The Seven-Ups (1973)
June 13, 2016 3:24 AM - Subscribe
A tough detective who is part of an elite New York City unit is trying to find out who killed his partner, but uncovers a plot to kidnap mobsters for money.
The Seven-Ups is a 1973 American dramatic thriller film produced and directed by Philip D'Antoni. It stars Roy Scheider as a crusading policeman who is the leader of The Seven-Ups, a squad of plainclothes officers who use dirty, unorthodox tactics to snare their quarry on charges leading to prison sentences of seven years or more upon prosecution, hence the name of the team. (wikipedia)
• D'Antoni took his sole directing credit on this film. He was earlier responsible for producing the gritty cop thriller Bullitt, followed by The French Connection, which won him the 1971 Academy Award for Best Picture. All three feature a memorable car chase sequence.
• Several other people who worked on The French Connection were also involved in this film, such as Scheider, screenwriter and police technical advisor Sonny Grosso, composer Don Ellis, and stunt coordinator Bill Hickman. 20th Century Fox was again the distributor.
• Buddy Manucci, played by Scheider, is a loose remake of the character of Buddy "Cloudy" Russo he played in The French Connection, a character who also used dirty tactics to capture his enemies, and who was also based on Sonny Grosso.
• Filming locations include Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Westchester County, and the Bronx.
• As in Bullitt and The French Connection, Philip D'Antoni again utilized stunt coordinator and driver Bill Hickman (who also has a small role in the film) to help create the chase sequence for this film. Filmed in and around Upper Manhattan, New York City, the sequence was edited by Gerald B. Greenberg (credited as Jerry Greenberg), who also has an associate producer credit on this film and who won an Academy Award for his editing work on The French Connection.
• The chase sequence is located near the middle of the film; in it, Hickman's car is being chased by Scheider. The chase itself borrows heavily from the Bullitt chase, with the two cars bouncing down the gradients of uptown New York (like the cars on San Francisco's steep hills in the earlier film) with Hickman's 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville sedan pursued by Scheider's 1973 Pontiac Ventura Sprint coupe. While Scheider did some of his own driving, most of it was done by Hollywood stunt man Jerry Summers.
• Location shooting for the chase scene was done in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, on the George Washington Bridge, and on New Jersey's Palisades Interstate Parkway and New York's Taconic State Parkway.
• In the accompanying behind-the-scenes featurette of the 2006 DVD release of the film, Hickman can be seen co-ordinating the chase from the street where we see a stuntman in a parked car opens his door as Hickman's vehicle takes it off its hinges. The end of the chase was Hickman's 'homage' to the death of Jayne Mansfield, where Scheider's car (driven by Summers) smashes into the back of a parked tractor-trailer, peeling off the car's roof.
• According to Dennis Farina on Dinner for Five, this film was the most realistic in it's depiction of cops. Farina was a cop in Chicago.
Trailer
This movie is a selection of the Shut Up And Drive! club.
The Seven-Ups is a 1973 American dramatic thriller film produced and directed by Philip D'Antoni. It stars Roy Scheider as a crusading policeman who is the leader of The Seven-Ups, a squad of plainclothes officers who use dirty, unorthodox tactics to snare their quarry on charges leading to prison sentences of seven years or more upon prosecution, hence the name of the team. (wikipedia)
• D'Antoni took his sole directing credit on this film. He was earlier responsible for producing the gritty cop thriller Bullitt, followed by The French Connection, which won him the 1971 Academy Award for Best Picture. All three feature a memorable car chase sequence.
• Several other people who worked on The French Connection were also involved in this film, such as Scheider, screenwriter and police technical advisor Sonny Grosso, composer Don Ellis, and stunt coordinator Bill Hickman. 20th Century Fox was again the distributor.
• Buddy Manucci, played by Scheider, is a loose remake of the character of Buddy "Cloudy" Russo he played in The French Connection, a character who also used dirty tactics to capture his enemies, and who was also based on Sonny Grosso.
• Filming locations include Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Westchester County, and the Bronx.
• As in Bullitt and The French Connection, Philip D'Antoni again utilized stunt coordinator and driver Bill Hickman (who also has a small role in the film) to help create the chase sequence for this film. Filmed in and around Upper Manhattan, New York City, the sequence was edited by Gerald B. Greenberg (credited as Jerry Greenberg), who also has an associate producer credit on this film and who won an Academy Award for his editing work on The French Connection.
• The chase sequence is located near the middle of the film; in it, Hickman's car is being chased by Scheider. The chase itself borrows heavily from the Bullitt chase, with the two cars bouncing down the gradients of uptown New York (like the cars on San Francisco's steep hills in the earlier film) with Hickman's 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville sedan pursued by Scheider's 1973 Pontiac Ventura Sprint coupe. While Scheider did some of his own driving, most of it was done by Hollywood stunt man Jerry Summers.
• Location shooting for the chase scene was done in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, on the George Washington Bridge, and on New Jersey's Palisades Interstate Parkway and New York's Taconic State Parkway.
• In the accompanying behind-the-scenes featurette of the 2006 DVD release of the film, Hickman can be seen co-ordinating the chase from the street where we see a stuntman in a parked car opens his door as Hickman's vehicle takes it off its hinges. The end of the chase was Hickman's 'homage' to the death of Jayne Mansfield, where Scheider's car (driven by Summers) smashes into the back of a parked tractor-trailer, peeling off the car's roof.
• According to Dennis Farina on Dinner for Five, this film was the most realistic in it's depiction of cops. Farina was a cop in Chicago.
Trailer
This movie is a selection of the Shut Up And Drive! club.
The opening scene in this movie is the most glorious copsploitation street interrogation ever. Then they get back to the station and it's all "Sarge is riding my ass." If I was going to make a list of the movies that were the necessary precursors to "48 Hrs," this would be near the top of the list.
posted by rhizome at 10:04 AM on June 13, 2016
posted by rhizome at 10:04 AM on June 13, 2016
It was on TCM a couple of weeks ago. It's a fun movie, if for no other reason than to watch big, lumbering American cars wallow-around corners. That Pontiac Grand Ville is an enormous monster. Every time I see this movie, I marvel at its sheer bulk. I forgot Pontiac even made such a behemoth.
One thing about these movies that always distracts me are the sound effects. The movie is trying so hard to put you right on the street, into the gritty "real" world of cops, but then they use a bunch of overused canned sound effects for everything from guns firing (complete with ricochet sounds) to car engines racing and tires squealing, etc.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:07 AM on June 13, 2016
One thing about these movies that always distracts me are the sound effects. The movie is trying so hard to put you right on the street, into the gritty "real" world of cops, but then they use a bunch of overused canned sound effects for everything from guns firing (complete with ricochet sounds) to car engines racing and tires squealing, etc.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:07 AM on June 13, 2016
I saw this in a hotel lobby in Maine once. I was just thinking about it the other day and couldn't remember the name. Thanks for posting!
posted by kevinbelt at 12:40 PM on June 13, 2016
posted by kevinbelt at 12:40 PM on June 13, 2016
Saw this the other day, like I was collecting Roy Scheider pokemons. It didn't feel like it quite had the heft to be a real movie.
posted by fleacircus at 9:53 PM on September 18, 2023
posted by fleacircus at 9:53 PM on September 18, 2023
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posted by valkane at 3:25 AM on June 13, 2016