Mr. Ricco (1975)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Paul Bogart

Writers:

Ed Harvey (story) &
Francis Kiernan (story) ...

Release Date:

February 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | Crime

Tagline:

The One Thing People Hate More Than A Cop Killer...Is The Lawyer Who Gets Him Off!

Plot:

A San Francisco attorney (Dean Martin) is hired to defend a black militant accused of murder. |

Cast

Dean Martin	...	Joe Ricco
Eugene Roche	...	George Cronyn
Thalmus Rasulala	...	Frankie Steele
Denise Nicholas	...	Irene Mapes
Cindy Williams	...	Jamison
Geraldine Brooks	...	Katherine Fremont
Philip Michael Thomas	...	Purvis Mapes (as Philip Thomas)
George Tyne	...	Lt. Barrett
Robert Sampson	...	Justin
Michael Gregory	...	Tanner
Joseph Hacker	...	Markham
Frank Puglia	...	Uncle Enzo
Ella Edwards	...	Sally
Rose Gregorio	...	Angela
Nicky Blair	...	Nino

Also Known As:

Ricco (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1975) | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "E! True Hollywood Story: Dean Martin" (1999)

It's an '70's movie alright! But not the best one around.

I always enjoy watching '70's movies, even when it are bad ones. '70's movies always have a certain atmosphere and are made with a great style of movie-making, that is realistic, gritty and straightforward and also always makes uses of some experimental, non-formulaic techniques when it comes down to its storytelling and cinematography, among other things. "Mr. Ricco" might not the the best '70's movies around, it still is a good example of good old film-making from the golden '70's.

The movie its story is quite messy and weak but still made look interesting at times, due to its style of film-making. It provided the movie with a couple of nice moments, including a typical '70's-like car chase trough the streets of San Fransico.

San Fransico serves as a pretty good backdrop for the entire movie, as it always does in any movie.

The storytelling makes sure that is hard to keep track on the movie, with as a result that all the movie its weaker points become less notable as well. The movie its story is actually quite unlikely and ridicules at points but due to the muddled way the entire story is told, it becomes less obvious and notable all. Lots of things don't really make sense in the movie once you start really thinking about them and to make it all the more confusing, the movie features many, unneeded, characters, that don't add enough to the movie and only provide the story with some needless and distracting subplots.

Dean Martin of course already had his best years behind him but he still puts down a pretty good main character for the movie. The character is well developed and deepened out more thanks to Dean Martin's performance, who makes the character likable, by playing him mostly in a non-likable way.

The movie on all accounts is a pretty average one. Nothing too exceptional, just another good enough movie from the golden '70's but you're just as good off watching a "Law & Order" episode, or something along those lines.

6/10