stevenfallonnyc It's great to watch a film you remember as a kid, but haven't seen in a long time. "Report to the Commissioner" is one of those films I remember liking a real lot, and I just watched it for the first time in forty years. Funny how time makes you remember some things incorrectly - for instance, somehow I remembered Yaphet Kotto being in the elevator with Michael Moriarty, not "Stick" the heroin dealer played by Tony King. (The elevator scenes are nothing short of spectacular.)"Report to the Commissioner" starts off a little slow and hap-hazard, but really picks up after a short while, mainly due to Moriarty's fine acting (although everyone else in the cast also does a great job). He's a tortured soul who really doesn't want to be a cop, and who gets into some serious trouble. Moriarty puts on one of his best performances.Yaphet Kotto is great in anything he's in, and Susan Blakely was easily one of the most beautiful actresses of the seventies. Other familiar faces are all over as the drama builds to a harrowing final half hour.Another thing I didn't remember was the ending, which hits hard, and kind of makes sense when you think about it. There's also a wild foot chase through the rooftops and streets on Times Square (love the crowds watching the filming).The seventies was such a fantastic time for films - no political correct nonsense, just real street elbow grease film making, with actors and actresses who didn't mind getting their feet dirty (in Tony King's case, literally). "Report to the Commissioner" is a good viewing.

Wizard-8 While "Report to the Commissioner" isn't a perfect movie, there is always a kernel of interest to keep viewers interested enough to watch to the very end. The first half I will admit is weaker than the second half - actor Michael Moriarty seems too wimpish and naive to be a police officer, and the plot moves along very slowly. But even during this weaker first half, the movie offers a fascinating slice of life of what New York City was like in the early 1970s; you can really feel the grit and atmosphere. Patient viewers will be rewarded with a lively second half. There are a couple of well directed pursuit sequences, and the whole elevator sequence is quite riveting. And the ending, while somewhat predictable, does pack a punch. Fans of cynical 1970s cop movies will enjoy this best, though it's also rewarding to others, provided they possess a reasonable amount of patience.

Donald Buehler A romp thru the 70's. One of my best buddies introduced this 70's detective flick to me - and I really enjoyed it. Not knowing who was in it beyond Michael Moriarity and Yaphet Kotto, it was fun naming the future stars of both the little and big screen in this film. HInt: there are at least 5, not including Moriarity and Kotto.The story line is fairly predictable including the "shocking" ending, but there are some great scenes: crippled beggar hitching a ride on a taxi in Times Square (can you say Michael J Fox in Back to The Future?); face to face "mexican standoff" in an small elevator (Reservoir Dogs redux - without all the F words); roof top chase on foot - except in this case a slow limping white boy catches the slim athletic black guy (not gonna happen) - reminiscent of free running opening scene in Casino Royale.And finally in the predictable "hang the cop out to dry" scene Michael Moriarity implicates himself far better than any interrogator ever could! Pretty hilarious!But, all in all, an enjoyable experience. The more I think about it, this was a ground-breaking movie that predates some of the classics we all love - and introduced some great future stars. So let's give some credit to this 70's epic. DonB

sol1218 ****SPOILERS*** there's sleazy goings on in the the NYPD in "Report to the Commissioner" with policewoman Patty Butler, Susan Blakley, ending up dead with a bullet in her chest during a wild and deadly shoot-out in her boyfriends drug dealer Thomas "Stick" Henderson, Tony King, loft apartment. It turns out that Officer Butler's killer in non other the NYPD Det. Beaueguard, known as just plain Bo to his friends, Lockery ,Michael Moriarty. Unknown to Officer Butler Det. Lockery was given the task to track her, known to Det. Lockery only as Chicklet, down to protect her undercover status by being told that she's a teenage runaway from the suburbs.Det. Bo Lockery a complete dud as a cop is only on the force because of the early 1970's NYC police youth recruitment drive to get the young people of the city to have something in common with the men in blue as well as Bo's dad being a former and very highly decorated New York City policeman. We soon get to see in a number of flashbacks about this whole crazy and murderous mess and how Det. Lockery mindlessly got himself into it.The events that lead up to the shooting of policewoman Bulter started with Officer Butler herself volunteering to become Stick's women, or live in wife, so she could win over his confidence. This action was done on Butler's part in order to get the goods on Stick as the city's top drug pusher and with that have him put away, and off the streets, for a long long time. It has to be said that at first Butler's boss Let. Hanson, Michael McGuire, wasn't all that crazy for one of his cops, and a woman at that, being shacked up with the dangerous "Stick" Henderson. Still with Offcer Butlers constant insistence, and her record of 283 felony arrests the year before, how could he refuse!To give Officer Butler some kind of cover the NYPD has the totally incompetent Det. Bo Lockery put on her tail without even giving him a photo of Butler or even her name. Det. Lockery miraculously finds her with the help of the legless, and mentally unstable, street panhandler Joey, Bob Balaban, and street wise pimp Billy, Richard Gere! This to the shock and disgust of Det. Lockery's boss back at the police precinct Let. Sedensticker, Vic Taybeck. Lockery tracking Butler in effect blows the whole Henderson/Stick sting operation as well as ends up blowing a hole in Officer Butler's chest killing her.Det. Lockery himself is a piece of work being totally unqualified to be a cop, much less detective. Det. Lockery is also a pain in the a** to his partner the tough and street smart Det. Richard "Crunch" Blackstone,Yaphet Kotto. Det.Blackstone gets so unnerved and discombobulated, especially with Bo's annoyingly syrupy and insipid sing-song voice, in his having to put up with his schmuck of a partner annoying as well as bird brain antics that by the end of the movie he almost ends up drinking himself into a drunken stupor! Finding out just who this Chicklet, really Offcer Butler, is Det. Lockery, like Travis Bickel a year later in the movie "Taxi Driver", becomes absolutely infatuated with her in trying to get Chicklet away from her pimp lover who in reality she's planning to bust. In Lockery trying to set up and bust Stick himself he sneaks into Officer Butler and Stick's loft not knowing exactly what officer Butler, or Chicklet, is supposed to be doing there! With Det. Lockery seeing Chicklet, who's white, romping around practically nude with Stick, who's black, in his boxer shorts was just about all the abuse that he could take which soon leads to the bloody shoot-out that cost Chicklet's or Offic Butler's life.After a chase through the crowded streets of mid-town Manhattan and shootout in the elevator of Saks 5th avenue department store Stick, who was trapped in the elevator with Bo, ends up getting blown away by the NYPD. The police department, in covering it's behind, tries to pin all the blame on the clueless Det. Lockery in Officer Butlers death but has so effectively incriminated itself in being behind Officer Butlers ridicules plan that the NYPD later decided to drop the whole thing. The NYPD gives Det. Lockery another chance as a New York City policeman only to have the now emotionally crippled cop, who didn't know that he was about to be freed, put an end to it all by hanging himself in his prison cell.A sad commentary on how people totally unqualified end up wearing badges and carrying guns because of misguided policies by police departments all over the country. In them trying to be either politically correct or bending the rules and pulling strings in order to get relatives, in this case a son,into the department. All this because someone in their family was once, or still is, a police officer. Bo Lockely was about as qualified to be a cop, much less detective, as 98 pound weakling Woody Allan was qualified, back then in 1975, to fight Muhammad Ali or George Foreman for the Heavyweight Championship of the world. In Lockerys case the unconceivable, him being a policeman, became a sad reality and that reality not only lead to Officer Butler's death but his own as well.