Night of the Juggler (1980)

Director:

Robert Butler

Writers:

William P. McGivern (novel)
Rick Natkin (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 August 1980 (France)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

In the heart of every victim is a hero and he'll tear apart a city to prove it.

Plot:

A tough, New York ex-cop relentlessly searches for his kidnapped teenage daughter whom is held by a twisted psycho after mistaking her for the daughter of a wealthy businessman.

Plot Keywords:

Ransom | New York | Death | Psychopath | Police

Cast

James Brolin	...	Sean Boyd
Cliff Gorman	...	Gus Soltic
Richard S. Castellano	...	Lt. Tonelli (as Richard Castellano)
Linda Miller	...	Barbara Boyd (as Linda G. Miller)
Barton Heyman	...	Preacher
Sully Boyar	...	Larry the Dog Catcher
Julie Carmen	...	Maria
Abby Bluestone	...	Kathy Boyd
Dan Hedaya	...	Sgt. Otis Barnes
Mandy Patinkin	...	Allesandro the Cabbie
Marco St. John	...	Hampton Richmond Clayton III
Frank Adu	...	Wino
Nancy Andrews	...	Mrs. Logan
Rick Anthony	...	M.C.
Tony Azito	...	Peep Show Cashier

Also Known As:

New York Killer (UK) (video title)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | UK:18 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | USA:R | France:-16

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Before Gus takes Kathy underground, he yells to Sean, "I'm gonna fuck her!" and repeats it two more times, but the MPAA strongly advised the makers of the movie to dub out the word "fuck" at that scene because they felt that it was wrong for an adult male to say that he was going to have sex with an underage girl. Instead, Cliff Gorman's quote was fixed for him to say, "I'm gonna keep her."

Night of the Jogger

Truly this film should be called Night of the Jogger. It would make much more sense than Night of the Juggler, which has to be one of the most uninteresting titles ever assigned to a movie. Not only are there tons of joggers everywhere, but all the characters jog everywhere they go. Every time they need to go somewhere, they jog. There is no real reason for this.

Brolin and his daughter start out for her school, jogging of course. But then she decides she can jog there by herself, and Brolin turns around for the jog home. About twenty seconds later, Brolin's daughter is kidnapped from the park when she is mistaken for a rich businessman's daughter.

Here we come to one of the most implausible parts of the movie. The kidnapper throws her in the car, and she just sits there, calmly. She never tries to get out of the car. At several times they are stuck in traffic jams. Her window is down, her door is unlocked, for gods sake the car can't move, and yet she does not even try to get out of the car.

We head into a long chase scene with Brolin getting a cab to chase the kidnapper. After the kidnapper crashes his car, he grabs the daughter by the hand and they run into the subway and catch a ride. Yes, that's right, the kidnapped daughter willingly runs with the kidnapper. They are on a crowded street and yet she never plants her feet and refuses to move, or even screams for help. She just runs along with him.

When they get off the subway, the kidnapper steals a phone company van. He helps the daughter up into the front seat, has her slide over to the passenger side....and she sits there. She doesn't even attempt to go open the door or get out. This girl should be charged as an accessory in her kidnapping!

The other really annoying part of the movie is that as Brolin tries to find his daughter, he is arrested or stopped by the police. But instead of saying "my daughters been kidnapped." He keeps saying they have to let him go, and either being really vague or trying to explain the whole story. Same thing happens when he tries to find what the kidnapper dropped outside a live girls porno place. He goes into the little viewing booths, and does he say his daughter has been kidnapped and that he needs help. Of course not, the big dope says "I'm looking for a girl..." Oh yeah, that's really going to help in a peep show setting. Sigh....

The movie is fairly frustrating as the characters sabotage themselves over and over again. It is only through this contrived sabotage that the kidnapper gets the daughter and Brolin doesn't get her back right away. And the kidnapper is really wacko, but not in a scary way. We find out his motives when he explains the entire reason to the daughter as they are walking to his house - yeah, that's right, the daughter is still walking along with the kidnapper. Hell, he isn't even holding her hand now. So if you can stand the frustration or if you are with friends and want to laugh at the sheer contrivances that keep this movie going, be my guest and watch this movie - and remember the movie is about joggers, not jugglers.