McQ
DIRECTED BY JOHN STURGES
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER- MICHAEL WAYNE
MUSIC BY ELMER BERNSTEIN
BATJAC/LEVY-GARDNER PRODUCTION
WARNER BROS
Photo with the courtesy of lasbugas
INFORMATION FROM IMDb
Plot Summary
Police Lieutenant Lon McQ investigates the killing of his best friend
and uncovers corrupt elements of the police department dealing in confiscated drugs.
In Seattle, two uniformed police officers and plainclothesman Stan Boyle are found shot,
to death, early one morning.
Boyle's partner, Lt. Lon McQ, is certain local hood Manuel Santiago is behind these killings,
especially after a known hitman employed by Santiago tries to kill McQ.
Defying the orders of his superior, Captain Ed Kosterman, McQ tails Santiago
. After confrontations with both Santiago and Kosterman and despite the sympathy
of city councilman Franklin Toms, McQ enlists the help of private detective "Pinky" Farrell,
and soon becomes involved in a major narcotics deal - one
that blows up in the face of both McQ and Santiago
and which leads to the discovery of a stunning secret for McQ.
Summary written by Jim Beaver
Full Cast
John Wayne .... Det. Lt. Lon McQ
Eddie Albert .... Capt. Ed Kosterman
Diana Muldaur .... Lois Boyle
Colleen Dewhurst .... Myra
Clu Gulager .... Franklin Toms
David Huddleston .... Edward M. 'Pinky' Farrow
Jim Watkins .... J.C. Davis
Al Lettieri .... Manny Santiago
Julie Adams .... Elaine Forrester
Roger E. Mosley .... Rosey
William Bryant .... Sgt. Stan Boyle
Richard Kelton .... Radical
Richard Eastham .... Walter Forrester
Dick Friel .... Bob Mahoney
Joe Tornatore .... LaSalle
Fred M. Waugh .... Bodyguard (as Fred Waugh)
Chuck Roberson .... Bodyguard (uncredited)
Kim Sanford .... Ginger (uncredited)
Writing Credits
Lawrence Roman
Produced
Arthur Gardner .... producer
Jules V. Levy .... producer (as Jules Levy)
Lawrence Roman .... co-producer
Michael Wayne .... executive producer
Original Music
Elmer Bernstein
Cinematography
Harry Stradling Jr.
Stunts
Gary McLarty .... stunt driver
Hal Needham .... stunt driver
Denny Arnold .... stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Roberson .... stunts (uncredited)
Fred M. Waugh .... stunts (uncredited)
Glenn R. Wilder .... stunts (uncredited)
Trivia
Don Siegel said, "Wayne couldn't have played Dirty Harry (1971). He was too old. He was too old to play McQ, which was just a poor rip-off of Bullitt (1968)."
John Wayne was 66 when he played a cop for the first time.
John Sturges was opposed to the casting of John Wayne in the title role, due to the actor's age.
Although he had occasionally played sheriffs and law-men in his many westerns, this was 1 of only 2 movies of John Wayne's career in which he played a cop.
Originally intended as a vehicle for Steve McQueen. It was heavily rewritten for John Wayne.
John Wayne was ill during filming.
Hal Needham performed the very first car stunt utilizing a black powder cannon charge to help flip the car without ramps in this film. The climatic car chase seen on the beach, near the end of the movie, was first practised on the back lots of LA, and on the 2nd practice run, that was unknowingly overcharged, Needham was nearly killed. Gary McLarty then performed the dynamic stunt flawlessly (and injury free) for the film.
When the film was released one critic suggested Lon McQ looked like he should be celebrating his Diamond Jubilee on the police force.
The movie was heavily influenced by Bullitt (1968).
This movie was previewed at the Harvard Square Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts following a Harvard Lampoon roast for John Wayne at the event. He was presented with a replica of pawn balls called The Brass Balls Award.
McQ's car was an extremely rare Brewster Green 1973 Pontiac Trans Am SD-455 (Super Duty).
When the film was previewed in January 1974 John Wayne was being treated for pneumonia in London.
Myra (Colleen Dewhurst) asks McQ whether he brought her coke or skag, because she does not do skag. Skag was a common 70s slang word for heroin, a reference not so commonly heard in later years, and especially uncommon in the twenty-first century.
This is the only movie westerns director John Sturges and westerns film actor John Wayne made together.
The "hospital" where the drug heist takes place, was on Beacon Hill in Seattle. It was built in 1932 by the U.S. government as a Marine hospital, and became a Public Health Service Hospital until recently, when Amazon.com took it over and revamped it for it's Seattle headquarters until 2010. The building is called the Pac-Med Building and it's listed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks.
Kim Sanford's entire dialogue is dubbed, either by Sanford, or by another actress.
John Wayne formally separated from his third wife during filming, although they had not lived together since 1967.
The boat that McQ lives on actually belonged to John Wayne.
John Wayne's favorite director, John Ford died of cancer soon after filming ended.
The film is noted for introducing the infamous MAC-10 submachine gun to the general public and creating a demand for it.
Although this is the first movie where John Wayne played a cop, he had previously played a Federal Agent in the movie Big Jim McLain (1952).
A novelization of the film, written by Alexander Edwards, was published in 1974 by Warner Books. The novel was written before the filming of the movie and consequent script changes. There are subtle differences, such as McQ living in an apartment rather than a boat, and the gun used by McQ in the climax is a Mauser in the book instead of the grander Mac 10 used in the movie. Some scenes are deleted or modified, but on the whole the book is true to the movie in both dialogue and plot.
The car chase finale was filmed on the Olympic Peninsula; there were filming delays when the beach was foggy.
John Wayne starred in this film, along with Brannigan (1975), because he missed out on starring in Dirty Harry (1971).
Sneak previewed in Seattle, Washington, where the production was filmed, on January 4, 1974.
The Seattle Fire Department Mobile Intensive Coronary Care Unit known as "Medic One" can be seen in the parking lot of Harborview Hospital. It is the large red and white camper-type van with Seattle Fire Department markings. This unit was the first unit of the Medic One program and one of the first Fire Department Paramedic units in the country.
The cars, including the bullet hole ridden Trans Am, were returned (shipped via car carrier) to Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California.
Despite being filmed in Seattle, the cities most prominent landmark, The Space Needle, is never actually seen in the film. But if you look very closely during the laundry truck chase, as the truck is exiting the freeway, the Seattle Center Arena is just visible in the background briefly, an
Sneak previewed in Seattle, Washington, where the production was filmed, on 4 January 1974.
This is the only movie that western-director John Sturges and cowboy-actor John Wayne made together.
Although John Wayne claimed he made this movie because he regretted turning down Dirty Harry (1971), it has been suggested that he was never actually offered the earlier movie due to his age.
The film is noted for introducing the infamous MAC-10 submachine gun to the general public and creating a demand for it.
Kim Sanford is dubbed.
The movie was heavily influenced by Bullitt (1968) and Dirty Harry (1971).
The hospital where the drug heist takes place is now the Seattle headquarters of Amazon.com.
Stuntman (and later director) Hal Needham designed the car chase at the end of this film. It featured the first staged rollover of a car in film history.
The car chase finale was filmed on the Olympic Peninsula; there were filming delays when the beach was foggy.
Although he had occasionally played sheriffs and lawmen in his many Westerns, this was the only one of two movies of John Wayne's career in which he played a cop.
Goofs
Audio/visual unsynchronised
None of McQ's daughter Ginger's spoken dialogue match what her lips are doing. It appears that her entire dialog was overdubbed, either by herself after the fact, or by another actress.
After McQ finishes his visit with his ex-wife Elaine, her husband Walter, and his daughter Ginger, he turns around and begins to walk away. He doesn't stay on the sidewalk but cuts across the grass. Special Effect walking sounds are edited in here, of someone walking on a hard surface (such as cement), which would not be made by someone walking on grass.
Character error
When Stan Boyle (William Bryant) parks the car he used to kill the cops from in the used car lot, he reaches out the window to open the car door while wearing gloves, and then takes the gloves off, puts them in the leather pouch with the gun, and puts his hand on the steering wheel to steady himself while getting out of the car. Since he was wearing gloves, it would not matter whether he used the inside door handle, so there was no reason to reach through the window to use the outside handle. Also, since he had taken the gloves off, he should not have touched the steering wheel with his hand and fingers. A veteran cop would have known these things, and more than likely would have kept the gloves on until after he passed the car lot's chain link fence, which he also touches with his bare hand/fingertips on the way out.
At the end of the movie in the beach gun shooting scene, the occupant in the first car wakes up and grabs his gun when McQ is facing towards the second car (and the briefcase in the water). If you were going to try to shoot a guy with an automatic gun, would you stay in your seat and quietly shoot him in the back (with the window to steady your shot), or would you do as he did and make noise by opening the car door?
When McQ leaves the state building after the drug heist to follow the laundry truck, he runs to his Trans Am, opens the door, and is seen getting in head first before the cut away. Since John Wayne was 6'4" tall, it would have been impossible for him to get into a Trans Am that way, he would have to go right leg first, and then slide into the seat, tilting his body to the left as he does it, and twisting his neck out of the way until his butt hit, and slid across the seat, which is the way he is seen to do it when he comes out of Pinky's office into the alley.
Continuity
At one point, the part in Eddie Albert's hair changes from one side to the other and back again.
In the end-of-film chase scene, Santiago's blue car skids to a halt in the surf with the front facing the ocean. In all remaining scenes, the car has turned around 180 degrees, with the trunk nearest the ocean.
After McQ shows Myra the balloons of cocaine in his handkerchief, and gets up from the chair, the balloons roll off the handkerchief and onto the floor. When he is rebuffed by Myra, and returns to the chair, the cocaine is back on the handkerchief and not on the floor.
At the concession stand, McQ shows Rosey "five bills" in the newspaper then folds the paper closed. Cut to a different angle and the paper is slightly open and the bills are visible. Cut back to the first angle and the paper is closed again.
When following the laundry van, McQ's car takes a short cut over very dusty, uneven ground, and then re-enters the highway covered in dust. Just before entering the tunnel there is an overhead shot of the car where it is very clean, once out of the tunnel the car is dusty again.
At the end of the movie in the beach gun shooting scene, all three of the cars and occupants are at the edge of the surf, with waves coming up past the cars. As one of the bad guys walks up, he is walking up through the surf to get the briefcase when McQ fires at the briefcase, which can be seen partially in the water. As the guy jumps back, he is clearly up on dry sand, way up from the surf.
At the end of the film, as the ambulance is driving up off of the beach, there's a long shot of the crowd gathered around and a police helicopter parked next to the road. No one is near the helicopter except a small child who starts to climb onto the back of it, and his mother, who immediately pulls him off of it. A second later, in the next cutaway shot from the opposite angle, the woman and child are suddenly no longer there, but there is now a pilot who is retrieving something from the seat before closing the door.
Crew or equipment visible
At around the 1h 35 minute mark, McQ gets out of the police car he stole from the police lot, and leaves it to roll down the hill and crash. When the camera angle is inside the car, black gloves can be barely seen on the steering wheel, and when the camera angle switches to outside the car, the silhouette of the stunt driver can be made out occupying the driver's seat, dressed in black. The director uses the shadows and camera angles to obscure it as much as possible, but the stunt driver is barely visible.
When McQ goes to visit Pinky (David Huddleston) for the first time in Pinky's office, when they get up to leave, the microphone wire can be seen taped under Pinky's dress shirt.
Factual errors
When Myra is murdered, the hit man uses a revolver with a suppressor. A suppressor is effective only when all the gases expelled from the cartridge are channeled through it. Semi-automatics and automatics do this by design, because the chamber holding the cartridge is continuous with the barrel. Revolvers, however, have a small gap between the cylinder and the forcing cone of the barrel (the cylinder gap) as a necessity of their design (because the cylinder has to turn). Some gas expelled from the fired round escapes at this point, and this discharge of gas is enough to render the suppressor useless. (A possible exception to this would be a gas-seal revolver, but the hit man is clearly using a traditional revolver that shows a flash of gas escaping the cylinder gap with his first pull of the trigger.)
When McQ (John Wayne) breaks into warehouse and isolates the alarm he clips the bypass cable to the wrong side of the circuit (door).
Revealing mistakes
McQ uses an Ingram MAC-10 9mm machine pistol, which fires approximately 20 rounds per second. When firing the MAC-10 in the car, on the beach, no empty cartridges are ejected from the gun. Emptying a full 30 round magazine would have sprayed casings all over the car.
In the beach chase scene, when McQ veers right behind the big rock, when he comes out, the stunt driver can be clearly seen, and it is not John Wayne.
Near the end of the film, when two cars full of bad guys shows up after the shootout next to the train bridge, Mcq and Lois jump in their car and speed off onto the beach. When the tires start to spin on the soft, wet sand, they squeal as if the car was on pavement.
* Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers):
At the end of the movie in the beach gun shooting scene, the occupant in the first car wakes up and grabs his gun when McQ is facing towards the second car (and the briefcase in the water). If you were guying to try to shoot a guy with an automatic gun, would you stay in your seat and quietly shoot him in the back (with the window to steady your shot), or would you do as he did and make noise by opening the car door?
* Factual errors
When McQ (John Wayne) breaks into warehouse and isolates the alarm he clips the bypass cable to the wrong side of the circuit (door).
Filming Location
Aberdeen, Washington, USA
Quinault Indian Reservation, Washington, USA
Seattle, Washington, USA
Ocean Shores, Washington, USA
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