From August 7-14, starting this Friday, the Anthology Film Archives in New York will present a series of 1970s crime/action films, curated by William Lustig of Maniac Cop and Blue Underground fame, all produced by Hollywood during its more grubby, adventurous days. None are available on US DVD and most have become quite obscure over the years, so this is a rare chance to not only see them, but to see them on the big screen.

A few of the films I’ve seen before and few I’ve now seen for the first time. Here are some of the films to look forward to (press release with full details follows):

The Outside Man (1972)

The Outside Man (also known by its French title, “A Man is Dead“) is one of the earlier examples of what I tend to think of as “The Killer” plot – a hit man who finds himself hunted by his own employers after fulfilling a contract. In this case, the killer, and eponymous “outside man,” is Lucien, a French contractor brought to America to whack the head of a Los Angeles crime organization and immediately betrayed by his employers (whose identity should be obvious within the first 10 minutes). In LA, Lucien is pursued by ferocious American killer Roy Scheider and assisted by topless waitress and party girl Nancy (Ann-Margret, utilized primarily as a cleavage-delivery device).

Like its protagonist, The Outside Man is an odd duck. Lucien, as played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, is cold and unlikable - the hero by default only. Frankly, I was rooting for Scheider’s character. However, the emphasis is less on Lucien’s predicament and his efforts to save himself than on his surroundings. Lucien is a man completely out of place, nonplussed by the cultural mores of seventies Los Angeles. Seedy bars and motels are ubiquitous, and Lucien seems as confounded by his encounters with bikers, proselytizers and single moms as he does by the assassination attempts on him. In a particularly clever touch, Jacques Deray, a second-tier but talented director of French crime films (Borsalino & Co., Flic Story) constantly inserts televisions into the frame, contrasting their down-to-earth reality with the fantastic elements of the plot. Overall, it is an unexpected approach to a largely played-out subgenre, and elevates the material considerably.

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