Not a bad film but sort of hokey even then but still fun to watch
7 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I lived in San Francisco from 1964-1980 and got to see a LOT of movies filmed there. I watched them film the sections in Bart ( being built back then and one of the film's chase scenes goes on in the tunnel) and Muni and saw this and the 2 previous Virgil Tibbs films in San Francisco theatres.

It is fun to look at this movie after 30+ years and see what is still there and what has changed over the years. The 70's seems like a million years ago. The Phillips gas station on Beach Street has had about 10 different brands over the years. The hofbrau on Turk Street ( Iate there every night, it was cheap) and Lew Lehr's steak house disappeared in the 80s.Hare Krishna's on Market Street across from the Sheraton Palace.

I feel this movie is better than the previous Tibbs film, but my opinion is, of course, subjective. Even a bad detective movie has some merits.

Of course, the premise of this film, that 6 people could bring down "the organization" ( mafia?) by stealing 4 million dollars worth of heroin is kind of silly. And the organization is having a hard time coming up with cash to buy back the drugs? Come on guys....

As for the 70s music, well, Lalo Schiffrin and others composed a lot of movie music back then and times change. I liked the music myself.

The 70s saw a lot of movies filmed in the city by the bay. Bullitt, The Laughing Policeman, The Dirty Harry Films, The Monk ( TV film, not the recent TV show, this was with George Maharis and Janet Leigh), The Towering Inferno,and the Streets of San Francisco TV show. I worked as an extra in films in those days and miss that era of cheap food, cheap rent, and cheap Giants tickets...

A great site I just found shows probably every movie filmed in San Francisco.

http://www.MisterSF.com

click on cinematic sf !

George Senda Concord, Ca
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