Night of the Juggler, 4k restoration (1980, dir Robert Butler and Sidney J. Furie)
Night of the Juggler, 4k restoration (1980, dir Robert Butler and Sidney J. Furie)
The grit and intensity of late-1970s New York City is depicted in stark detail in this relentlessly action-packed cult classic. Twenty-four hours of nerve-jangling tension and suspense begin when a twisted psychotic (Cliff Gorman, Cops and Robbers, All That Jazz) kidnaps a teenaged girl, mistaking her for the daughter of a wealthy real estate developer. Her determined father (James Brolin, The Car, The Amityville Horror), a hard-hitting ex-cop, doggedly pursues them through New York’s seamy streets, decaying, burned-out Bronx tenements, and the grimy subterranean corridors beneath the city itself. Based on the novel by William P. McGivern (The Big Heat, Odds Against Tomorrow) and co-starring Richard S. Castellano (The Godfather), Julie Carmen (In the Mouth of Madness), Dan Hedaya (Blood Simple) and Mandy Patinkin (The Princess Bride), Night of the Juggler is a thrilling example of no-holds-barred, pure adrenaline-fueled filmmaking. The film’s original director Sidney J. Furie (The Ipcress File, The Appaloosa) was replaced by Robert Butler (Up the Creek, Turbulence) a few weeks into production.