The Laughing Policeman (1973) - Region 2 PAL Import, plays in English without subtitles

60%

Walter Matthau should have exercised his serious acting more often . Whilst no one can deny his great comic talent films like this seem to get forgotten .

Elusive film, great to finally get a copy.

Not like the book

Once described this as 'long forgotten'....now, having seen it, I understand why it has been forgotten...it's quite forgettable! It's not a bad cop film, but to describe it as a thriller would be overstating the case...there are few thrills in this movie. It gets off to a promising start with a machine gun slaughter on bus, but then most of the film is a fairly plodding examination of the investigation. It's almost certainly more realistic than DIRTY HARRY ( and this at times resembles DH...scenes in the police precinct rooms look exactly the same) but nowhere near as exciting or even interesting. As we don't discover the killer's identity until near the end, the film lacks an onscreen 'villain' which removes any tension or menace. Dern is good (more Popeye Doyle than Harry Callahan) but Matthau looks bored throughout, chewing gum (Matthau chews gum alot in PELHAM and VARRICK, but here he is on gum chew overdrive!) and looking like he's wishing he was somewhere else. We get the obligatory 70's car chase at the end (and where would a 70's cop film - especially one set in SF- be without a shot of a car coming over a hill getting all four wheels off the ground??!!) and we could have done with a little more of that sort of action through the film.Another thing... It might have been the bottle of wine consumed whilst watching, but I'll have to watch it again to figure out what the hell it was all about (!!!) It's a dialogue heavy movie, so careful listening is required!! So...not a bad addition to the 70's cop genre, but not up there with DIRTY HARRY, MAGNUM FORCE, BULLITT or FRENCH CONNECTION. No wonder it's taken me 40 odd years to get around to watching it!!!

I was soooooooo looking forward to this.Its starts of exciting enough and just spirals downhill from there on.Gunman enters a bus load of passengers and executes them all with bloody force and machine gun bullets flying everywhere.At the time of making you had Dirty Harry and McQ with John Wayne doing the rounds in cop shoot em up blood splatterers.Well this certainly is this for the first 15 minutes then spirals into a vat of boring chit chat!!Walther Mathau is wasted as is Bruce Dern.

perfect condition excellent story brilliant cast it is as an ageless storyline well directed a-any one who likes police thrillers will like this

Sounds good to me I thought. But it just does not work. This is my favourite Matthau era. Pelham 123, Front page and Charley Varrick off the top of my head. It looks as though something went wrong during filming and then they just had to make something and get it in cinemas. I have given it away.

This is a reasonably faithful adaption of the famous book, but by americanizing the themes and locations it ends being an utter failure at bringing the Swedish novel (by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö) to the screen. It is painful to watch after enjoying the detective Martin Beck book.Unfortunately, I do not recommend this film.

Película setentera de genero policíaco con un reparto encabezado por unos Walter Mathau y Bruce Dern en estado de gracia que sostienen sobre sus hombros el peso de la cinta. El argumento parte de una premisa bastante interesante (un perturbado sube a un autobús y ametralla a todos los presentes) y se desinfla según pasan los minutos desaprovechando lo que podía haber sido una muy buena película dejándolo en un divertimento sin trascendencia pero agradable. Para fans del genero o de los protagonistas. La calidad del DVD correcta y el formato 1:85:1

The plot's not great and it's not as memorable as some (takes itself way too seriously for a story that should in every right take place during the 1940s). But it does have some pretty good parts and is worth a watch

Excellent film de STUART ROSENBERG avec WALTER MATTHAU (qui a fait tourné à la même époque dans deux autres excellent polars "CHARLEY VARRICK" et "THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123"), BRUCE DERN, LOU GOSSETT et d'autres. Une bonne petite enquête sur un un meurtre de masse exécuté dans un bus de frisco. Le film est tiré (et transposé aux states) d'un (excellent) roman de MAJ SJOWALL et PER WAHLOO (mari et femme dans la vie et suédois) publié en 1968 (il y en a dix dans la série et ils sont tous excellent, je les ai tous lu il y a pas mal de temps quand ils étaient publiés par 10/18 (je sais ça fait beaucoup "d'excellent" mais il faut dire ce qui est). Ils ont été publié entre 1965 et 1975, date de la mort de WAHLOO, à lire absolument si on aime le polar). D'autres adaptations de leurs romans sont "un flic sur le toit" de BO WIDERBERG et la série sur l'inspecteur BECK diffusé sur canal il y a...quelques années.

Gritty 70's movie with Walter Matthau. I enjoyed it, but it hasn't held up nearly as well as Hopscotch.

Not bad I do like Walter Mattheu

Un film très 70's : le rythme, les couleurs, le jeu des acteurs ... tout transpire cette décennie.Le réalisateur prend son temps, notamment sur la scène du carnage au début.Bruce Dern et Walter Matthau sont excellents, l'un en adjoint en devenir et l'autre en ancien angoissé par cette incertaine vie de flic.Réservé aux amateurs du genre.

Basada en el texto de los iniciadores de la novela negra sueca, Maj Sjöwall y Per Wahlöö, esta película, interpretada por Walter Mathau y Bruce Dern, no ha perdido actualidad a pesar de haber salido en los años 70.

Unverständlich, daß es diesen Film nicht in einer deutschen Variante gibt.Er hätte es verdient.Tolle Darsteller(Walther Matthau!),Drehbuch nach starker Vorlage, gute Umsetzung des Stoffs.Für mich als "Normalverbraucher" ist die Bildqualität noch ausreichend,die DVD-Version wurde wohl schon vor etlichen Jahren veröffentlicht.Keine wesentlichen Extras vorhanden.Dennoch: "Daumen hoch",ich war froh diesen Film wenigstens im Original zu bekommen.

BOTTOM LINE: Movie has its fans, but for my money, if you want to see comedy legend Walter Matthau in a dramatic role then pick up THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 or the equally superior CHARLIE VARRICK. Both are worlds above this pedestrian effort. Nice hi-def transfer.THOUGHTS: I wanted to like this flick as I am a lifelong fan of the lovable, irascible, eternally frumpy, often grumpy Walter Matthau, whether he's playing it straight or yucking it up. I didn't hate it, but in the end I just couldn't get into this film. Not sure why. I much prefer PELHAM and CHARLIE VARRICK - both made around the same time - but that's just me. To each his own. Cast is good and the film is well made; just wasn't my cup of tea. And if you’ve never seen Matthau in a non-comedy role don’t worry, he’s terrific. He's no Clint Eastwood, but Matthau can be a nail-biting SOB with the best of them. I’m actually surprised that he didn’t do more drama. He's quite good here. I suppose he was more or less typecast and eventually just gave in, sticking with comedy for the rest of his career since it was what he was best known for by most audiences.THE BLU-RAY: A solid transfer from Kino Lorber. Not sure what some folks are grumbling about. The picture is decent, with proper grain and clean-looking for the most part, while the soundtrack is level and clear, devoid of static, hissing or other audio defects. No bonus content, which is another strike against buying this, but is typical of most K-L releases.

I had seen this film in the theaters when it came out and always tried to see it when it was on tv. Mathau and Dern are two cops on a murder case and it was fine film. I always looked for movies directed by Stuart Rosenberg after I saw Cool Hand Luke and this is one of the many of his films which I own. Quick delivery and no defects with the dvd. Very satisfied.

This is a very good movie with Walter Matthau & Bruce Dern you may not have seen. It was made before it's time. Today such events are expected.

A little confusing, but surprisingly adult for the early '70s. Leaves a few things unresolved, however; was the killer a psycho to start with, or did he lose it from being followed -or as is hinted- did he go insane due to the threat of being outed as gay? Did Bruce Dern actually go on a "date" with gay nurse Johanna Cassidy? Did Matthau ever confront his 15-year old son after seeing him attending a live sex show in a seedy North Beach theatre? And why was Matthau so possessive of his partner's girlfriend (Kathy Lee Crosby)? But these are minor quibbles in an overall fine policedrama. Shows a grittier side of San Francisco than the Dirty Harry films and manages to keep the viewer's interest even given the somewhat convoluted storyline.

Excellent movie protraying San Francisco and it's police department members. A lot of scenes were filmed on location on SF's gritty streets. Quite a few extras in the movie were actually working SF police officers. It is a great movie to see what SF and it's police department was like in the late 1960s.

Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern in a great time capsule movie of 70s San Francisco. Police procedural very 82nd Precinct style. From a best seller originally depicting Swedish policemen. Lots of smart edits from the book, making it nice and lean as a movie.