Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

fred-pinkerton The completely serious film (Man on a Swing) opens with a one minute-20 second scene shot with a camera mounted on the police car roof about a foot behind the flashing light bar. While I am sure it seemed dramatic in 1974, it's impossible to view now without remembering the comedic rendition of the same viewpoint that forms the opening of "The Naked Gun". While I can't be sure this was the only "cop movie" that had a similar opening sequence, it's pretty clear to me that this film alone would have been sufficient to inspire the Naked Gun spoof scene.

NORDIC-2 On June 16, 1968 the nude body of Barbara Ann Butler, a 23-year-old junior high school teacher, was found in her car at a store parking lot near Dayton, Ohio. William A. Clark, a reporter for the Dayton 'Daily News', covered the subsequent police investigation—an investigation made far more complicated by the involvement of a psychic named Bill Boshears. Barbara Butler's murder was never solved. Nonetheless, Clark turned his reportage into a minor classic of the true crime genre entitled 'The Girl on the Volkswagen Floor' (Harper & Row, 1971). When David Zelag Goodman ('Straw Dogs') adapted Clark's book to the screen, he turned the William Clark figure into Police Chief Lee Tucker (Cliff Robertson) but did not really account for the fact that a busy police chief's routine duties and investigative methods would surely differ from those of a newspaperman. For example, Tucker takes a somewhat unlikely trip to a distant university to confer with para-psychology expert Dr. Nicholas Holnar, played by George Voskovec. Furthermore, Cliff Robertson plays Chief Tucker in a mostly deadpan fashion, making for a less than inspired performance. In stark contrast to Robertson's stereotypical tough guy cop is the manic, fitful, and deeply unsettling performance of Joel Grey as Franklin Wills, the psychic who wants to help Tucker solve the crime but makes Tucker suspicious that Wills may have some direct involvement in the crime. At any rate, Grey's performance is so good that it makes up for Goodman's muddled script and Frank Perry's trite direction. DVD (release date unknown).

JasparLamarCrabb A really good and very creepy suspense film directed by Frank Perry without a hint of his usual pretense or needless gravitas. Cliff Robertson is a small time police chief investigating a young girl's murder. Joel Grey is a self-proclaimed clairvoyant bent on helping him. They make a great pair, with Robertson's calm playing well off of Grey's frequently hysterical energy. Perry mounts the film in such a way that it gets increasingly creepy as it goes a long. Both Robertson and Grey are excellent as is Dorothy Tristan as Robertson's patient wife. Based on fact, the movie is very open-ended and some may find that frustrating. Nevertheless, it's still very worthwhile. Big Question: did Budweiser finance this movie? Robertson is seen drinking a can of bud in virtually EVERY scene!

moonspinner55 Based on a baffling real-life murder case wherein a clairvoyant enlisted his services to an investigative reporter to help find the killer of a woman found dead in her car. As the psychic who may or may not be a fraud, Joel Grey (fresh from his Oscar-win in "Cabaret") gives another startling, no-holds-barred performance. He acts rings around Cliff Robertson (whose character is upgraded to police chief) and everyone else in the cast! It's a compelling job, but how's the movie? The actual case chronicled in William A. Clark's book "The Girl on the Volkswagen Floor" was never properly solved, so don't look for any twists in the plot. It's a gritty, well-made film that might've been even better with someone else in Robertson's part (the man stares in silent concentration, but his unblinking expression reveals nothing). Not the battle of wits you may be hoping for, but still quite interesting. **1/2 from ****