HICKEY AND BOGGS

US, 1972, 111 minutes, Colour.
Robert Culp, Bill Cosby, Ta -Ronce Allen, Rosalind Cash.
Directed by Robert Culp.

Hickey and Boggs features the combined talents of Bill Cosby and Robert Culp. They had worked together in the very successful television series I Spy. This time they are two detectives and the film echoes the style of the private eye genre of the forties, fifties and sixties. The atmosphere is that of murder mystery and investigation - with a touch of violence. The two stars work easily together and the film itself was directed by Robert Culp. It is probably a better than average private eye murder mystery but it did not do so well at the box office. Interesting entertainment.

1. The appeal of the Private Eye film? In terms of plott the personality of the detective, audience involvement, mystery, action? A particular genre in the American thriller?

2. The tradition of private eye films: Humphrey Bogart and the forties, Paul Newman and others in the sixties, the styles of the seventies? The loner, the pairs? The emphasis of the title?

3. The blending styles of Bill Cosby and Robert Culp? Black and white, two types? Comic styles, serious styles? How well did they blend and work together?

4. The seedy world that was presented, the types within that world, the private detective and his function, the jobs that came up, the dreary and dismal type of work? The non-heroic attitude of the detectives? Was it possible to identity with? The film showed a transition from down and out approach to work to a kind of heroic glamour. Was this credible? Did it have some point - when a challenge in offered to the down and out detectives?

5. The characters of Hickey and Bogge - how well were they delineated? Hickey's personal style, his alienation from his wife? Boggs and his self-doubt, worries about homosexuality? What was the bond between the two men? Their own individual styles, with the parking meters? Honesty of approach? Their not using their guns until challenged etc.?

6. Interest in the basic plot: large robberyt a death list? The personalities of Rice and the representation of Black Power? the syndicates? Murders, threatst an ugly world of violence?

7. Police intervention, the detectives' relationship with the police, suspicion, collaboration?

8. The significance of Mary Jane in the plot, her relationship to Quemando? His directing operations in gaol? Mary Jane and her challenge to the syndicates? Danger? The stadium sequence?

9. The contrast with Hickey's wife, the children, the ordinary homes? How did these sequences counterpoint the thriller and action sequences?

10. The impact of the sequence in the stadium, cinematic style, melodramatics?

11. The significance of Nyona, Nyona’s death? Emotional impact for Hickey? A triggering off point for their being galvanized into action?

12. The build-up to the beach sequence, the role of Quemando, the violence and elaborate nature of the battle? To what purpose? The irony of Hickey and Boggs the survivors? What was this meant to highlight?

13. The emphasis of the seventies on vigilante justice, detection, law and order, ugly society, justice, survival?

14. Critics praised this film. Did it merit it?