Across 110th Street

Starring:Frank Adu, Frank Arno, Joseph Attles, Paul Benjamin, Ed Bernard, Tina Beyer, Gerry Black, Samuel Blue Jr., Norman Bush, Anthony C. Cannon, Maria Carey, Anthony Charnota, Dick Crockett, Keith Davis, George DiCenzo, Joe Dismas, Norma Donaldson, Antonio Fargas, Brendan Fay, Joe Fields
Director: Barry Shear
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Old school at its best
Across 110th Street
Brutish, noisy, incoherent police melodrama...
Great Soundtrack
Across 110th Street

Across 110th Street
Starring: Frank Adu , Frank Arno , Joseph Attles , Paul Benjamin , and Ed Bernard
Director: Barry Shear
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005N7Z2
Release Date: 2001-10-16

Description

Slicker than a Harlem shakedown, Across 110th Street "hits hard" (Cue) with a jacked-up, smacked-down thrill-ride through the hell-raisin' hoods of Harlem! Cooler-than-cool Anthony Quinn leads a hot cast, including Anthony Franciosa and Yaphet Kotto, in a "hair-raising" (Motion Picture Herald) cop thriller that packs a double barrel of "gory vengeance raw, ugly and unnervingly real" (Playboy)! When a crew of gun-totin' gangstas knocks over a Mafia racket in Harlem, their plan gets blown to hell and the crib gets blown to bits! But as the bullets start flyin' and cops start dyin', a pair of New York's finest (Quinn and Kotto) are forced to work together to bring justice to the streets before the Mafia brings the ghetto to its knees! Now, wanted by the Man and hunted by the Mob, there ain't no way these homicidal homeboys are getting across 110th Street exceptin a body bag!

Customer Reviews:

Old school at its best.......2007-05-03

If you like old school blacksploitation films then you will love this. It is chock full of well know actors and the theme is outta sight!

Across 110th Street.......2007-02-15

When a dry-cleaner, a building superintendent, and a party animal decide to make a better life for themselves--split threeways--and dress up like cops to rip off $300 000 from the Mob, they don't exactly commit the perfect crime. The Mob sends its most sadistic enforcer, and some other violence-prone creeps, into Harlem to teach everyone across 110th Street that said street is a dividing line, not to be crossed. Meanwhile, Yaphet Kotto and Anthony Quinn play two detectives who have nothing but contempt for each other--but their job is to try and collar the three perps before the mobsters manage to hunt them down and eliminate them ("it's not about the money...it's about honor and respect").

Quinn's character, Mattelli, is a blatant racist and unapologetic bully, resorting to beatings and terror whenever he wants info. Kotto, as Pope, is more the stoic, silent--if slightly twitchy- type, who copes with his new partner as best he can, while occasionally losing his cool with the raging bull he's saddled with. The two barely communicate with each other as they follow the few leads they come up with that may point them to any of the fugitive trio, who have scattered in fear, but not enough to cover their tracks; the tension-filled silence between the two leads is as effective as most of the incendiary dialogue when they lash out at each other. I wish we could have learned more about Pope's background or personal life, so that Yaphet Kotto would have a bit more to do in the role (Quinn, the loudmouth, moans about his past and his personal problems enough so that, as vile as he is, we get to know more of what he's all about).

Then there's the action and violence, resulting mainly from the mobsters on a mission getting to their targets--or any unwilling informants that may know the names or whereabouts of the targets--before the cops. Anyone who gets shot instantly loses a quart of blood (though this is 1970's blood, which was apparently a different colour than today's blood). BLAM!--and it's like a hose is turned on. All shakedowns and roughings-up are painfully severe, and I'm just talking about Mattelli's handiwork. Fortunately, the violence sprays all over a wonderfully involving and serpentine plot that shifts smoothly from character to character; Quinn and Kotto almost step aside to let the bad guys take this movie hostage, and it works well. Not that they're contribution isn't riveting or relevant--the two detectives have the very best scene, as they both invade the office of a smirky gangster named Doc, who puts them in their place--but this film really belongs to Logart and Harris, two of the moneygrabbers turned murderers, as they hide, and then run, for their lives. For them, it's not the honor; it's definitely the money. Rich or dead, all the way. The fear only comes when--in the end--they each turn their final corner.

I thought the very last moment of the film was a bit senseless, although, thinking it over, I guess it counts as revenge. Besides that, it's all wickedly spot-on: the dialogue, the acting, the music, the pace, the plot, the costumes, the action...every scene is a treat.

Watch this with L.A. Confidential, or maybe Snatch.

Brutish, noisy, incoherent police melodrama..........2006-12-17

"Across 110th Street" is about a hijack of Mafia cash, in which Anthony Quinn became involved in an unsympathetic role as an old-line cop, on the take for years and ready to retire...

Quinn gives a controlled, nicely shaded performance of a character who has long ago sensed that all his efforts are not going to do more than lift the smallest corner of the lid of crime... He does his job and he does it well according to his lights, but he is not above taking a bribe from a racketeer... His method of dealing with a reluctant witness is to hit hard first and ask questions later...

His captain Frank Mattelli actually is part of the film's somewhat irrelevant subplot, dealing with the rivalry between two cops (opposite Yaphet Kotto as the younger, "clean," black lieutenant bucking for Quinn's job), while the police, the Mafia and the black syndicate each tries to track down the gang of hoods which knocked over Harlem numbers bank...

The strictly legal approach to police work, as exemplified by Yaphet Kotto - who also plays racketeer "Mr. Big" in "Live And Let Die" - is not for Quinn... This is his territory, his little kingdom, and he keeps the peace as best he knows...

"Across 110th Street" remains brutish, noisy, incoherent police melodrama, with fashionable sadism and predictable performances...

Great Soundtrack.......2006-08-03

The best thing about Across 110th Street is the music with Bobby Womack and J.J. Johnson teaming up on the excellent soundtrack. The movie has a decent feel to it as far as cop dramas went during that time, but there were much better movies such as Gordon Parks' Shaft and Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night. Still, it is fun to watch if for nothing more than Yaphet Kotto, who would later play the precinct captain in Homicide, a long way from the blaxploitation films of the 70's.

Across 110th Street.......2005-08-22

Well this movie is nothing special, I laugh at anyone who says it's the greatest crime drama ever, it's not, it's not
even at the same level as "Heat", it's typical offensive Blaxploitation.

That about sums up the movie, except not as well known
and not as effective as "Heat", Anthony Quinn and Yaphette are
mirror images of Sidney Poitier's character and Rod Steiger. Pretty standard blaxplotation.

Quinn basically plays a racist police named Capt. Mattelli
whose about as racist as they come beating up any black person in his path, unfortunately no one in this film gives him an equal amount of beatings.

Kotto as Lt. Pope who is working the case with him involving stolent loot of the mafia from a couple of black criminals.

Man all the characters in the movie are truly revolting black and white. Mattelli isn't the only racist cop, and in fact he's a hypocrite racist who is taking money from a black mafia
kingpin!!!!! Truly hilarious.

There are other racist and corrupt white cops
, and for a twist we have some black pimps and
dealers who sell out their black partners
in crime.

Really there isn't too much to say about the movie,
it's a Blaxploitation, we all know how this
bad films ends.

I do get a kick of Lt. Pope slamming the Captain down calling him a racist sob (which he is) and the Captain having the gall to change the subject: "You want my job, don't you!!!"

Not really he just wants you to stop being a white
beatnik racist.

Anyhow only for true movie collectors of this type
of cinema everyone else should avoid it.

DVD:

DVD

The Fugitive - Vol. 12 - The Judgement - Part Two