Cops and Robbers (1973 film): Difference between revisions

| caption = Promotional movie poster for the film

| released = August{{Film date|1973|08|15, 1973 (|New York City) <br />August |1973|08|17, 1973 (|U.S. wide) <br />February 25, 1974 (Sweden) <br />March 29, 1974 (Finland)}}

'''''Cops and Robbers''''' is a 1973 [[crime comedy film]] directed by [[Aram Avakian]] with an original screenplay by [[Donald E. Westlake]] which Westlake subsequently expanded into a novel. The film stars [[Cliff Gorman]] as Tom and [[Joseph Bologna]] as Joe, two New York City cops who turn to crime to fund an early retirement for each..

“CopsPolice andofficers Robbers” stars Cliff GormanTom and Joseph Bologna as two New York City cops who turn to crime to fund an early retirement for each. TheyJoe are neighbors and they are living an OK suburban life with homes, a swimming pool and families in a high-density community and they commute to work together. Both are working-class and looking for more money for a better lifestyle.

Well, one cop, Joseph Bologna as “Joe,”Joe robs a liquor store while in uniform and literally walks away into the night. After that, he tells his friend and neighbor “Tom,” played by Cliff GormanTom, and both ultimately realize that pulling off a big heist would get them out of a dangerous job and, since they are NYPD officers, it gives them a big advantage in whatever crime they choose to accomplish. So, what do they do? They go to the mob!

GormanTom goes to a mobster’s house and asks what he would pay $2 million for them to steal. The gangster does some verbal jousting and finally tells Gorman about bearer bonds and that he would need to steal $10 million worth of them to earn the $2 million.

• First, afterAfter Gorman, who isTom in disguise meets, with the mobster, some of the gang try to follow him to find out his true identity. As they follow him up an escalator from the subway, a uniformed cop (Bologna)Joe holds up the line after GormanTom has passed. Of course, the gangsters don’t realize at that moment that the two are together., and Byby the time they get to the street, GormanTom has disappeared, as has BolognaJoe.

• After deciding to rob a Wall Street brokerage during a tickertape parade for astronauts just back from space (the film is set in the early 1970s), they steal the bearer bonds, but then rip them up and throw them out a window as part of the parade celebration of a cascade of paper coming out of skyscraper windows. This idea is the key component to the whole robbery.: Theythey didn’tdon’t have to worry about anyone finding the stolen bonds: Thebecause the bonds no longer exist, and the crimemedia is reported by all the mediareport that $12 million was stolen. It’s(an theironic ironytwist ofis that the totalexecutive reported, becauseof the brokerage house executive robbed by the duo snaggedsnags $2 million for himself with no one the wiser, but the two crooked cops the wiser).

• For transportation, the duo uses patrol units … (“borrowed” and then returned unnoticed from a police garage). Of course, both have uniforms (although GormanTom is a plain-clothes detective), andwhich fit bothis to their advantage, especially at the end when they make the pickup of the $2 million in Central Park in an area where only bicycles wereare allowed …- but so wereare police cars.

In the end, they survive the mob’s trap in the park at the end and get away with the $2 million, while the mobster is killed because he fouled up and lost the money to the two cops.