Hickey & Boggs
by Robert Culp
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Bill Cosby, Lou Frizzell, Robert Culp, Rosalind Cash, Ta-Ronce AllenDirector: Robert Culp
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Original Language)
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Model: 48935
Studio: A.I.P. Productions, Inc.
DVD Reviews of Hickey & Boggs
DVD Review: Worst DVD release I've ever seen -- movie is great, however.
Summary: 1 Stars
The movie is great but your enjoyment will be ruined by the absolutely horrible quality of the DVD. This is not just bad, it's basically unwatchable, like those bootlegs that people sell on street corners or the "public domain" knockoffs you find in the 99-cent store.
I would petition one of the "retro movie" cable channels to show it and/or the movie company that produced it to release a professional, WIDESCREEN edition of this forgotten 70s classic. This DVD release will, sadly, keep the movie a "forgotten classic."
There's even a typo in the text on the cover of the case! Now that's pretty lame!
DVD Review: Detectives Aren't Heroes Anymore.
Summary: 4 Stars
A few years after their successful run as partners in espionage on television's "I Spy", Robert Culp and Bill Cosby teamed up for "Hickey & Boggs", a cynical 1972 neo-noir that Culp directed. Far from the adventurous, optimistic duo that Culp and Cosby portrayed in "I Spy", Al Hickey (Bill Cosby) and Frank Boggs (Robert Culp) are private investigators with a dearth of clients and abundance of personal problems. They are hired by a Mr. Rice (Lester Fletcher) to locate a woman named Mary Jane Bower and given a short list of her known acquaintances. The first person on the list is found dead, the bodies pile up, the guns get bigger, and the police lose their patience with the detectives' habit of withholding evidence. But Mary Jane (Carmen) seems to be the key to the loot from a big armored car heist, so Hickey and Boggs keep plugging away, with a $25,000 reward at stake and little left to lose.
"Hickey & Boggs" excels in presenting the private investigator as an emasculated relic, barely able to make a living, at odds with the police, relegated by laws and modernity to being "nothing but process servers". The opposite in many ways of the pre-WWII heroic detectives like Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. Even their antiquated firearms illustrate the obsolescence of the P.I.. This isn't a respectable profession any more. Ex-cop Hickey and world-weary, alcoholic Boggs take their clients' money, unconcerned that they are criminals. No one is especially sympathetic, and it is difficult to say who is victim and who is predator, as the fences, Mary Jane, and the detectives seem to be both. The unremitting cynicism and enfeebled protagonists aren't to everyone's taste, but they are typical of film noir of the 1970s.
The first half of "Hickey & Boggs" is riddled with short, out-of-context scenes of Mary Jane's activities that don't make sense until later. The confusion diminishes somewhat as the film progresses, but the plot never does entirely come together. Mary Jane and her partner must fence the money, because the bills are too big for them to spend. But the actions of the various fences who compete for the money don't make sense. Mary Jane is trying to break $1000 bills, which were taken out of circulation in 1969 and had not been printed since 1945. Those look like new bills in the movie. This story didn't need to be as disjointed as it is. I would excuse the confusion early in the film if it reflected the detectives' state of mind, but it really doesn't, because they are following a different trail of evidence. Nevertheless, "Hickey & Boggs" is a heavy dose of pessimism that will more than satisfy the misanthrope in anyone.
The DVD (AIP Studios 2004): This is a terrible transfer of a terrible print. It is very grainy and actually fuzzy. Some additional problems occur around the one-hour mark: At 56 minutes, the picture jumps a few times. At 59 minutes, there are wide bands across the top of the screen. At 1 hour, 5 minutes, there are some thin white lines. Suffice it to say that the picture is bad, but it's watchable. Don't buy this disc unless you absolutely have to have the film. The only bonus features are text bios of Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, which include selected filmographies.
DVD Review: A forgotten Noir from the early seventies
Summary: 4 Stars
Robert Culp and Bill Cosby were the well reminded protagonists of that famous and renowned TV series: "I'm spy", and thence came this inspiration.
Impoverished private detectives (By the way, an absolute requisite for this profession,) are hired for $ 20 a day by an effeminate lawyer to locate his girl friend. But the initial search is full of obstacles, because every contact is killed. So the own detectives are considered the main suspicions.
But through the investigation it will be carved in relief Mary is far to be precisely an angel, being just the peak of a very intriguing tale of heist, corruption, vengeance and extortion. Watch to James Wood in a brief role as Lt Wyatt.
But beware: they will be the only survivors due or perhaps the fact of their minuscule importance.
DVD Review: 3 down 2 to go
Summary: 5 Stars
Having read the various reviews of the Hickey & Boggs dvd I have decided to wait to get the dvd until a quality print is available. I saw this movie when it was released in the theatres. It is one of my 5 movies from that era that are on my list to own. The others are The Long Goodbye, Point Blank, Vanishing Point(all finally on dvd) H & B and Darker Than Amber. I have a poor quality uncut version of Darker w/ Dutch subtitles on VHS and I have a fairly good copy Of Hickey & Boggs I made from TCM that I recorded on DVD. Once a good DVD of Darker (uncut) is released and Hickey & Boggs my quest will be fullfiled. By all means if only a good VHS of H & B is available, get it. The movie is a classicDVD Review: Terrific film, really bad DVD
Summary: 3 Stars
You can tell how bad the DVD is of this film; the website for which I am doing this review does not even list this title on DVD anymore. No question, it is a terrible DVD transfer. I am giving this three stars because it's a great film. The screenplay is by none other than Walter Hill and one of the two leads, Robert Culp, directed--as far as I know, his only feature film directorial effort (he did direct a number of TV show episodes, different shows).
This is a tough as nails noir film with Culp and Bill Cosby as two cynical PIs who get mixed up in a money laundering caper to the tune of 400 grand from a prior bank heist. Also involved are a slick crime boss and his henchmen--one of them is played by a very young Michael Moriarty--and, echoing Chandler, an effeminate lawyer, as well as the cops. The main two of that group are Vincent Gardenia, Sgt. Papadakis, and another early appearance, this time by James Woods at Lt. Wyatt.
But the two title characters carry the film and they do a great job. The dialogue is razor sharp and probably the most cynical in any film from the 70s, and maybe even since then. These two guys are so jaded and emotionally hollowed out that when a tragic loss hits one of them, the other one engages in semi-banter to cheer the first guy up, not even offering any sympathy.
Each of them carries an extra-long barrel revolver; each of them always wears a suit. Boggs (Culp) drinks too much. Each of them is divorced, but Hickey has dreams of getting back together with his wife while Boggs watches his ex dance in a strip club.
As a writer, Walter Hill is almost always great and here he shows his stuff to the max. Hill knows his noir; he smacks the viewer in the face with it, knowing just how far to go without being completely alienating. He's a master screenwriter, no question.
It's really too bad that the DVD quality of this film is so miserable. Maybe one day a clean crisp transfer will be available. Until then, as many others here have said, the VHS copy actually shows better video quality than the crappy DVD. Shame on AIP for putting out such a piece of trash for such a punchy film.
Description of Hickey & Boggs
Bill Cosby and Robert Culp star as two down-on-their-luck Private Investigators who accept a routine request to locate a missing woman, little knowing they would be sent scrambling for their lives in a sizzling, violent underworld caper involving a $400,000 cache from an old robbery. Filmed entirely in sprawling, smog-laden Los Angeles, Hickey And Boggs is gutsy, fast-paced and offers everything anyone could ask for in a detective thriller.General DVDs
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Bestsellers in General DVDs
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Full-Screen Edition)Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
![Quantum of Solace [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Quantum-of-Solace-Blu-ray-B001PPLIFU-X.jpg)
Quantum of Solace [Blu-ray]MGM HOME VIDEO (UNDER FOX); Release date: 2009-03-24; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Lost: The Complete Fifth SeasonRelease date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $36.99
Price in other shops:
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Single-Disc Edition)PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2009-10-20; DVD
Best price: $12.25
Price in other shops:
Terminator Salvation (Widescreen Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-12-01; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
![G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Two-Disc Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] Image](/images/G-I-Joe-The-Rise-of-Cobra-Two-Disc-Edition-Digital-Copy-Blu-ray-B002NXSRX4-X.jpg)
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Two-Disc Edition + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2009-11-03; DVD
Best price: $18.90
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Two-Disc Limited Special Edition + Digital Copy)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Widescreen Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
![Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy & BD-Live) [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Harry-Potter-and-the-Half-Blood-Prince-Blu-ray-DVD-Combo-Digital-Copy-BD-Live-Blu-ray-B000ZELISO-X.jpg)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Blu-ray/ DVD Combo + Digital Copy & BD-Live) [Blu-ray]Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-12-08; DVD
Best price: $15.99
Price in other shops:
Star Trek (Single-Disc Edition)PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2009-11-17; DVD
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Eastern Promises (Widescreen Edition)ALTIN,JOSEF; Release date: 2007-12-23; DVD
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
Point BreakRelease date: 2001-05-22; DVD
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad WorldTRACY,SPENCER; Release date: 2003-10-07; DVD
Best price: $38.57
The Kingdom (Widescreen Edition)FOXX,JAMIE; Release date: 2007-12-26; DVD
Best price: $6.80
Price in other shops:
I Spy - Season 3IMAGE ENT.; Release date: 2008-04-29; DVD
Best price: $12.39
Price in other shops:
The HunterMCQUEEN,STEVE; Release date: 2001-08-14; DVD
Best price: $4.10
Price in other shops:
The Friends of Eddie CoyleIMAGE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2009-05-19; DVD
Best price: $13.99
Price in other shops:
The Dreamers (Original Uncut NC-17 Version)Release date: 2004-07-13; DVD
Best price: $6.19
Price in other shops:
![Freebie and The Bean [VHS] Image](/images/Freebie-and-The-Bean-VHS-6300269671-X.jpg){kind=small}
Freebie and The Bean [VHS]Warner Home Video; Release date: 1995-02-21; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $39.95
Last of the DogmenRelease date: 2000-01-01; DVD
Best price: $99.99