Here Clint Eastwood gets to bring a little of the Western into an urban jungle, playing the title character, an Arizona deputy with his own way of doing things. His sheriff (Tom Tully) is tired of him, but assigns him the task of extraditing a criminal named Ringerman (Don Stroud), who's being held in NYC. Disgusted with the amount of red tape that he's obliged to wade through, Coogan obtains Ringerman through false pretenses - and then the young mans' associates get the drop on him, and Ringerman escapes. However, Coogan isn't about to let a little wounded pride get to him, as he continues to frustrate police lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb) with his methods of tracking a wanted man.

Clint is a lot of fun to watch, showing off that natural screen presence that made him a star. He makes the most out of what many people agree to be a predecessor to his iconic screen role of Dirty Harry. The movie itself, produced & directed by Clints' frequent collaborator Don Siegel, works as a "fish out of water" type of story in which different approaches to law enforcement clash, and where the environment has a pivotal part to play. Use of various NYC locations is great, and Lalo Schifrins' music score is excellent. The climactic motorcycle chase is reasonably exciting, but the most striking scene of all has to be when Coogan tails Ringermans' lady friend Linny Raven (Tisha Sterling) to a nightclub. Among the images on the big screen there is a shot from "Tarantula", in which Clint had a small uncredited role.

There's a great sexual chemistry between Clint and well-meaning probation officer Julie Roth (sexy Susan Clark); he also works well with Sterling, who's a delight as a cheery hippie chick. Stroud unfortunately doesn't get a lot to do, the way that the story is written, but the supporting cast, led by the always solid Cobb, includes familiar faces such as Betty Field, James Edwards, David Doyle, Louis Zorich, Seymour Cassel, Albert Popwell (who would go on to appear in four of the "Dirty Harry" movies), and Conrad Bain.

A well paced and consistently entertaining movie, "Coogan's Bluff" later evolved into the 'McCloud' TV series with Dennis Weaver.

Seven out of 10.

Exciting Don Siegel cop thriller plenty of thrills, action , fights and emotion . Brave , tough cop , Clint Eastwood , goes to N.Y in order to transport a killer fugitive , Don Stroud , but the murderer escapes. Then , the killer on the loose through the N.Y.City streets . The deputy sets out in pursuit and to track him down by suffering a dangerous , risked pursuit.

First Siegel-Eastwood teaming and subsequently following : ¨Two mules for Sister Sara¨, ¨The beguiled¨ , ¨Dirty Harry¨ in which Clint also played a cop , and ¨Escape from Alcatraz¨. This one results to be a tense actioner containing some extremely thrilling chase sequences at its final , while Eastwood and Stroud riding motorcycles . The famous and successful TV series MacCloud with Dennis Weaver was based on this movie ; in fact , Herman Miller had written the story for Coogan's Bluff and then later changed a few details to create McCloud . Support cast is frankly well. Don Stroud shines as a violent murderous . Lee J Cobb as chief inspector gives an strong and outstanding performance, as usual . And enjoyable and attractive Susan Clark as a lovely parole officer who falls in love for him . Furthermore , brief but agreeable acting from Tisha Sterling , last film role for veteran Betty Field , James Edwards , Seymour Cassel and David Doyle , previous to Charlie's Angels .

It features a moving and adequate musical score by Lalo Schifrin in his ordinary style of the seventies . It packs an evocative and atmospheric cinematography by Bud Thackery and uncredited Robert Surtees . This tumble and rough motion picture was professionally directed by Donald Siegel (Telephon , The shooter , The Black Windmill , Madigan , The Killers) though has a few gaps and flaws . However , original filmmaker was Alex Segal , who withdrew shortly before production began . Rating : acceptable and passable . The yarn will appeal to Clint fans . Well worth seeing.

Clint Eastwood plays a tough cop from Arizona who's been sent to New York City to bring a prisoner (Don Stroud) back to face charges. However, when he arrives, the prisoner is in the infirmary and he must wait a short time to get him. When he finally does take the guy to the airport, he's jumped and beaten by David Doyle!!! Yes, THAT David Doyle!! The one from "Bridget Loves Bernie", "Charlie's Angels" and "Rugrats" (he played the voice of Grandpa). Of all the actors who you could imagine pummeling Clint Eastwood, about the only one LESS likely might be Paul Rubens or Billy Barty!! This alone is reason to see the film!

Well, Eastwood is not about to just return to Arizona empty handed and spends the rest of the movie searching throughout New York for the escaped scum-bag. And so, the cowboy-hatted Eastwood does the whole 'fish out of water' thing until he ultimately gets his man. Does it all seem a bit familiar? Well, apparently this film was the inspiration for the series "McCloud" just a couple years later.

While it's fun watching Eastwood, I really felt the whole 'New York is crazy' aspect of the movie was WAY overdone. Sure, New York City of 1968 wasn't exactly Heaven on Earth, but come on! The worst example is the insane probation officer (Susan Clark) who allows a degenerate to fondle her breast repeatedly--right there in the police station!! I wonder how many OTHER probation officers do this sort of thing? How about ZERO--especially since this is happening right in front of everyone AND she then scolds Eastwood when he stops this probationer!!! This entire scene made no sense whatsoever and apparently it was to illustrate what a sick place this city is. Yeah, right!! I think it just illustrated bad writing. And then, following this, Eastwood and Clark then become very chummy--perhaps he's assuming she'll let him do what the probationer was doing! Later, Clint walks into a super-freaky dance club--full of naked painted ladies, gay men, a FLYING naked lady and drugs. Once again, it all just seems way, way overdone. We GET that New York is a strange place--stop with the sledgehammer symbolism! I did not particularly like this film. I wanted to...but the writing was just dumb. It's not that I don't like Eastwood--he was great in almost all his other films and actually was fine here. But here, he's just saddled with cartoony supporting characters. No one in New York City makes any sense--none! How can you take a Dirty Harry-like character and STILL screw up the film?! Too much emphasis on the weird and confusing--particularly Clark's character who only gets more strange and confusing as the film progresses. In fact, I might be willing to nominate her for the worst supporting female character of the 1960s for this performance (this isn't hyperbole--I'm serious. She was THAT bad). Cool action, a neat character and a decent basic story idea just aren't enough to overcome bad writing and dumb characters.

Extremely overrated. My advice is to skip this one and go right to "Dirty Harry". Your brain will thank you for this.