52 Pick-Up (1986)

In director John Frankenheimer's sleazy neo-noir crime-thriller about infidelity, blackmail, burglary, and murder - it was produced by the notorious pair of Cannon Pictures honchos Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. 52 Pick-Up was the second attempt to adapt crime writer Elmore Leonard's best-selling 1974 novel - the first attempt was the less faithful The Ambassador (1984) by director J. Lee Thompson that starred Rock Hudson and was set in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The film, set in mid-May of 1986 in the Los Angeles area, contained copious amounts of vengeful violence, sex, and witty dialogue, incorporating the Death Wish styled vigilante theme popular at the time. Its taglines were: "Greed, Extortion. Revenge," and "His Wife... His Mistress... His Career... A Deadly Trap," referring to how the film's main embattled hero was blackmailed by three slimy low-lifes for thousands of dollars over his extra-marital fling with his stripper-mistress, recorded on a videotape, and went on to smartly seek revenge and win back his disgraced wife.

• in the film's opening, successful and rich businessman and construction manufacturer (at Ranco Steel with gross sales of $12 million) Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) was living the good life in the LA suburbs, with a nice house and a "snappy" car - Jag XKE; he had become rich when the US government bought his steel patent for use in manufacturing spaceships; he had blue-collar roots and was an AF Major and a Korean War veteran, but was also regularly unfaithful to his wife
• his wife of 23 years Barbara Mitchell (Ann-Margret) was an attractive, politically-involved female who was a senior member of the "Clean Air" Commission; she was running for a Councilwoman seat in LA County (in the 13th District) on a ticket with Mark Arveson as a candidate for LA's District Attorney
• on the side, Harry was having a mid-life affair with Cynthia or "Cini" Frazier (Kelly Preston), a 22 year-old topless model/dancer - she was a part-time worker in an LA Skid Row "live nude models" salon; she was also going to secretarial school at night
• in the film's opening, Harry's life was completely altered when he left work and drove to a secretly-rented apartment (on Crenshaw Blvd.) for his ongoing extra-marital affair with Cynthia; he was confronted by three masked gangsters inside the apartment:
  • Alan Raimy (John Glover) - a cold-blooded, amoral blackmailer, and a sleazy maker of amateur "dirty" porno films; he was a XXX-porn theater manager-owner (of Gold Coast Enterprises in San Francisco) on Western Ave., and also owned a 'LIVE NUDE MODEL' salon; he was a twice-convicted rapist, and ran an illegal abortion racket, but also was a financial whiz with a business degree from Northwestern
  • Leo Franks (Robert Trebor) - the homosexual manager of Raimy's 'LIVE NUDE MODEL' salon; a simpering, nervous and cowardly wimp
  • Bobby Shy (Clarence Williams III) - a sociopathic black pimp with dreadlocks; with a past criminal record; a coke-addicted killer; often with stripper-model and part-time girlfriend Doreen (Vanity), who was friends with Cynthia

Lead Blackmailer and Sleazy Pornographer Alan Raimy (John Glover)

Leo Franks (Robert Trebor)

Bobby Shy (Clarence Williams III)

• the blackmailers, who had set him up (through Cynthia who worked for Raimy), forced Harry to watch an incriminating VCR videotape; the tape viewed Harry on summer vacation in August for five days at the Las Palmas Hotel in Palm Springs, CA with Cynthia: ("Your wife thought you were in a convention in Miami! You rascal! Now, here you are shooting the broad. Nice little body. Mmm. Great tits. What do ya think?")
• Raimy narrated most of the short amateur film, including describing how Cynthia was a "LIVE NUDE MODEL" - "She told you she was a model, right? What, did you think it was for Vogue?" He ended the first section of the videotape with: "As the sun sets slowly in the west, we say goodbye to beautiful Palm Springs, Oasis of Intrigue and extracurricular games of Hide the Salami, and we return to real life"
• Harry was also viewed renting a cheap motel room for sex with Cynthia at the Chalet Lodge Motel in Los Angeles: (Raimy: "You know, you start chasing that young pussy - you got to stay in shape. I bet she drains you dry"); the blackmailers, led by Raimy, demanded a one-time payment of $105,000 for a year, and insisted on an initial payment of $10,000 in two days to purchase the damning videotape from them
• at work, Harry met with his attorney Jim O'Boyle (Lonny Chapman), and described his predicament with a dancer-model, revealing that he was going to break off his affair that day: ("I must have thought I was falling in love. What an asshole!"); Harry resisted O'Boyle's strong recommendations to not pay the ransom and notify police, fearing that his personal scandal would ruin Barbara's run for City Council ("Can you imagine what the papers would do with that?...Am I going to destroy the one thing that she's built for herself? I can't do that. I won't do it"); when Harry asked: "Do I pay them and just forget it?", O'Boyle reminded him: "That wouldn't end it"
• Harry took matters into his own hands by first painfully confessing to his wife about his 3 1/2 month infidelity; [Note: If Harry was first with Cynthia in August of the previous year 1985, and now it was mid-May 1986, he was lying about the affair's duration of only a few months, or was this a film discontinuity.] she claimed that she had known about his indiscretions for about a month, and asked with tremendous hurt in her voice: "Was the sex that good? Lots of kinky things? Is that it?...Our marriage has lasted for 23 years. That's longer than she's been alive...Did you play Daddy? Is that it?"
• the sleazy activities of Raimy were seen in the next sequence - at a party that he was hosting, he was live-filming (with a monitor) two naked girls emerging from a hot-tub, who complained to him: "Enough is enough, we're leaving"; one of the busty blonde attendees (real-life porn star Amber Lynn) teasingly flashed her boobs for Raimy's video-camera: "You wanna see my tinkies? You wanna see my tits?...Say please"

Raimy's Sleazy Party with Two Naked Females Videotaped and Broadcast on Live TV

Busty Blonde Award-Winning Porn Star (Amber Lynn) at Raimy's Party

• Leo, one of the blackmailers, was also in attendance at the party and was impressed by the "big time porno star" - and he added: "She won best actress last year at these awards, like the Academy Awards for f--k films"
• looking depressed, Cynthia was speaking to one of her friends/co-workers Doreen (80s pop star Vanity), the part-time boyfriend of Bobby Shy; she was upset that her affair was over with a married man (Harry), and now she was responsible for paying the rent: ("I'm really tired of my life...F--k this school thing, too, you know? I haven't been goin'"); plans were made that evening in Raimy's demented mind to do away with Cynthia ("I want her out of here. Now!")
• at an LA Dodgers night ball-game versus the Mets, Harry was instructed to deliver his first pay-out - he passed an envelope stuffed with paper and a note to a peanuts vendor, who then delivered the envelope to Bobby Shy; after the three blackmailers sped out of the stadium toward downtown, they opened the envelope with a note that read: "Bag Your Ass!" - Harry had stubbornly refused to pay the ransom to the blackmailing extortionists
• the next day in a frightening and creepy scene, Raimy entered the Mitchell's home, without permission, to confront and intimidate Barbara in her living room when she returned home; he posed as an insurance salesman for his accounting services company, the Silver Lining Accounting Service (with the improbable motto: "We satisfy or we eat it") - a business that provided personalized monthly accounting services; she was immediately skeptical and threatened to call the police on him: ("You walk into my home and you refuse to leave"); she didn't realize that - as Raimy explained to his buddy Leo who picked him up, he had been upstairs and had stolen one of Harry's sportcoats, shirts, ties, and his P9 Automatic with a box of shells
• a day or two later, Harry was forcibly kidnapped by Bobby Shy with a gun to his back as he returned to his car, and directed to drive in his Jaguar to a deserted factory; there, he was forced to watch a "snuff" videotape of Cynthia's murder, shot by Raimy as the director with a running commentary; as the "second feature" started, starring Cynthia, Raimy interjected: "Uh, this is where the credits would be. Slick Entertainment Incorporated presents: 'Tit in the Wringer, or How Harry Mitchell Agreed to Pay A Hundred and Five Thou a Year and Found Happiness'"
• the blackmailer upped the demands - now asking for $105,000 PER year; the topless dancer/mistress Cynthia was videotaped being tied up with a rope (her arms were handcuffed behind her back, and her shirt was ripped off to render her topless); Raimy creepily spoke: "Some people, you gotta tie down to convince 'em they can act....This is to keep your interest, or whatever, up. It's a little skin"; then as Raimy proudly bragged about the lighting and announced he used two cameras for the shoot, she was brutally and senselessly murdered (with five bullet shots) behind a wooden board placed on her chest - using Harry's stolen gun (rigged with a rope tied to the trigger to avoid fingerprints) to frame him, and leaving behind Harry's monogrammed sportscoat

The Second Videotape - The Snuff Murder of Stripper-Dancer Cynthia (Kelly Preston)

• the crazed Raimy praised Cini's performance: "You know, the thing that makes Cini a star is that she not only lives her part, she dies it, too"; Raimy's blackmail demands were then repeated: "You pay us $105 grand a year for the rest of your life, and no more f--kin' around! That's 10 grand day after tomorrow, 10 grand next week. 30 Gs in good faith. You got it? That'll give you time to get the rest together"; after the blackmailers left and Harry was released, he realized that he was sitting on the bloody chair in front of the wall where Cini had been killed
• as it began to sink in what had happened to him, Harry returned home in his Jaguar early the next morning, and asked a perplexed Barbara to confirm that a "creep" had been in their house - and had undoubtedly stolen his P9 gun and his clothes; because he hadn't been home, she hadn't been able to speak to him about the intruder; he realized that he had just a few days to clear his name from the "airtight case" against him for the alleged murder of his mistress; he explained the blackmailers' ploy to extort money from him: ("I don't pay, they put me away...I mean, I can't go to the police. It's my gun!"); Harry sought plans to avenge Cynthia's murder, and insisted that Barbara not quit her political race while he tried to clear his besmirched name during the next few days: ("I never fired that gun. Not once since the day I bought it")
• Harry visited Raimy's 'Live Nude Model' salon and asked specifically to speak to Cynthia's friend Doreen; he rented a Polaroid camera to take pictures of her ($25 for half an hour, $10 for the camera, and $5 for the film), plus showed off to Leo (but didn't deliver) the first $10,000 payment; at first, Doreen thought he was a regular customer: "So tell me, are you a tit man? Or, do you want the whole show?"

Club Prostitute - "Live Nude Model" Doreen (Vanity)

• during a long drawn-out interrogation scene as he sat and watched, she stripped off some of her lingerie down to a black thong, and coyly answered his questions about Cini; he also took Polaroid photos of her performance
• after her act, she proposed that they leave and go to her Crenshaw apartment (in the same building where he used to meet Cynthia), for $100 (including "tea, a smoke, maybe a chance for seconds"); once there, she said she knew that he was snooping for information about Cini: ("You're after somethin', aren't you, and it ain't my pussy, is it?") - she accepted $800 (8 $100 dollar bills) for discreetly answering questions about Leo and his two pals - the suspected blackmailers
• afterwards, Harry was planning on delivering the first $10,000 installment (to buy some time), but first, he confronted the chief blackmailer Raimy working in his upstairs porno theater office (and projection room), with slaps to his face: ("Something about your face makes me want to slap the s--t out of it"); the two worked out an arrangement to meet that evening at the Ranco Steel plant at 12:45 am; during their meeting, Harry proved through his accounting books that he could only raise $52,000 a year due to taxes, and would pay that amount in a few days [Note: This referred to the film's title: 52 Pick-up"]; to keep his compatriots in the dark, Raimy planned to keep news of the revised deal to himself

Harry Confronting Raimy in His Projection Room and In His Own Plant's Office

• Raimy implied to his two pals that they would have to eliminate Harry: "We killed somebody. He saw it in the movie and now he knows about us. That's why one of us is going to have to blow him away" - Bobby Shy realized that he was being asked to be the hit man: ("The man wants me to clean up his mess")
• in a severe torture scene, Bobby Shy threatened to suffocate Doreen with her giant stuffed white teddy bear toy - he rightly suspected her of colluding with Harry when she discreetly divulged Raimy's name, but believed her when she said she didn't provide him with names or where anyone lived or worked; she promised to never talk to Harry again
• then in the middle of the night, after Bobby broke into the Mitchell home, he attempted to strangle Harry, but then after a vicious struggle throughout the inside and outside of the house, Bobby was overpowered and subdued by both Harry and Barbara; when questioned at gunpoint with his own gun before being released, Bobby realized that Raimy was going to double-cross him by not telling him about the new $52K payoff
• eventually in the twisting and turning ending, Harry was able to identify all three blackmailers (with photos of each of them), and trick them into becoming suspicious and turning against each other
• Raimy was able to convince the angry and betrayed Bobby to split the new amount of $52K between themselves and eliminate the cowardly and wimpy Leo: ("What do we need Leo for?...26 grand apiece!")
• meanwhile, Harry met with Leo in the deserted, smoky Derby Bar in downtown and convinced him that his fellow kidnappers were allegedly plotting against him, and were cutting him out of the newest $52K deal: (Leo: "I knew that they were up to something. I knew it. They're plotting something, and they're plotting me out"); fearful and in the midst of a nervous breakdown, Leo stuttered as he talked himself into possibly testifying to the cops and betraying his partners: ("Go to the cops and I'll make a bargain or something, and I'll take the stand and say that they killed the girl, which they did. And they'll, they'll let me plead to blackmail..."); Harry also learned from Leo that Cynthia's body and the videotapes had been dumped in the river and couldn't be used as evidence, but Harry was still undecided about having Leo testify and make the case public

In Her Pool, Barbara Kidnapped by Raimy	Leo Murdered in Front Office of Adult Club	Newspaper Report of Leo's Murder
Barbara Shot Up With Heroin Before Being Raped	Bobby Unexpectedly Shot Dead by Raimy	Doreen Shot Dead Through Windshield

• there were a number of violent and unpredictable incidents:
  • Raimy kidnapped Barbara (while she was swimming in her pool) and held her as a hostage [Note: This was the third break-in into the Mitchell's home!] - after she made an escape attempt, he forced her into the trunk of his car
  • as Leo made frantic plans to leave town in the front office of the "Live Nude Models" salon, Bobby Shy (on the outside sidewalk) shot him in the neck and back through the adult club's shattered front window
  • Raimy took Barbara to the adult-oriented El Royale Motel, and shot her up with "scag" (a slang term for heroin) before raping her (off-screen)
  • in Raimy's warehouse, as Doreen pulled up in her car and Bobby got out to speak to Raimy, he was unexpectedly shot point-blank in the heart; as Doreen attempted to drive through the impenetrable exits, she was shot dead through the windshield (plus an added 2nd bullet)
• in the exciting and tense conclusion during Raimy's scheduled rendezvous with Harry set at 8 pm at the Old Terminal Island Railroad Bridge in Long Beach, Harry was set to deliver the $52,000 cash payment to Raimy and turn over his restored 1965 Jaguar XKE sports-car, in exchange for Barbara unharmed; after the trade, Harry warned Raimy against double-crossing them and killing both of them, by informing him that his financial ledger had Raimy’s fingerprints all over it and his lawyer would turn it over to the authorities if he didn't report back within an hour
• Raimy ordered Barbara and Harry off the bridge while taunting them: "Well, this is it, then. Adios amigos, it's been fun. Beat it! Beat it! You got a fine bitch there! There's a lot of mileage on her, but, she still cooks!"; as Raimy was about to drive off with the booby-trapped getaway vehicle, he turned on the ignition and the stereo radio, and received a warning by Harry's recording - before the car's doors locked automatically, the end of "Stars and Stripes Forever" played, and explosives blew up the car: "Hi Alan. This is the first and last ten seconds of the rest of your life"
• Harry's words ended the film: "So long, Sport!" - using the nickname Raimy had often called him; he had successfully rescued Barbara and smartly helped to dispose of all of the bad guys