct was supposed to be in New York,but the film is set in Boston,later to be very familiar to admirers of Mr Robert B.Parker's estimable Private Detective Spenser. I have never been in a police station in America,but if in 1972 they were not similar to the one in "Fuzz",then they should have been . Far more exciting than our more prosaic Victorian ones in London with their echoes of "The Blue Lamp" and "It always rains on Sundays". I worked in them for 30 years and was always expecting Sidney Tafler or John Slater to be brought in protesting their innocence. I couldn't imagine Burt or Tom exchanging one-liners in the charge room in Walthamstow nick for example,or chasing a milk-bottle thief down Priory Court. Our cells weren't full of whores,pimps,second storey men,hustlers and Murphy artists(whatever they are).We had good old English flashers,blaggers and tealeaves."Fuzz" made The Life in America seem so much more exciting.Mr Yul Brynner takes his foot off the subtlety pedal as the deaf man. It is a pleasingly silly characterisation that sets the tone for most of the film.For Ed McBain readers many of the favourites like Lt Byrnes,Det Brown and Andy Parker will be familiar figures,if not perhaps quite as they imagined them. "Fuzz" and the films that followed it cleared the way for "Hill St Blues" and "N.Y.P.D. Blue",that should not be forgotten.It is not a great film,or even a very good film,but it is far better than its reputation would suggest.

moonspinner55 Burt Reynolds is so laid-back in this picture I thought he might fall over. He, Jack Weston and Tom Skerritt are cops at the Boston Precinct trying to stop a serial killer from blowing up more politicians, Yul Brynner is the bad guy who knows just what clueless cops these guys are, and Raquel Welch is the new badge in the building (the guys humiliate her for awhile, but she's tough and proves her merit). This is a routine cop comedy with dramatic and sometimes violent overtones, not unlike "MASH" (which it attempts to emulate in its cynicism). It was moderately popular in theaters in 1972 mainly because Burt Reynolds had just posed for Cosmo magazine and the ads and the movie one-sheet played that up. I liked Welch's scenes defending herself in the office (where she's been unceremoniously dumped at a desk) and the climactic moments are well done. The end vocal by Dinah Shore is a wonderful bit (Burt was dating her at the time). But that very last shot is perplexing: there's no explanation for it, and I'm sure it left audiences baffled. It's an artistic shot, done with humor, but considering what happens before it, it makes no logical sense. **1/2 from ****