Hickey (Bill Cosby) and Boggs (Robert Culp) are a couple of down-on-their-luck private detectives, hired to locate a missing woman.  They don’t know it at the time, but this lady is holding the loot from a half-million dollar Federal bank robbery, and she’s in Los Angeles seeking a fence to buy her suitcase filled with $1000 bills.

As the two detectives follow their leads, they find that most of the people they talk to wind up dead, the work of a 3-man hit team hired by the Mob to retrieve the loot.

CRITIQUE

Robert Culp may have been a very good actor, but if this film is any indication, directing was not one of his other talents.

Hickey & Boggs is a structural, confusing mess, and I don’t think the major fault is with Walter Hill’s screenplay, which has an intriguing storyline that, in the hands of another director, could have resulted in an above average film noir.

Instead, what we have now is a choppily edited, convoluted caper that will have audiences wondering, “Who is this person?” “Why are they doing what they’re doing?” and “How did the detectives get from point A to point B?”  Some of these answers never become clear.

On the plus side, the movie does have some memorable sequences, particularly a shoot-out at the Los Angeles Coliseum, as well as the several scenes between the two stars who continue to interact well together, even though their dialogue is much more somber than the light banter that made their I Spy television series so popular.

Unfortunately, the other actors, which include Rosalind Cash, Vincent Gardenia and James Woods, are given no opportunities to endow their characters with any depth.

Culp, I assume, was trying to make a gritty private eye movie.  He got the grit, but he sacrificed character and story.

THE VIDEO

As part of MGM’s “Limited Edition Collection,” this is a “burned,” as opposed to a “pressed” DVD, and is manufactured from the best elements available.

The widescreen picture has no significant problems.

THE AUDIO

The Dolby Digital Sound is crisp and clear.

THE EXTRAS

There are none included with this MOD release.

FINAL THOUGHT

Thanks to the performances of its two stars, Hickey & Boggs is an okay film that could have been so much better.