The Death Squad

Falk, a veteran director on a number of TV series ranging from Get Smart! to The Colbys, first tried his hand at feature-length action filmmaking in 1974 with Death Squad. The box blazons "in the tradition of Magnum Force!" Tradition? Please.

Robert Forster (Alligator) plays a straight cop busted from a crooked force, re-recruited in secret to infiltrate a gang of vigilante police led by Claude Akins. (Does that seem a stretch to you, too?) Forster falls in love in record time with his ex-partner's daughter, played by Mamas and Papas alum Michelle Phillips, and complications ensue. Forster's a passable actor, but Eastwood he ain't. Phillips has gotten a lot better since 1974. And, well, Sheriff Lobo heading up a band of renegade officers is just plain too much. * 1/2