''Deadly Hero'' is a 1975 American

neo noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

starring Don Murray, Diahn Williams,

James Earl Jones James Earl Jones (January 17, 1931 – September 9, 2024) was an American actor. A pioneer for black actors in the entertainment industry, Jones is known for his extensive and acclaimed roles on stage and screen. Jones is one of the few perfor ...

Lilia Skala Lilia Skala (née Sofer; 28 November 1896 – 18 December 1994) was an Austrian and American architect and actress known for her role in the film '' Lilies of the Field'' (1963), for which she received critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomina ...

and

Treat Williams Richard Treat Williams Jr. (December 1, 1951 – June 12, 2025) was an American actor, whose career on stage and in film and television spanned five decades. He received many accolades for his work, including nominations for three Golden Globe ...

in his film debut. It was directed by Ivan Nagy from a screenplay by George Wislocki and Don Petersen. Released in limited locales in 1975 with an R rating from the

Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the Major film studios, five major film studios of the Cinema of the United States, United States, the Major film studios#Mini-majors, mini-major Amazon MGM Stud ...

, it was distributed by AVCO Embassy. It opened to mixed, mostly negative reviews, and was considered a commercial failure.

Plot

Officer Ed Lacy is an 18-year veteran of the

New York City Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

who finds himself demoted from detective back to patrol duty for his violent, racist tendencies and trigger-happy behavior. He still has friends on the job and is ingratiating himself as a booster for a politician named Kevin Reilly who is looking to become the next Mayor of the city. Responding to a call on Manhattan's West Side, he finds a young musician named Sally has been abducted by a mentally unbalanced stalker named Rabbit Shazam. Rabbit holds Sally hostage and threatens and scares her badly but does not actually hurt her physically. When her neighbor figures out something is wrong and calls the cops, Officer Lacy shows up and finds Rabbit holding Sally at knifepoint in the hallway. Rabbit quickly surrenders when Lacy threatens to shoot him, but during the arrest Lacy hits Rabbit and then angrily shoots him twice in the chest, killing him. In shock, Sally does not remember what happened and Lacy tells the detectives that Rabbit was holding the knife when he was shot, and she agrees to this. Lacy becomes a city hero and Reilly makes him a key part of his campaign. However, Sally eventually recalls what really happened and tells the detectives that Lacy killed Rabbit while he was unarmed and had surrendered. Lacy tries to charm Sally into reverting fully into her original story, but she refuses. Lacy then becomes a public pariah and is forced to go on unpaid suspension, while Reilly cuts all ties with him. Lacy then becomes unhinged, threatening Sally directly and having a sleazy ex-cop "scare" her in a failed plot that leaves two civilians dead. With nothing left to lose, Lacy kills the ex-cop and then tracks Sally down to the Manhattan school where she works and kidnaps her and takes her out of the city to a pet graveyard. He ties her up and plans to shoot and bury her in the graveyard but she gets loose and stabs him with the pointed stand on her cello, severely wounding him and getting away into a forest. Lacy runs after her and the final shot of the movie shows him either dead and holding his gun in a failed attempt to kill her when she is in his sights, or about to die but ready to shoot and kill her before he does die.

Cast

* Don Murray ... Lacy * Diahn Williams ... Sally *

... Rabbit *

... Mrs. Broderick *

Conchata Ferrell Conchata Galen Ferrell (March 28, 1943 – October 12, 2020) was an American actress. She played Berta the housekeeper on the sitcom ''Two and a Half Men'' from 2003 to 2015, and she received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outs ...

... Slugger Ann * George S. Irving ... Reilly * Ron Weyand ... Captain Stark *

... Billings *

Hank Garrett Hank Garrett (born Henry Greenberg Cohen Sandler Weinblatt; October 26, 1931) is an American actor, comedian, author, speaker, teacher, mixed martial artist and retired professional wrestler best known for the television role of Officer Nicholso ...

... Buckley *

Dick Anthony Williams Richard Anthony Williams (August 9, 1934 – February 16, 2012) was an American actor. He was best known for his starring performances on Broadway in ''The Poison Tree'', ''What the Wine-Sellers Buy'' and ''Black Picture Show''. Williams also had ...

... D. A. Winston The cast also includes performances by

Josh Mostel Joshua Mostel (born December 21, 1946) is an American actor with numerous film and Broadway credits. The son of Zero Mostel, he is best known for his supporting roles in films such as '' Jesus Christ Superstar'' (1973), '' Harry and Tonto'' (1 ...

as "Victor",

Rutanya Alda Rutanya Alda (born Rūta Skrastiņa; October 13, 1942) is a Latvian-American actress. She began her career in the late 1960s, and went on to have supporting parts in ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), ''Rocky II'' (1979), and ''Mommie Dearest'' (1981). ...

as "Apple Mary", Charles Siebert as "Baker", plus

Beverly Johnson Beverly Ann Johnson (born October 13, 1952) is an American model, actress, singer, and businesswoman. Johnson rose to fame when she became the first Black model to appear on the cover of American '' Vogue'' in August 1974, after Donyale Luna w ...

, Chu Chu Malave,

Danny DeVito Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series ''Taxi (TV series), Taxi'' (1978–1983), which won him ...

as an usher, and an uncredited

Deborah Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble, July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in M ...

and

Chris Stein Christopher Stein (born January 5, 1950) is an American musician and songwriter known as the co-founder and guitarist of the new wave band Blondie. He is also a producer and performer for the classic soundtrack of the hip hop film '' Wild St ...

, from the city's

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

/ new wave-ers Blondie as venue performers. ''Deadly Hero'' is Treat Williams' first motion picture appearance.

Production info

''Deadly Hero'' was directed by Ivan Nagy from a screenplay by George Wislocki and Don Petersen. The film was produced by Thomas J. McGrath and distributed by

AVCO Embassy Pictures Embassy Pictures Corporation (also and later known as Avco Embassy Pictures as well as Embassy Films Associates) was an American independent film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company, which was active from 1 ...

. The film's cinematographer was

Andrzej Bartkowiak Andrzej Bartkowiak, (born 6 March 1950) is a Polish people, Polish cinematographer and film director based in the United States. He became known in the 1980s for his partnership with director Sidney Lumet, shooting 11 of his films between 1981 ...

, with editing by Susan Steinberg, music by Brad

Fiedel The is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, three to five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs, sometimes with a figu ...

and

Tommy Mandel Tommy Mandel (born June 2, 1949) is an American keyboardist most notable for playing with Bryan Adams from 1981 to 1998, starting with the album ''You Want It You Got It''. Career Prior to joining Bryan Adams' band, Mandel released a self-title ...

, and art direction by Alan Herman. ''Deadly Hero'' was filmed entirely on location in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The 102-minute film was released as R-rated (Restricted) from the

Reception

Critical reaction

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune'' who co-hosted a movie review television series alongside colleague Roger Ebert. Siskel started writing for the '' ...

wrote in the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' that the film is "a small triumph" but qualifying that praise by noting, "Of course, expecting nothing helps." A reviewer for the Cineman Syndicate felt that "moments of suspense" helped elevate the "thin script and moody photography". A.H. Weiler of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' described ''Deadly Hero'' as a "fairly derivative Manhattan melodrama" with the supporting cast "wasted in brief, broad portrayals". ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' reviewer Linda Gross called the film "gritty" and "intriguing" but ultimately found it "predictable and pessimistic". Modern critics have been kinder with ''VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever'' describing it as both "gripping" and "chilling" while rating the film three (out of a possible four) bones.

Popular reaction

A commercial failure, George Anderson wrote in the ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Greater Pittsburgh, metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the fi ...

'' that the violent film "suffered sudden death at the box office."

Home media

''Deadly Hero'' was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in the 1980s by

Magnetic Video Magnetic Video Corporation was a home video/home audio duplication service that operated between 1968 and 1982. History Magnetic Video Corporation was established by the co-founder Andre Blay, an American film producer in 1968 with Leon Nic ...

and in 1986 by Embassy Home Entertainment. The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on August 7, 2007, by Trinity Home Entertainment. On December 22, 2015, it was released on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

by Code Red Entertainment through Screen Archives Entertainment Exclusive.

References

External links

* * * {{Ivan Nagy 1975 films 1975 crime drama films 1975 crime thriller films American crime drama films American crime thriller films Fictional portrayals of the New York City Police Department Films about the New York City Police Department Films directed by Ivan Nagy Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City American neo-noir films Films scored by Brad Fiedel Embassy Pictures films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films English-language crime drama films English-language crime thriller films