52 Pick-Up

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Movie - 52 Pick-Up

Year: 1986
Rated: R
Parental Rating: Objectionable for children
Country Of Origin: U.S.
Running Time: 114
Format: Color
Genre(s): Crime; Thriller
Production: Cannon
Released By:

Scheider is an independent, tough Korean War veteran who, by his middle years, has attained prosperity through his own metallurgy company and has recently landed a contract with NASA.Hhe owns a fancy house and a Jaguar XKE. He has a beautiful and politically ambitious wife, Ann-Margret. And he is having an illicit affair. His world is shattered, however, when three blackmailers (Glover, Williams III, and Trebor) show him a videotape of his last tryst with his mistress and demand money if he doesn't want the tape to go public. A stubborn man, Scheider defies the blackmailers by telling his wife about the affair and refusing to pay. But the blackmailers then up the stakes. One of the most downright sleazy major films in recent memory, 52 PICK-UP works mainly because of its vivid villains, who are more intriguing than the hero. Glover is superb as the totally amoral blackmailer who uses his superior intelligence to keep his dimmer comrades in check. Less successful are the Scheider and Ann-Margret characters--pretty unsympathetic as written and played. Director Frankenheimer, however, vividly captures the milieu of the Los Angeles porno underworld in all its vulgar glory.

Cast

Charlie Abrahams: Harry Mitchell

Ann-Margret: Barbara Mitchell

Vanity: Doreen

John Glover: Alan Raimy

Robert Trebor: Leo Franks

Lonny Chapman: Jim O'Boyle

Kelly Preston: Cini

Clarence Williams III: Bobby Shy

Doug McClure: Averson

Alex Henteloff

Credits