disdressed12 this is one movie i can't say i liked or disliked.it was all story,not much anything else,which isn't necessarily bad.it was mostly as slow as molasses flowing uphill in January,yet just interesting enough to keep watching.it was also pretty glum,in my opinion.of course the typical stereotypes of the era are here in full force.not a horrible movie by any standard,but not great by any standard either.it's one of those movies where i could take it or leave it.after it ended,i was pretty much indifferent o the whole thing.it wouldn't matter to me whether i saw it again or not.but maybe i'm being too hard on it.maybe it is what it was supposed to be,a simple crime drama.anyway,for me,The laughing Policeman is a 5/10

dougdoepke Moderately interesting cop drama that relies heavily on San Francisco street scene of the 1970's. Hari-Krishna's, Hell's Angels, hookers, gays and angry Blacks are all part of the unconventional mix, as Matthau and partner Dern track down killer who's mowed down a bus full of passengers for no apparent reason. I gather the unusual title amounts to an ironic comment on the dour Matthau who can't spit out his gum long enough to crack a smile. Good thing for the Frisco locations and succession of characters because the plot may require the proverbial rocket science to unravel. But that's okay since you never know what's coming next, including a SWAT shootout that turns out to be irrelevant to the case. And since it's the hilly city by the bay, there's the usual bumpy car chase. Dern turns in an offbeat performance that relies on a toothy grin and sarcastic manner, along with a sweet-smiling Paul Koslo who takes his usual coy turn, this time as a jail-house song bird. In what has since become a cop show cliché, Matthau's character is shown as estranged from family and friends because of job pressures. Thus his furious gum-chewing is likely more than an affectation, suggesting something of a safety valve for those pressures.Outside of the locations and characters and echoes of The French Connection, I don't know if there's much else to recommend here, unless you're interested in how a city mops up after a mass blood-letting.

trudylyn Police procedurals have always been a staple of fiction, film and TV in the US and Europe. There are many stand outs in the genre and this isn't one of them. Having said that, I will say that this movie is full of surprises and interesting directing and cinematography. The technical assistance provided by the San Francisco police department seems to have been tremendous, particularly in the scenes demonstrating evidence collection and the then-unfamiliar SWAT team. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of the stunts and extra work were performed by serving officers. The original novel took place in Sweden and only two items in the film reference that origin, one submachine gun and one Volvo. The title refers to an antique novelty record that has a bit part in the novel but doesn't appear anywhere in the movie, unless it was included in the Muzak that Matthau's detective seems addicted to throughout the movie. Predating Kojak by a few months, Matthau's character is chewing gum and sucking on suckers throughout the movie in an attempt to keep from smoking. He almost gives in at one point, but tosses the pack back on the table in the den. This movie is significant in that it features sex throughout. Prostitutes, live nude performers, gay go-go boys, rough trade and cross-dressers and a token lesbian in knee-length clown socks and sandals who works as a nurse and lost her partner to the crime, just as Matthau's partner died. His dead partner also used his girlfriend to enact murderous bondage scenes which he photographed as part of his crime fetish. Matthau's character apparently has a sexless marriage while his daughter is wandering around braless in thin sweaters and his son is hanging around with the sticky raincoat crowd in a nudie "burlesque" theater. One of the victims in the film is found dead in her apartment sans clothing and Dern's character trips and almost does a push up off her body, her face just inches from his. Matthau's character wanders through it all, chewing gum and viewing it all almost impassively, with only a few moments of verbal indignation and frustration. The scenery is magnificent and cars alone are worth the price of admission. The fashions are irritating, as they were at the time and it is simply amazing how few people use seat belts. The plot is thin, and the denouement is silly, but in the end you could do worse for a couple of hours.

sol (Some Spoilers) Parking his car just before the #14 bus reached the bus stop the killer calmly walks in takes a seat and assembles his semi-automatic "grease gun". Then without saying a word opens fire on the passengers and bus driver killing all but one of them, an elderly survivor later died at the hospital, on the spot as the bus crashed into a small Chinatown park. On the scene of the massacre is SFPD Let. Jake Martin, Walter Matthau, who after inspecting the victims of the "Death Bus" is shocked to find that one of them is Det. Dave Evens, Anthony Costello, is his partner! What was Evens doing on that bus? Going to see his live-in girlfriend Kay Butler, Cathy Lee Crosby, Let. Martin finds that Evens who was out sick for the entire week. Telling her that he was on the Teresa Camerero case a case that was adjudicated almost two years ago? Teresa was murdered and her husband Henry, Albert Paulsen, who was tried for her murder but was found innocent in a court of law. What's even more ironic is that the star witness who got Henry off with the alibi that he was with him at the time of Teresa's murder was Gus Niles, Louis Guss! Who just happened to be one of those who were killed like Evens on bus #14! Let. Martin and his new partner SFPD inspector Leo Larsen, Bruce Dern, are put on the "Death Bus" case and they painstakingly tie the Teresa Camerero murder to it. Not only that but that Det. Evens had a very personal relationship with Teresa and was on his own, without the go ahead from his police superiors, out to solve her murder and it was that very reason that lead to his death.Slow moving but effective police/crime/drama with Let. Martin and Inspector Larsen as the oddest of odd partners with Martin not saying a word unless he absolutely has to. and Larsen never keeping his mouth shut for even a second. Going through the sleazy sex parlors and seedy bars nightclubs of San Francisco the two track down the killer but are unable to arrest him until he breaks the law again. It turned that the killer was acting in concert with Niles to get Evens on the bus in order to murder him. We even see Niles acknowledged the killer as he entered the bus. What did happen was that Niles was double-crossed by the killer as he opened fire on everyone on board including him. Thus having Niles not around to finger him in case he later wanted to make a deal with the police in order to save his neck from ending up in the San Quinten gas chamber. The ending of "The Laughing Policeman" is a bit overdone with a totally unnecessary car chase sequence as well as a repeat of the bus massacre that began the film. But this time around it was the killer, not the innocent passengers and bus driver, who got massacred.