City Heat (1984)

A slick private eye and tough police lieutenant--once partners, now bitter enemies--reluctantly team up to investigate a murder.

Director:

Richard Benjamin

Writers:

Blake Edwards (story), Blake Edwards,

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Jane Alexander

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Clint Eastwood	...	Lieutenant Speer
Burt Reynolds	...	Mike Murphy
Jane Alexander	...	Addy
Madeline Kahn	...	Caroline Howley
Rip Torn	...	Primo Pitt
Irene Cara	...	Ginny Lee
Richard Roundtree	...	Dehl Swift
Tony Lo Bianco	...	Leon Coll
William Sanderson	...	Lonnie Ash
Nicholas Worth	...	Troy Roker
Robert Davi	...	Nino
Jude Farese	...	Dub Slack
John Hancock	...	Fat Freddy
Jack Thibeau	...	Garage Soldier
Gerald S. O'Loughlin	...	Counterman Louie

Storyline

Kansas City in the 1930s: private investigator Mike Murphy's partner is brutally murdered when he tries to blackmail a mobster with his secret accounting records. When a rival gang boss goes after the missing records, ex-policeman Murphy is forced to team up again with his ex-partner Lieutenant Speer, even though they can't stand each other, to fight both gangs before KC erupts in a mob war.

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Plot Keywords:

1930s | murder | mobster | private eye | shootout | 

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Taglines:

Take Clint the street-smart cop . . . take Burt the wise-guy private eye . . . and then take cover!

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Crime

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 December 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Kansas City Heat

Filming Locations:

New York Street, Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$38,300,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Malpaso Company, The, Deliverance Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When director Richard Benjamin came to this film set in 1930s Prohibition Kansas City, Benjamin had already researched the 1930s period from his development work on the then canceled film of Dick Tracy.

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Goofs

This first time Murphy (Burt Reynolds) visits his apartment, he switches on his 1930s era radio, which instantly begins playing music, as a modern one would. This is incorrect - a radio of that era contained vacuum tubes, and it would have taken the radio several minutes to "warm up" before any music could be heard.

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Quotes

Caroline Howley: [Speer and Murphy have just rescued her from kidnappers] Well, it's about time!

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Connections

Referenced in Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)

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Soundtracks

"Montage Blues"
Music by Lennie Niehaus
Pianists: Mike Lang, Pete Jolly and Clint Eastwood

User Reviews

Inconvenient Allies

City Heat casts two of Hollywood's biggest box office draws of the past forty years in the same film as different types. The film is set in Kansas City of 1933 which richly earned the reputation it had back in the day of a wide open town. This was in fact the Kansas City of Tom Pendergast. Clint Eastwood is a by the book and honest city detective, not an easy thing to be in Kansas City of that era. Burt Reynolds is a former cop who's now a roguish private eye. The two of them have a history, they like each other well enough, but they also grate on each other's nerves.

As all good private eyes have, Burt has a cool and efficient Effie like secretary in Jane Alexander and a partner in Richard Roundtree. Burt's one of the few back in the day who would even consider going into business with a black person. But Roundtree's playing a lone hand involving a runaway bookkeeper and a war between two rival mobs headed by Rip Torn and Tony LoBianco. For his troubles Roundtree winds up dead and in the same tradition of Sam Spade, when your partner's killed you do something about it.

But it's also Eastwood's homicide case and like it or not the two are forced into an alliance of inconvenience, kicking and screaming right up to the end of the picture. The plot also calls for rescuing Alexander who Eastwood fancies, Madeline Kahn who's Burt's girlfriend and chanteuse Irene Cara.

City Heat is not at the top of the list of films by Eastwood and Reynolds. But they've got nothing to be ashamed of here. The film glides effortlessly from comedy to drama and both guys get their innings to show why they're the superstars they are. You could do a lot worse than City Heat for your viewing pleasure.