Report to the Commissioner

Report to the Commissioner is a 1975 American crime drama film based on James Mills' 1972 novel. It involves a rookie cop (Michael Moriarty) in the New York City Police Department who is assigned a special missing person case, which in fact is meant to be a wild-goose chase to back up an undercover female police officer's role as the girlfriend of a drug dealer.

Report to the Commissioner
Theatrical release poster by Tom Jung
Directed by	Milton Katselas
Screenplay by	Abby Mann Ernest Tidyman
Based on	Report to the Commissioner by James Mills
Produced by	M.J. Frankovich
Starring	Michael Moriarty Yaphet Kotto Susan Blakely Héctor Elizondo Tony King
Cinematography	Mario Tosi
Edited by	David Blewitt
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Production company	Frankovich Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	February 5, 1975 (1975-02-05)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The film was directed by Milton Katselas and features a musical score by Elmer Bernstein. The script is by two Oscar-winning screenwriters, Abby Mann (Judgment at Nuremberg) and Ernest Tidyman (The French Connection). It marked Richard Gere's film debut.

Plot

Beauregard "Bo" Lockley (Michael Moriarty), long-haired and thoughtful, is a new type of undercover detective in the New York City Police Department. He is assigned to find a missing young woman (Susan Blakely), but he is not told she is actually an undercover officer whose latest assignment is to get close to a heroin dealer, Thomas 'Stick' Henderson (Tony King), that the department has long been wanting to stop.

Lockley finds her living with the dealer in the Times Square, area. Frustrated by his presence, as it jeopardizes her assignment, she arranges to meet with Lockley the following morning. However, when she misses the appointment, he goes to where she and Henderson are living, and in the confused shoot-out that follows, Lockley accidentally shoots her dead.

Lockley chases Henderson through the streets and into the Saks Fifth Avenue department store, and the two end up trapped in an elevator between floors, holding guns on each other. The two men bond during the fruitless negotiations that follow. They eventually agree to try to exit the elevator car through the trapdoor in its ceiling. However, the entire area is surrounded by heavily armed police, who shoot Henderson, killing him.

Lockley's and the policewoman's superior officers, determined to save their careers, scramble to come up with a story that would be minimally embarrassing to the department. They claim that Lockley, the woman and the dealer were involved in a lovers’ triangle and that Lockley shot her out of jealousy.

Cast

• Michael Moriarty - Bo Lockley
• Yaphet Kotto - Richard 'Crunch' Blackstone
• Susan Blakely - Patty Butler
• Héctor Elizondo - Captain D'Angelo
• Tony King - Thomas 'Stick' Henderson
• Michael McGuire - Lt. Hanson
• Edward Grover - Captain Strichter
• Dana Elcar - Chief Perna
• Bob Balaban - Joey Egan (as Robert Balaban)
• William Devane - Asst. D.A. Jackson
• Stephen Elliott - Police Commissioner
• Richard Gere - Billy
• Vic Tayback - Lt. Seidensticker
• Albert Seedman - Detective Schulman
• Mark Margolis - Bartender (uncredited)
• Noelle North - Samantha

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 41 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Report to the Commissioner presents some compelling performances and atmospherically gritty cinematography, but its central story of police corruption becomes overwrought and contrived."^[1]

See also

• List of American films of 1975