Mad Dog and Glory

Ben Mankiewicz sat down with Bill Murray several nights back to present two of Murray's films. Since I was in college in the early 1990s, I have to admit that there are a bunch of smaller films from that era that I don't know so much about. An example of this is one of the films that TCM showed that night, Mad Dog and Glory. But since it sounded interesting, I recorded it and eventually got around to watching it in order to be able to do the blog post about it.

Interestingly enough, Bill Murray is neither glorious nor a mad dog in this one. Instead, the "Mad Dog" character is played by Robert De Niro and is a Chicago police officer named Wayne "Mad Dog" Dobie. The movie begins with a drug deal that goes bad, or perhaps doesn't quite go so much bad as one of the dealers is intending to murder both the guy presumably ferrying the drug money as well as his own partner in crime, leaving both of the bodies in the car to dispose of them. Mad Dog and his partner Mike (David Caruso) investigate and, as Mad Dog goes into a convenience store to pick up some snacks for a fellow cop back in the precinct, sees that the cashier has a gun on him, from a guy who would fit the description of the killer.

Now, this is also where Bill Murray's character comes in. Bill plays Frank Milo, who happens to be one of those behind the scenes gangsters who never gets his own hands dirty, but just happens to be at the convenience store when it's getting robbed and when Mad Dog shows up. Mad Dog's quick thinking saves the day. Frank, to thank Mad Dog, has one of his underlings meet Mad Dog at a cafe and give Mad Dog tickets to, of all things, a comedy club. Here, we learn that Frank has dreams of doing the stand-up comedy thing and, since he owns the club anyhow, is able to indulge his own fantasies by doing shows at the club. Who's going to stop him?

When Mad Dog shows up, he gets a cup of coffee from one of the hostesses, a young woman named Glory (Uma Thurman). A mishap occurs in which Glory accidentally spills hot coffee on Mad Dog's hand. Mad Dog really only has first-degree burns, but this is lousy customer service, and something that Frank just doesn't want to see happen. Since Glory is one of Frank's employees, Frank gives her another job to do, which is to show up at Mad Dog's apartment and basically give him anything he wants short of non-consensual sex for one week. (Mad Dog, not being married, doesn't have to worry about having a relationship with a strange girl.) Glory doesn't have much choice in the matter, as it's not just a case of her keeping her job. In fact, she's got a brother who owed a debt to Frank and the Mob, and Glory is in service to Frank as a way of paying off that debt. Of course, as things stand, Glory is never really going to be able to repay that debt.

Things get complicated when something that is to be expected by the viewer happens: Mad Dog begins to fall for Glory, even though he's supposed to give her up at the end of the week. And Frank certainly wants Glory back after the week is up. The fact that Mad Dog is getting favors from somebody known to be involved in organized crime doesn't help either. (Oddly enough, Frank ingratiates himself to Mad Dog's fellow detectives by doing impromptu stand-up in the precinct house.) Frank and Mad Dog both want Glory, leading to the climactic conflict.

Having watched Mad Dog and Glory, I can see how it had slipped under my radar and isn't well-remembered today. It's not exactly a bad movie by any means, but it feels like one of those formulaic cop comedies from the era. Everybody does well enough, but Mad Dog and Glory isn't the most memorable movie. If you've got a rainy day to fill, Mad Dog and Glory will certainly fit the bill and be entertaining enough. But is it a truly great movie? Not particularly. The leads have all done better work, I think.