Keaton's Cop

My review was written in June 1990 after watching the film on Warner/Cannon video cassette.

Abe Vigoda's flavorful turn as a crusty gangster enlivens the uneventful cop thriller "Keaton's Cop". Released regionally by Cannon in March, pic recently played on 42nd Street.

Vigoda is the Keaton of the title, paired with cop Lee Majors after Majors' partner Don Rickles is murdered. They're out to unravel who put the hit on Vigoda and ended up wasting Rickles.

Trail laboriously leads to Big Mama, a well-cast, well-endowed and well-preserved June Wilkinson, who's now running a gang in Galveston. Unfortunately, the former pinup and dinner theater ("Pajama Tops") star is off-screen for most of the picture and not well utilized by director Bob Burge, who previously cast her in other films ike "Vasectomy". Tracy Brooks Swope has a better role as Vigoda's nurse who, natch, fals in love with the one-time $6,000,000 guy.

Majors and Vigoda make an okay tem, with the latter getting in some bon mots and fun physical shtick. It's sort of a geriatric version of "48 HRS.".

Low-budget lensing in Galveston is unspectacular and the film almost sinks under the turgid weight of a subplot focusing on Majors' cute son.