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This is one of the movies that proves Burt Reynolds was once a very good actor (but lost his talent during his STROKER ACE and COP-AND-A-HALF days, only to regain it in BOOGIE NIGHTS).

Reynolds plays a cop investigating the case of a young girl whose body washed up on the beach.  Paul Winfield plays his no-nonsense partner who likes to beat confessions out of suspects.

The tone of the movie is one giant bummer.  Burt isn't a very happy guy and he spends a lot of time soul searching about his relationship with a high-priced call girl (Catherine Deneuve).  No one seems to be having a good time and you just want to line up the entire cast and slap them.  But that's mainly because the acting is so solid that you start believing in everyone's misery.

I can only recommend this movie for 2 reasons:

1.  Burt's acting (which was good in the 1970s . . . really);
2.  A surprise appearance by Robert Englund as a punk holding up a liquor store.

The movie is much too slow-moving and depressing for me to tell you to run out and buy it.  But you might want to watch at least 15 minutes of it to see that Burt wasn't always a buffoon.

I remember when this was on TV all the time as a kid. Then I saw it years later, and still liked it but couldn't believe how grim and dark it was even for a 70s Robert Aldrich film. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes serious cop films, since it makes a nice contrast with another Reynolds cop movie "Fuzz" which can't seem to make up it's mind if it's a comedy or drama.