Film Reviews 4U Bullitt Film 1968

 

Film Reviews 4U the Bullitt Film 1968

The Film, the Cars and the Enigma that is Steve McQueen -

a cocktail that was blended to great success

Have you ever watched the 1968 film Bullitt starring Steve McQueen and wondered what it is all about? You are not alone. 

The movie poster from the film

Once you get past the lead actors and that famous car chase you are left with the enigma of who is Johnny Ross and what is Walter Chalmers really about and why?

 Colourised Lobby Card from the film -

the scene shot on location in the Hospital

With a great score by Lalo Schiffrin (who wrote the Mission Impossible theme and other famous television theme music ) and based on a story named Mute Witness by Robert Lloyd Fish (who also wrote as Robert L Pike, the L stood for Lloyd). 

The Mute Witness story was adapted into the production screenplay we know today as Bullitt. Steve Mc Queen and his then wife the actress Neile Adams jointly worked on the movie script they were given, making adjustments as they envisaged it to transfer to live action film. It took some urging for McQueen to take the role and the rest is history.

Steve McQueen and then wife Neile Adams -

both worked on revising the screenplay

Steve McQueen avoided lengthy dialogue on his part in the film. He only needed visual hints and expression through his visual acting ability and the clever cinematography to say what he doesn't need to. A look, a gesture and that saves words and conveys more in the action. 

Facsimile credentials for Lt. Frank Bullitt  

Originally the film was also offered to Clint Eastwood who would later go onto the Dirty Harry film canon, with some of those films also made in San Francisco, McQueen did prevaricate on the offer of the role of Frank Bullitt until his wife persuaded him to take it. 

Steve McQueen exuded pure style in the film -

no doubt also making the already popular Mustang an even greater top seller

McQueen was perfect for the role of Frank Buliitt, although seeing the later Dirty Harry films, Clint Eastwood could have equally handled the role, as Eastwood was also of the minimal dialogue school. The location use of San Francisco was used primarily because the city wanted to attract tourism and the film was cheaper to shoot in San Francisco than Los Angeles.

The original car chase was agreed to not exceed 35mph on the suburban streets, however, speeds of 90mph were reportedly achieved! It took some length of filming to get the ten minute chase sequence in the can. There are continuity differences in the finished chase sequence as a result of editing of the amount of film shot.

Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) 

with Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen)

The story opens with Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) called in by Captain Bennett to babysit a States Witness Johnny Ross on behalf of State Senator Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) and for the Police to deliver Ross to the Court Hearing on the Monday morning. (Both McQueen and Vaughn had previously starred together in the 1960 film the Magnificent Seven).

Unfortunately for Chalmers, the Chicago Mob has other ideas about Ross squawking and spilling the Beans about their business, they don't want Ross who knows the modus operandi of the outfit to appear or to talk at the hearing. 

The hitmen -

Paul Genge and Bill Hickman

A hitman (Paul Genge - who appeared in the Invaders TV series) is sent to take care of Ross, now ensconced in a seedy flophouse backstreet Hotel, the hitman shoots Ross and the undercover Detective guarding Ross. 

Ross or not Ross?

Renick stands in for Ross

Both casualties are rushed to Hospital, Ross is dead and then stored under a John Doe ID to avoid Chalmers or the Mob knowing Ross is dead, Bullitt then keeps the story Ross is alive going, hoping to draw out the hit men and other players in the game. 

Chalmers visits the Hospital and is told that Ross has been moved, Chalmers demands to know where, but Bullitt reasons that the Hotel location was supposed to be restricted knowledge, but the hitman found it and the less people that know now where Ross is, the better.

Chalmers later accuses Bullitt of using Ross for 'self aggrandisement' however it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black on the part of Chalmers! Chalmers is obviously looking to leverage Ross for his own ends in an act of the same nature.

The hipster Lawyer informer Eddy (Justin Tarr)

Eddy supplies info on Ross and has a friend in

St Quentin he asks Bullitt to put a word in for

This sets off a bitter play and counterplay between Chalmers and Bullitt over Ross. Bullitt is followed to the hospital by the hitman who attacked the Hotel room who is is being driven (by Bill Hickman) in a Dodge Charger, a gun battle ensues and the hitman escapes.

Later after collecting his car, Bullitt realises he is being followed to lead the hit men to where Ross is now safely located and starts a drive around San Francisco (the city where the later Dirty Harry film was set).

(The car chase sequence that followed was inspired by the sequence in the1967 film 'Robbery' starring Stanley Baker, which features a car chase choreographed by Director Peter Yates across the back streets of London. Stanley Baker is always a great performer and this film is worth a look too.)

The 1967 film Robbery's car chase -

got Peter Yates the Director's seat in Bullitt -

a long way from the sedate 'Summer Holiday' film Yates directed in 1963

The Peter Yates directed Summer Holiday musical - 

a 30mph London Bus trip across Europe! 

McQueen on seeing the film 'Robbery', wanted Yates to direct Bullitt, likely wanting to incorporate a car chase of similar high octane which McQueen would drive in, handling the duty with stunt driver Bud Ekins amongst others - Bill Hickman the driver of the Dodge Charger in the chase sequence already being a stunt driver, would later also appear as an actor in the French Connection and the Seven Ups films.

Steve McQueen later wanted to buy the Mustang car from 

the film years later, but the then owner wouldn't sell

The ten minute Bullitt car chase is now legendary and likely led to the many pursuit scenes that followed in American films since. McQueen drives a 1968 Ford Mustang GT390 (the production line Mustang used the smaller version 289 CUI V8 engine in their main production cars with the 390 being a special high performance engine option).

The cars used in the chase sequence were uprated for the film to provide better handling and performance.

The iconic GT 390 Mustang in the chase sequence -

prices for this fastback variant are significantly higher

than for the stock coupe version - thanks to the film

The distinctive Highland Green used on the Mustang was not a popular colour in the Mustang range until the film came out and a special batch of the cars was produced in that shade due to demand afterwards. The car lost the front grille badge on the film to purposely make it look more 'undercover'. Two Mustangs were used in the film and both survive. One sold for $3.7 Million USD!

(The other chase car was a 1976 Dodge Charger in Black, one of two used in the film.)

Out of town the chase continues

Back to the film and a shakedown of Ross's suitcase leads to the knowledge that the Ross in the morgue is actually one Albert Renick, a Chicago Car Salesman, who bears a good resemblance to Ross. Chalmers has not apparently rumbled that Ross is Renick or knows but that is part of a possible ruse.

Perhaps Chalmers is hoping that the real Ross will fly in and testify once the hitmen are diverted to finding the stand in and making the successful hit. Renick's wife is staying separately in a motel in San Matteo, California and is later killed in the film by other hit men.

It transpires that the real Johnny Ross is now in San Francisco and Ross has booked a direct flight to London. This knowledge of Ross's inclusion on the London flight from the passenger list at the airport leads to a chase around the San Francisco airport where Ross shoots a Deputy Sheriff and where Ross is then shot and killed by Bullitt.

The real Ross (Pat Renella) - at the airport

In a nutshell that is about the film on the face of it. But the interest of Walter Chalmers is the clincher, when did he know Ross was not Ross? Or did he not? Did he set up Renwick to get the Chicago outfit off of Ross's back or perhaps his own? Did Ross set up Renwick to impersonate him? Or did Chalmers believe that the Ross in the Hotel was indeed Ross? 

Did Chalmers have an interest in seeing Ross not testify or to be got at nearer the time of the hearing, perhaps on the steps of the building? Either way Chalmers could then come out of it  smelling of Roses and shifting the blame, to enhance his own political career.

Chalmers demands Ross is handed over

Perhaps seeing the original book may provide some answers, or not, seeing as the film's screenplay is modified from the original book.

This is why the film has at least two levels, the apparent and the deep. The obviously apparent hides the depth. 

Jacqueline Bisset as Bullitt's girlfriend Cathy -

she is portrayed as a modern career woman -

as an Architect - showing that anything is possible 

and breaking through the conventions of the time

Bullitt is one of my favourite films, I know how it ends but that doesn't stop me from watching it again and again. The San Francisco scenes are great, the street scenes capture the fashions of the time, before America became synthetic and flabby in the seventies. 

This production was said to be Steve McQueen's favourite film from a long career of television and big screen appearances. 

The film set a style that was to follow on in films like Dirty Harry and those that came along later.

One of the two original Ford Mustang GT390 cars from the film -

now worth millions of dollars! It remains unrestored.

When compared to the tamer 'Robbery' film set in Britain in 1967, the comparison to San Francisco in Bullitt is obvious. Bullitt shows a seedier side of America, where under the carpet a rougher and more sordid world exists than in a more genteel England.

The Bullitt film is a classic largely due to the car chase but the film is much deeper than that, the politics of the people like Chalmers with their own ego and career, the power of using people as Chalmers does, the abuse of authority and ruthlessness to succeed.

The genius of the Bullitt film starring Steve McQueen based on the book Mute Witness

Steve McQueen giving the iconic Ford Mustang GT The Beans in Bullitt, 1968

It was back in 1962 that a young Peter Yates worked on the Cliff Richard film 'Summer Holiday,' he progresses through other film projects to a mid 60's film starring the great Stanley Baker called 'Robbery.'

In that film, there was a memorable real action car chase through London in glorious technicolour and it was from that section of the film, that he was asked to work on the film Bullitt, with Steve McQueen.

The Bullitt film may be most famous for one of the greatest motion picture car chases in film history, but that is but one part of it. There is no doubt that it is a fast paced and pacy action film. The Labi Siffre theme music is punchy and almost machine gun staccato like on one version of the theme tune I heard.

Indeed, the British TV Series The Sweeney borrows from this setup by having a hard and dramatic headline theme and a softer theme to tail out the film, much like Bullitt does at the end with the Porsche 356 on the Freeway.

The film is loaded with tension, from the almost surly Steve McQueen as Lt Frank Bullitt, the oily Chalmers played superbly by Robert Vaughn and a supporting cast of good players, including Bill Hickman who would later star in the French Connection. For those viewers in the UK, the antics of Frank Bullitt must have seemed a world away from Dixon of Dock Green.

The film, based on the adaption of a novel called Mute Witness by Robert L. Pyke is interesting on many levels. Those of us who have been in the Police, know what it is like from that level, the Chalmers figure seems multi-dimensional, who is he really and who is he working for? is he actually trying to protect his witness Johnny Ross or does he actually want him rubbed out perhaps to cover over something to absolve himself?

Whatever it is, Chalmers is ruthless and doesn't care who he treads on to get where he's going. WIn or lose, Chalmers gets the kudos of exposing organised crime and with the death of Johnny Ross, he knows where to point the finger and it isn't athimself.

You can watch this film a dozen times and see different things in it. It is an interesting real-time capture of life in 1968 San Francisco, Steve McQueen plays the part brilliantly, perhaps his finest performance even if it is understated all the way, he manages to play out the tension all down the line, this is what irritates Chalmers, he can't get at or to Bullitt, Bullitt does not play along or dance to the tune Chalmers is playing. 

Frank Bullitt's girlfriend played by Jacqueline Blisset is repulsed at what Frank Bullitt has to deal with when she, with Frank Bullitt attend a Motel room murder scene. She finds Frank cold and detached, she cannot understand why he is not emotionally involved, he can't be, not as a Cop, he has to be objective, Frank Bulliitt just deals with it Frank Bullitt's way, calmly and slowly, working it all out.

As an Architect, she is from a different professional world. She may understand flow rates in water pipes and stress loading of reinforced concrete but that is a different world away from crime and policing it. Its just the way it is.

Even though I have watched the film many times, I do not tire of it, it is just an iconic piece of cinema set in a fairly modern timeframe and as such doesn't really seem to age.

If you haven't seen it, do so.