Pedestrian Crossing

By R.S.

BRANNIGAN Directed by DOUGLAS HICKOX Screenplay by CHRISTOPHER TRUMBO, MICHAEL BUTLER, WILLIAM P. McGIVERN and WILLIAM NORTON

It is a promising idea: John Wayne as a Chicago cop in London to extradite a big-time gang leader who has fled his jurisdiction. The comic possibilities of watching Big John do his bullish best to get his man, while tiptoeing through the tea-cozy minefield of British decorum, seem endless. Any American who has tried to take lunch at a club in St. James's without seeming to be an absolute plonk in the headwaiter's eye will appreciate Wayne's problem --and perhaps look forward to seeing an exasperated Duke put an end to all that social fiddle by busting a few heads in true American democratic style.

Well, there is a brawl in Brannigan, but it takes place in a humble pub, is poorly motivated and feebly staged. It says nothing at all relevant or original about the international clash of manners that the movie keeps edging toward and then backing away from. This seems all the more disappointing since the star himself appears fit and fresh and more than usually eager to have some fun with his image in a setting that is novel for him.

Nor is he the only character in search of an author. The redoubtable Richard Attenborough is on hand, as a titled English policeman. He seems willing to exchange barbs with Wayne, if any come to mind, as do Judy Geeson, as a detective, and Mel Ferrer, as the man in charge of the overly complicated fake kidnaping of the hood.

Constant Motion. Alas, the film makers believe that Wayne's public expects to see him in constant-- if irrelevant-- motion (most of what goes on here can scarcely be dignified with the term action). They crank up chase sequences that are unoriginal in conception and neglectful of the untapped opportunities London presents for cinematic excitement. Since Director Hickox has no apparent gift for adventure sequences, it may be just as well that he did not undertake situations that would tax his limited ingenuity. But it has been a long time since True Grit, and maybe one of our Bicentennial projects ought to be a search for a movie worthy of a national treasure like John Wayne. It is maddening to see him caught up in incompetencies like Brannigan.

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