Warning Shot-1967-the film is very enjoyable in the time-honoured private eye manner

Best known for his role as Richard Kimble in the classic 1960s television series THE FUGITIVE, David Janssen reprises his signature persona as another wrongly accused good guy in the taut action... Best known for his role as Richard Kimble in the classic 1960s television series THE FUGITIVE, David Janssen reprises his signature persona as another wrongly accused good guy in the taut action thriller WARNING SHOT. Working on a routine stakeout outside a shadowy apartment building, Los Angeles police detective Tom Valens (Janssen) has a menacing encounter with an armed stranger that results in the suspect's shooting death. When the dead man turns out to be a highly respected, philanthropic physician--and his weapon is nowhere to be found--Valens is accused of murdering an innocent man and sets out to clear his name in a solo investigation that nets some surprising revelations. Made at the height of the Swinging '60s but approximating the atmosphere of 1940s film noir, WARNING SHOT is a satisfyingly old-fashioned murder mystery with a jazzy film score by composer Jerry Goldsmith and a star-studded supporting cast that includes Ed Begley, Keenan Wynn, Lillian Gish, Stefanie Powers, Joan Collins, Carroll O'Connor, and Steve Allen.



There are all kinds of period details that make this movie especially entertaining to see in the 21st century; Warning Shot came out of the ferment of the mid-'60s, a period in which the public was questioning the role and purpose of the police, and it sings with topicality, in its casting and look, and the Jerry Goldsmith score, a bold, angry-sounding jazz-rock-blues amalgam. Thanks to director Kulik's penchant for lots of odd camera angles and very busy editing, coupled with Joseph Biroc's carefully lit color cinematography, one does get a true '60s analog to the classic 1940s crime film in terms of visual style, and with a considerably greater dose of violence (there's also one refreshingly honest -- though now stereotyped -- depiction of a gay designer, played by Vito Scotti, no less). The movie also tells some sad truths about human nature, both individually and collectively, that more recent incidents of police shootings, in New York and elsewhere, remind us haven't changed in 40 years.