During a stakeout, an L.A. cop kills a doctor who presumably pulled a gun but the coroner's inquest finds no gun, forcing the cop to look for it to clear his name.During a stakeout, an L.A. cop kills a doctor who presumably pulled a gun but the coroner's inquest finds no gun, forcing the cop to look for it to clear his name.During a stakeout, an L.A. cop kills a doctor who presumably pulled a gun but the coroner's inquest finds no gun, forcing the cop to look for it to clear his name.
- Police Surgeon
- (as John Garfield Jr.)
- Judge Gerald Lucas
- (as Robert Williams)
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaInitially developed as a made-for-television movie, it was subsequently considered too violent and the subject matter too mature for television, so it was released as a theatrical feature.
- GoofsWhen Tom is talking to Walt, who is in the pool, about flying down to Mexico, the amount of white sunscreen on Walt's lower lip changes between shots.
- Quotes
[Valens suddenly attacks Ed Musso and grabs his gun, pointing it at Musso]
Sgt. Ed Musso: Tom, don't!
Sgt. Tom Valens: Stow it!
Sgt. Ed Musso: Don't make it worse than it is!
Sgt. Tom Valens: I can't help it, now you turn around! Turn around!
[Valens grabs Musso's handcuffs, cuffs Musso's hands together behind his back, grabs his keys, then leads him to his closet]
Sgt. Tom Valens: Just a few more hours, Ed.
Sgt. Ed Musso: Go to hell!
[Valens locks Musso in the closet, then telephones Walt Cody]
Walt Cody: Hello?
Sgt. Tom Valens: Walt, this is Tom Valens. Did I wake you?
Walt Cody: No, but our date's for eight. If you're thinking of flying to Baja tonight, get yourself another boy.
Sgt. Tom Valens: The Baja trip's off. What I've been looking for has been here all the time.
Walt Cody: Well that's great! You need help finding it?
Sgt. Tom Valens: I thought you'd never ask. Bring your muscles, we're gonna open a grave.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films That Ruled the '70s (2012)
I'd like to think of Warning Shot as both, the way The Detective and Madigan mixed the vulnerable with the vulgar. After about the fourth time Janssen's character, Tom Valens, gets abused or beaten or gassed by the well-to-do slimeballs he's sworn to defend, you might start to notice how he'd probably be better off copping a plea for shooting a philanthropist doctor. Instead he swears grimly that he's going to defend his own honor to the bitter end (and repeatedly almost gets his way).
Warning Shot is packed with cameos, people who were legends when I was a kid, and now, forty years after its release, most of the performers are unrecognizable, which makes the story more accessible and less of an exercise in "Hey, look--it's . . . "
What makes the movie work is that David Janssen, looking ten years older than 35, is so very real as a man of good character with no excess intelligence, just grim determination.
A key figure in the story refers to Valens as "Sgt. Gumshoe" or something like that. It fits. Janssen's Valens is ordinary and vulnerable to the hyperventilating police-haters all around him. He can't do much more than reel and lurch from one disaster to the next, while awaiting his guaranteed-to-be-convicted trial. At one point, he gets the stuffing kicked out of him and doesn't even lay a finger on his attackers.
His ex-wife (played by the reptillian Joan Collins) tries to screw him while busting the very organs she's depending on for their quickie. The District Attorney (the equally scaley Sam Wannamaker) announces to Valens that he likes to crush solid and stolid cops whenever possible. By the end, Janssen has no one to turn to for even the most rudimentary support, not even a union rep (a very young and lovely Stephanie Powers, the dead doctor's nurse, can do no more than cluck over his sincerity and give him a ride home).
Nobody can help this poor shlub except himself.
Which brings me back to why Warning Shot is a mixture of reality and topical paranoia. Often, in crisis, people have to revert back to their core values to save themselves. Either they don't have anyone to help them or they don't trust anyone and decide to go it alone. Janssen's Tom Valens does just that.
Yet, at one point, he's told that his career is through no matter what happens. You can see the pain of this reality on Janssen's face as he surveys the damage he's done at the end of Warning Shot. He tosses his piece on the hood of a police car (no gun love here--it's just an ugly tool he wants out of his hand) and looks almost ready to cry from frustration and exhaustion. Like Frank Sinatra's Joe Leland and Richard Widmark's Dan Madigan, Tom Valens needs to get as far away from police work as possible.
- inspectors71
- Mar 29, 2006
- How long is Warning Shot?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $2,500,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 40 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1