Madigan | 1968
Quick quiz: What does Madigan have in common with 1950 British film The Blue Lamp? (answer at end of page)
Three years before Don Siegel gave us full-on Dirty Harry, he directed Not-So-Clean-Dan Madigan. The setting this time is New York (though some locations are the Universal backlot, and Richard Widmark is the tough cop earning the disapproval of Police Commissioner Russell (Henry Fonda).
The film follows three days as Madigan and his partner Rocco Bonara (Harry Guardino) track down the ruthless Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat) who's managed to make off with Madigan's gun.
It starts off with the two detectives arriving on Park Avenue at 98th Street, Carnegie Hill, alongside the subway line. Benesch's place is on Park Avenue – this far north, that's not quite as swanky as it sounds.
After grabbing Madigan's gun, Benesch leaves the 'tecs on the roof, locked out, while he gets away.
Making one of those rooftop leaps beloved by action directors, Madigan makes it to an adjoining building, exiting from 107 East 98th Street and giving chase across the now-gone footbridge that used to span the rail lines here.
The '23rd Street Precinct' out of which Madigan and Bonaro work was 177 East 104th Street, at 3rd Avenue up toward East Harlem. In fact, this used to be the 28th Street Precinct Station, and was seen again the same year in Siegel's Coogan's Bluff. The building is still recognisable but it's now Hope Community Hall.
The smart apartment of Commissioner Russell with its terrace, introduced with that aerial shot, is 300 East 57th Street, at 2nd Avenue, Midtown East.
Russell's HQ was the old New York City Police Headquarters, at 240 Centre Street, which is now luxury accommodation called Police Building Apartments. That porte-cochere entrance into which Russell drives has now been enclosed to become part of an apartment.
One of the running themes of the film is the secrets and deceptions of all the characters, even the strict by-the-book Commissioner. He furtively meets up with his married lover during a function held at the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.
After they get a tip that "Midget" Castiglione (Michael Dunn – the only actor of restricted height so far to be nominated for an Oscar, as Best Supporting Actor, in Stanley Kramer's 1965 Ship Of Fools) may know something about the whereabouts of Benesch, Madigan and Bonaro meet up with him on Steeplechase Pier on the Boardwalk between West 16th and West 19th Streets at Coney Island, still unchanged, and seen more recently in Darren Aronofsky's 2000 Requiem For a Dream.
After all the real location filming, the wide, clear streets surrounding 'McGinty's' bar, where a possible lead turns out to be a wild goose chase, stands out as the Universal backlot, though it's soon back to the real Manhattan when Castiglione has come up with info for them.
They meet him at the luncheonette which once stood on the corner of Broadway and 103rd Street by the 103rd Street subway exit in Manhattan Valley, where Castiglione tells them about Hughie (Don Stroud), a sometime driver for Benesch who they can find in the old Edison Theatre movie house a few doors away, at 2700 Broadway. The luncheonette is now part of CityMD urgent care, and the cinema, which later became the Columbia, has since been replaced with a modern office block.
Madigan's pursuit of Benesch threatens to be interrupted by his wife's insistence that they attend the prestigious 'Captains' Association Dance', held at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, 781 Fifth Avenue opposite Central Park in Midtown East. Single-minded, he callously palms her off and returns to duty. You can see the hotel again in 1982's Tootsie with Dustin Hoffman and in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan.
It's briefly back to the evenly-lit Universal backlot for the nighttime scene where Benesch shoots a couple of cops, using Madigan's gun, which really ups the stakes.
Hughie delivers the goods, revealing that Benesch is hiding out up in Harlem. The red brick housing project briefly seen is the George Washington Carver Houses, between East 99th and East 106th Streets in Spanish Harlem, but once they begin to close in on the 'East River Hotel' where Benesch is holed up, we're suddenly in Los Angeles but not the studio backlot.
Siegel was unhappy with the bland New York location that had been picked out for him and instead chose this rundown area of warehouses in Downtown LA. Look at the skyscraper in the background. That's actually a matte painting by the great FX expert Albert Whitlock, masking a recognisable view of Los Angeles.
And the link with The Blue Lamp? In both these films, the main cop is gunned down and dies only to come back to life for a spin-off TV series to be played by the same actor, Richard Widmark in the short-lived Madigan series and Jack Warner in the long-running Dixon of Dock Green.
