Burt Reynolds had established himself as a top box-office draw by the time he made his third film as director, SHARKY’S MACHINE.
There was a story going the rounds that his main box-office and friend Clint Eastwood was imposing on his comedy speciality with films like SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT when he made the blockbuster comedy EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978). Apparently, according to one news report, Reynolds told Clint ‘You’re getting in my territory and if you do that, I’m going to go out and make DIRTY HARRY GOES TO ATLANTA’.
After the film was released, Eastwood sent a telegram saying ‘You really weren’t kidding, were you?’. That’s not to say that SHARKY’S MACHINE, whilst as gritty as the three DIRTY HARRY films made by then, DIRTY HARRY (1971), MAGNUM FORCE (1973) and THE ENFORCER (1976), is a direct rip-off and aspirant to the crown that Eastwood had cultivated with Detective Harry Callahan. Indeed, as a film on its’ own terms, it’s actually a pretty effective movie.
Based on a novel by William Diehl (who appears in the film briefly early on as a pimp), SHARKY’S MACHINE tells of Tom Sharky (Reynolds) who, due to the killing of a drug lord in a daylight shootout on a bus in downtown Atlanta, is demoted to the Vice Squad, where head of section Friscoe (Charles Durning) regales him with a sleazier existence working the night shift and having to make sure the streets remain as (reasonably) clean as possible.
It’s a major election year for Senator Hotchkins (Ed Holliman) and all has to be well enough for him to run for office. The first night brings up a hooker called Mabel, who is spooked by Percy (the aforementioned Diehl) and mentions in passing about ‘thousand a night hookers’. A book taken by Friscoe reveals seven names. After a bit of delving, Sharky comes up with seven numbers, with one specific of interest in a penthouse of a girl called Dominoe (Rachel Ward), who seems to have a deeper relationship with Hotchkins.
However, the net is cast wider, as Dominoe is also involved with Victor (Vittorio Gassman), who seems to have a hold on the city and its’ underworld. Sharky requests to watch Dominoe for a while from a building across from the penthouse – and finds himself drawn far deeper into the case as he observes her more….
Part action-thriller, part police-procedural which is right up the street of CSI TV fans and other such examples of recent years, SHARKY’S MACHINE is a gripping police drama that is more complex than a lot of the 1980s cop thrillers, certainly more than the LETHAL WEAPON films and some of Steven Seagal’s early Chicago-set thrillers. Reynolds certainly had the knack for creating good work as a director and had good production values behind him.
William A. Fraker, who did the cinematography on the classic Steve McQueen thriller BULLITT, adds colour and purpose to the imagery and there is a brilliant jazz-themed score behind the film, which includes a version of STREET LIFE, which later featured in Quentin Tarantino’s JACKIE BROWN.
SHARKY’S MACHINE is available by searching on YouTube Movies:
The soundtrack can be ordered here: