Arrefecido a 99% (1974)

Uncle Frank Kelly calls on Harry Crown to help him in a gang war. The war becomes personal when Harry's new girlfriend is kidnapped by Uncle Frank's enemy, Big Eddie.

Director:

John Frankenheimer

Writer:

Robert Dillon

Stars:

Richard Harris, Chuck Connors, Edmond O'Brien

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Harris	...	Harry Crown
Edmond O'Brien	...	Uncle Frank
Bradford Dillman	...	Big Eddie
Ann Turkel	...	Buffy
Constance Ford	...	Dolly
Zooey Hall	...	Tony - The Kid (as David Hall)
Kathrine Baumann	...	Baby
Janice Heiden	...	Clara (as Janis Heiden)
Max Kleven	...	North
Karl Lukas	...	Guard
Tony Brubaker	...	Burt (as Anthony Brubaker)
Jerry Summers	...	Shoes
Roy Jenson	...	Jake
Bennie E. Dobbins	...	Driver (as Bernie Dobbins)
Chuck Roberson	...	Gunman

Storyline

Crime boss Uncle Frank (Edmond O'Brien) and rival crime boss Big Eddie (Bradford Dillman) decide the city is too small or not big enough for two crime bosses, so one of them must go. It's a fight to the death with gang members winding up at the bottom of the river encased in cermet foot-ware, chewed up by the garbage detail, bombed out or machine gunned down. They import help. Uncle Frank hires profession killer Harry Crown (Richard Harris) and pays him 100 G's to rub out Big Eddie, and the latter sends for Marvin "Claw" Zuckerman (Chuck Connors), a sadistic and demented killer, who is one hand short of having two hands. And Marvin hates Harry because it was Harry who cut off his hand when Marvin savagely mistreated a girl. In between all the blood and bullets, there is time for romance. Harry resumes an affair with Buffy (Ann Turkel), a third-grade schoolteacher (school-class status and not a rating), and Tony (David Hall), a hotshot young gangster assigned by Uncle Frank to assist ...

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Plot Keywords:

discotheque | time bomb | hitman hooker relationship | killer schoolteacher relationship | song | 

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Taglines:

Everyone is dying to meet Harry Crown.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 January 1975 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

Arrefecido a 99%

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min 94 min (FMC Library Print)

Sound Mix:

Mono Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film's cast included two "Chucks", Chuck Roberson and Chuck Connors, who played a Gunman and Claw Zuckerman, respectively.

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Quotes

Harry Crown: [to Tony the Kid, while smoking a cigar ] You know, Kid, a cigar don't care who smokes it.

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Crazy Credits

The end credit show stills from the movie except for the last part which is a pop art animation still that says WHAM!

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Alternate Versions

The Fox Movie Channel version edits out 4 minutes from the film for time constraints.

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Connections

Featured in Born in the USSR: Born in the USSR: 7 Up (1991)

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Soundtracks

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze
(uncredited)
Music by Gaston Lyle
Played when Harry is walking through the park on his way to meet Big Eddie

User Reviews

The 44 Things

44 things (out of 100) about this movie:

Ann Turkel is gorgeous. Bradford Dillman gives a supremely bad performance. Chuck Connors' scenes are the best scenes in the movie. Edmond O'Brien, one of my favorites, is decent in this forgettable film. The underwater opening is a lot of fun. Richard Harris is half cool, half wooden. Married To The Mob is better than this. Smokin Aces is better than this. Lucky Number Slevin is better than this. Frankenheimer isn't necessarily meant to do comedy. Richard Harris likes to take his glasses off in dramatic fashion, make sure they click-clack noisily as he fiddles with them, and then manfully put them back on his face. The blocks of cement seem too light. I'll say Ann Turkel is gorgeous twice, because it'll help me get to 44 Things faster. True Romance is a hundred times better than this. Snatch is much better than this (and I still must see Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels). I think you get what kind of (better) films this movie compares to. They probably should have come up with a different title for this thing. If you like accumulating Super-Guilty Pleasures you can't do much better than this. Hard to believe he's the same director of Seconds and The Manchurian Candidate. Richard Harris did his fair share of odd, somewhat unpalatable movies. The dialogue should have been more humorous. It's like they saw Live And Let Die and decided a gangster movie needs alligators and a guy with a hook for a hand even more than a spy movie does. I've seen much worse than this, but still, is this anybody's favorite movie??

The plot, gangster turf war, is pretty much irrelevant. Ronin improves on the car chases and the night-time bridge shoot-out stuff. Ronin is a better movie. Back to those phony-sounding bullet ricochets we had to endure in movies for years. Richard Harris also likes loading and unloading his guns, but then all these action guys like playing with their weapons. Thank goodness Tarantino found a way to attach a great script and story to this kind of vibe. Henry Mancini's music works fine. Early version of dude walking away from building as it blows up, and having absolutely no reaction at all (apparently the epitome of Cool). The 1970s are a hotbed of totally watchable bad movies. The secret to enjoying this is not to expect a masterpiece, but just sit back and don't think. I thought there'd be more blood. I think this one may be better than Johnny Dangerously. The young ladies in this movie are all quite pretty. Ann Turkel looks a bit like Raquel Welch, just in case that's a look you appreciate. Some of the fight scenes are less than convincing.

44/100% Dead should really be written as 22/50% Dead--or no, I guess not, that's stupid. Now I kind of want to check out Humanoids From The Deep. But I don't want to check out Island Of Dr Moreau (Frankenheimer version).

The next oddball gangster flick I plan to finally check out is Bound, which will probably be better than this. Ann Turkel drives a mean school bus. Dick Tracy is better than this, though we do get some cartoony colors here too, now and then.

Chuck Connors finds the right vibe for this film, and if the rest of the movie had taken a lesson from him, this could have been a lot more satisfying.

That was 44, unless I've miscounted.