Warner Archive proves that it respects the Silver Age of Hollywood as much as the earlier Golden Age regarding the August 8, 2017 Blu-ray release of the 1974 copcom "Freebie and the Bean." This one has James Caan as the ambitious rule-bending San Francisco police detective Freebie and Alan Arkin as his more sedate Mexican-born partner Bean.
The big picture (once again, no pun intended) this time is that "Freebie" is a perfect example of the gritty smash-em-up '70s police television and film dramas with heavy doses of humor. Indirect acknowledgement of this comes in a scene in which Bean compares Freebie to bigot Archie Bunker of the game-changing '70s sitcom "All in the Family."
"Freebie" further demonstrates a 70s-style candidness regarding homosexuality as to a clearly gay character. Our heroes interrogate a boy who likes other boys while he is taking a bubble bath but do not mistreat him any more than any other lowlife who crosses their path.
The following YouTube clip of the Archive promo. for "Freebie" aptly features one of the car chases for which the film is known.
The standard formula this time is that the compulsive determination of our partners to bring down crime boss Red Meyers leads to them arresting him on a massively trumped up charge. This leads to a bargain in which the powers-that-be agree to hold and prosecute Meyers for his actual offenses if our titular detectives can keep him alive despite a contract on his life until the police can track down the known witness who can provide a figurative smoking gun regarding their nemesis.
Serving as bodyguards and otherwise fulfilling their obligation to protect and to serve provides our boys in plainclothes plenty of opportunities for car chases with copious fatalities of the finest from Detroit. The best one has our boys crashing in on homeowners; the most wonderfully cynical chase ends with a truckload of Scotch tipping over and the upstanding citizens of San Francisco rushing to grab that cargo.
Of course, there are the obligatory gun fights. The most creative of these occurs between two glass elevators as they descend several floors.
The '70sliciousness of "Freebie" extends to featuring two leading ladies of the small screen of the era. Loretta Swit of "M*A*S*H" plays the wife of Myers, and Valerie Harper of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and the spin-off "Rhoda" is Mrs. Bean. Harper shines in a scene in which she offers a series of absurd excuses when confronted with evidence of infidelity; this is akin to a real-life case of a hotel bellman claiming to need to attend Saturday-night funerals of his grandmother on at least three occasions.
"Freebie" continues following the successful formula of its genre right to the end; the climax centers around a large event and involves copious amounts of flying bullets and Buicks. It additionally includes many more twists and genuine surprises than its brethren. The PERFECT conclusion to all this mayhem provides an spectacular payoff.
The epilogue to this '70s police tale is that they don't make 'em like that anymore and that Archive deserves a citation from the chief for making 'em available,
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Freebie" is strongly encouraged to email me; you also can connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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