Brannigan

John Wayne did two non-Western movies before he died. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. The first was McQ, in 1974, where the Duke played a hard-ass San Francisco detective. The second was Brannigan, in 1975, where he played hard-ass Chicago cop Jim Brannigan. During the mid '70s, I'm guessing that John Wayne was feeling the pressure to capitalize off of the gritty crime genre that was gradually reforming at the time (think of such movies as The French Connection or Serpico)—not to mention staying on par with Clint Eastwood, his main competition as a Western actor, who successfully transitioned from Western action hero to the hardened detective role with Dirty Harry. So against this backdrop, the Duke dropped his spurs and made McQ and Brannigan. Between the two, I like Brannigan better—and as a lifelong fan of John Wayne, maybe I'm more willing than others to accept the Duke's attempt at a hardened detective role.

Like Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, John Wayne always makes a spectacular entrance to his films. Here in Brannigan, he kicks a door clear off its hinges with just one foot. And after walking smoothly through the doorway, he sarcastically utters, "Knock, knock." But within 10 minutes, Brannigan is shaking the dust of Chicago off his feet and is on a plane to London, complete with extradition papers for Ben Larkin, a known gangster that Brannigan's been hotly pursuing for some time, and played by the ever-great John Vernon. Naturally, Brannigan is the quintessential fish out of water, having to meld his play-by-his-own-rules persona with the laws of Britain. As you can imagine, it's oil and water right from the get-go—especially since, under British law, carrying a firearm is illegal, even if you're a policeman.

Paired with a Scotland Yard Commander named Swann, played by none other than Richard Attenborough, Brannigan figures it'll be an easy task to bring Larkin home; standard procedure, really. What isn't standard procedure is that on the day Brannigan arrives in London, Larkin is kidnapped from his gentleman's club and held for ransom. And in the background, Brannigan is under the watchful eye of Gorman, by one of Larkin's hitmen who drives around in a swanky MG. Brannigan survives some pretty clever attempts on his life, like a shotgun trigger specially rigged to the door of his bathroom, so that it goes off as soon as someone opens the door. Plus, a bomb on the toilet a la Lethal Weapon 2 (though technically this came first).

There's quite a long sequence where the ransom drop is made, which is quite eye-catching, as it features some intriguing surveillance details (even though the Duke does very little during these scenes). And you know it wouldn't be a John Wayne movie without a bar fight. Even though Brannigan and Swann were there to pick up a suspect, the fight technically started over spilled Guinness—which, in my book, is reason enough for a fight! As usual, the Duke can lay out a man with a single punch, and not once does his toupee come loose. Though in keeping with the generally-accepted cop movie, there was the requisite car chase through the streets of London, complete with a bridge-jumping scene. Don't get me wrong, the chase was quite enjoyable, but it wasn't quite on par with The French Connection or Ronin.

It's really hard to say whether Brannigan is a serious crime drama or a comedy, because it features a great mix between the two. The comedy comes from the Duke's own general style, i.e., his kicking down the door at the beginning, or his overall condescension to anything that requires him to be proper. And let's not forget the dialogue, as the Duke naturally utters the film's best lines. My favorite is when he bursts in on Larkin at the end of the film, after the quote-unquote final delivery of the ransom has been made, and John Wayne utters his trademark line, "I wouldn't!" Followed up by, ". . . unless you want to sing soprano!" Yet the most ironic and humorous segment of the film didn't even belong to Wayne! It belonged to Judy Geeson for playing a young Scotland Yard detective named Thatcher—four years before a certain namesake took office.

But for all this light-heartedness, Larkin's kidnapping is very serious, as are the many attempts on Brannigan's life by Gorman. In its seriousness, I can't help but wonder if this was an attempt by Wayne to live up to the standard set by The French Connection (not to mention compete with Dirty Harry), but even if it was, I don't think any less of Brannigan. Others may decry it for not being a Western, a genre that the Duke practically owned by that point, but I find it fascinating to see an actor like John Wayne step out of his standard role and take a crack at a different genre. Again, I'm a lifelong John Wayne fan, so I may be more willing than others to accept Brannigan into the Duke's filmography.

That being said, I give Brannigan a 7.5 out of 10.