"Homicide: Life on the Street," "Barney Miller" and many other TV shows and movies owe their look and feel
to
DETECTIVE STORY. Based play, this is a gritty and well-acted film spans one day in a police
station in which we meet a variety of good buys and bad guys. There's a batty old lady; a petty embezzler and his adoring
girlfriend; a pair of slightly comical but ultimately lethal burglars;
and a charmingly naïve shoplifter played by Lee Grant who, along with
one of the burglars, Joseph Wiseman, had been in the Broadway cast - and
the title character, a hard-nosed, by-the-book detective named Jim
McLeod (Kirk Douglas). McLeod has no mercy for lawbreakers and
discovers, ironically, that his obsessive pursuit of an abortionist
leads him to personal crisis. Great cast, great writing, directed by the
great William Wyler - and though dated, repeatedly watchable.
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