Dirty Harry in Berlin (sort of) with choppy editing
An aging, cynical detective in dreary Berlin (Armin Mueller-Stahl) investigates the murder of a young woman while dealing with a new female partner who hasn’t lost sight of virtue (Julia Kent). Michael York plays the DA, Frank Stallone a pusher and Morgan Fairchild a hooker.
"Midnight Cop" (1988), aka “Killing Blue,” is a dreary big city detective drama/thriller with enough entertaining aspects to make it worthwhile for those interested, but it’s horribly marred by awkward editing. I don’t know if the jerky pacing was a Euro thang at the time or the filmmakers were trying to be avant-garde (or perhaps it’s just incompetence?). But, if you can acclimate, there are several highlights, including the winsome Julia Kent and the stunning Morgan Fairchild, not to mention a couple of other beauties. Meanwhile, the jazzy score is interesting with “Whiter Shade of Pale” thrown into the mix. And, despite the darkness, there is some effective humor.
It’s basically an 80’s Euro meshing of movies like the Dirty Harry flicks, “The Organization” (1971), “Death Wish” (1974) and “Lantana” (2001), just lacking their editing smoothness. I advise using the subtitles since the mumbled dialogue is often hard to make out (especially by Mueller-Stahl). Speaking of which, although the characters speak English (some of it obviously dubbed), you’re supposed to imagine they’re speaking German.
The film runs 1 hour, 35-40 minutes, and was shot in West Berlin, Germany, but don’t expect any beautiful shots of the city as the urban photography is always dark, grey, industrial and unappealing, which fits the mood of course.
GRADE: C+/B-