The Gauntlet

Another of the movies that's been sitting on my DVR for a while that I decided to watch is The Gauntlet.

Clint Eastwood stars as Ben Shockley. During the opening credits, a car is driving through the streets of downtown Phoenix early enough that although the sun is up, there's no traffic on the road. Parking near police headquarters and getting out is police detective Shockley, who drops his bottle of booze getting out of the car, which is a sign that Ben is an alcoholic. Ben runs into his friend and former detective partner Maynard Josephson (Pat Hingle), who warns Ben that Commissioner Blakelock (William Prince), who wants to see Ben, would like to see someone who's polite and polished, things that Ben clearly isn't.

Commissioner Blakelock has a special assignment for Ben. Apparently, there's a trial to be held in Phoenix, Arizona v. Deluca, and one of the witnesses, Gus Mally, is in Vegas. So the Arizona authorities need somebody to go to Vegas and pick up Mally, who is fortunately in the county jail awaiting extradition to Phoenix. Since this isn't much of a job and Shockley is supposedly not much of a cop, he can be spared the day or so it's going to take. Shockley flies to Vegas and asks the duty officer at the jail if they have a man named Gus Mally ready for extradition to Arizona. They don't: the reason is that Gus is actually Augustina Mally (Sondra Locke), making her a woman. She's also one who obviously doesn't want to go to Phoenix.

We fairly quickly learn that it's with good reason she doesn't want to be extradited. Because she's tried to make herself sick, an ambulance takes her to the car that Shockey is going to take her to the airport with. But when they get to the transfer point, the ambluance driver starts the car only to reveal it's been booby-trapped with a car bomb! And somebody from the Mob is following them as they try to get away in the ambulance. They take the ambulance to Gus' house just outside of Vegas, and Shockley calls Blakelock to get the Vegas police to send a car so they can get to the airport. Instead, the Vegas police send an entire divison of man who shoot up the house!

Gus has various reasons for why the Mob would be after her, but it seems the police want her dead too, and Shockley has no idea why, in part because Gus, who doesn't want to testify, still doesn't trust him. But whoever is after Gus seems to be after Shockley too. Gus, not being stupid, has a feeling that perhaps it might have been Blakelock himself who tipped off the Vegas police as to her and Shockley's whereabouts. Shockley doesn't seem to be able to put two and two together, at least not until they reach the Nevada/Arizona border and find the Arizona cops sent by Blakelock seem to have been sent there to kill him. Still, having escaped yet again, Shockley is compelled to get Gus to Phoenix, in part because he wants to show the world Blakelock's corruption, and in part because the Mob is wagering on whether Gus will make it to Phoenix to testify.

The Gauntlet is another entertaining action movie in the 1970s style, although this again means one of those movies where you're kind of going to have to shut your brain off and just enjoy the ride because the movie is as riddled with plot holes as it is with bullets. I'm sure you all know my thoughts about police corruption, but at the same time I find it hard to believe that a commissioner could make a few phone calls and suddenly every policeman would shoot first and ask questions later. And how come none of this stuff seemed to make the news? And why is every sniper such a terrible shot? But as I said, sit back and watch without too critical an eye. I think you'll be entertained.