Lloyd Bridges had a face made for the camera, full of smooth, bony planes, a clean forehead, all dominated by a couple of deep-set eyes that seemed to glimmer in the shadows of his brows. And he had, throughout his career, the quick, nervous energy of a small predator, maybe a ferret. Even in the ripeness of his age, in the Hot Shot movies where he was a comic admiral.
He made some decent movies but never achieved major stardom. Even here, in a relatively low-budget drama about counterfeiting and the Secret Service, he is a central figure but only a quasi-star.
The police deliberately allow Bridges to escape from the slams in hopes that he will lead the Secret Service, personified mostly by John Hoyt, to the people who now are beginning to grind out money that is "queer" on plates that Bridges used to own. The escape was engineered because the Secret Service knows that Bridges has no place to go except to his ex girl friend in L.A. They have accordingly bugged her apartment and insinuated an undercover agent into her life. Hoyt is the undercover agent who allows himself to be sucked into funding a plan to produce the queer money. The specific idea to to capture Bridges and his accomplices the moment the money changes hands.
That may be a little confusing, I know, but the plot is a little complicated. And besides, my mind couldn't quite wrap itself around John Hoyt as a serious undercover agent of social control. I kept seeing him as the three-armed Martian in a "Twilight Zone" episode. That image sometimes became a bit blurry and Hoyt would appear in a toga as one of the conspiratorial Senators from MGM's "Julius Caesar." Anyway, the plot zooms forward as if self propelled. There are fist fights, shoot outs. Before the end, Bridges is back in the slams. Hoyt tells the desk sergeant, "Let's keep this quiet. Book him under another name." Desk Sergeant: "How does 'Briggs' sound"? Hoyt: "As good as any." Desk Sergeant: "It's my mother-in-law's name. I just wanted to see what it looks like on a police blotter." That's about the only example of witty dialog in the movie. Almost all the rest is spare and functional, along the lines of Bridges', "If anybody gets hurt, it ain't gonna be me cause I got the gun. Just remember to get this heap started when you see me comin'." It's not a bad movie, just a routine one. Richard Fleischer directed a number of small-budget dramas like this before going on to bigger and better things like "Doctor Doolittle." Well -- bigger, anyway.
Want to see a funny movie about counterfeiting? Try "Mister 880." A more sophisticated movie about counterfeiting? "To Live and Die in L.A."
He made some decent movies but never achieved major stardom. Even here, in a relatively low-budget drama about counterfeiting and the Secret Service, he is a central figure but only a quasi-star.
The police deliberately allow Bridges to escape from the slams in hopes that he will lead the Secret Service, personified mostly by John Hoyt, to the people who now are beginning to grind out money that is "queer" on plates that Bridges used to own. The escape was engineered because the Secret Service knows that Bridges has no place to go except to his ex girl friend in L.A. They have accordingly bugged her apartment and insinuated an undercover agent into her life. Hoyt is the undercover agent who allows himself to be sucked into funding a plan to produce the queer money. The specific idea to to capture Bridges and his accomplices the moment the money changes hands.
That may be a little confusing, I know, but the plot is a little complicated. And besides, my mind couldn't quite wrap itself around John Hoyt as a serious undercover agent of social control. I kept seeing him as the three-armed Martian in a "Twilight Zone" episode. That image sometimes became a bit blurry and Hoyt would appear in a toga as one of the conspiratorial Senators from MGM's "Julius Caesar." Anyway, the plot zooms forward as if self propelled. There are fist fights, shoot outs. Before the end, Bridges is back in the slams. Hoyt tells the desk sergeant, "Let's keep this quiet. Book him under another name." Desk Sergeant: "How does 'Briggs' sound"? Hoyt: "As good as any." Desk Sergeant: "It's my mother-in-law's name. I just wanted to see what it looks like on a police blotter." That's about the only example of witty dialog in the movie. Almost all the rest is spare and functional, along the lines of Bridges', "If anybody gets hurt, it ain't gonna be me cause I got the gun. Just remember to get this heap started when you see me comin'." It's not a bad movie, just a routine one. Richard Fleischer directed a number of small-budget dramas like this before going on to bigger and better things like "Doctor Doolittle." Well -- bigger, anyway.
Want to see a funny movie about counterfeiting? Try "Mister 880." A more sophisticated movie about counterfeiting? "To Live and Die in L.A."