Taglines: When a hotshot cop and a wise-guy detective get together… the heat is on!
City Heat movie storyline. Kansas City in the 1930s: private investigator Mike Murphy’s partner is brutally murdered when he tries to blackmail a mobster with his secret accounting records. When a rival gang boss goes after the missing records, ex-policeman Murphy is forced to team up again with his ex-partner Lieutenant Speer, even though they can’t stand each other, to fight both gangs before KC erupts in a mob war.
City Heat is a 1984 American crime film starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, and directed by Richard Benjamin. The film was released in North America on December 1984. The pairing of Eastwood and Reynolds was thought to have the potential to be a major hit but the film earned only $38.3 million at the box office, a profit of $13.3 million on its $25 million budget.
About the Story
In Kansas City, 1933, near the end of Prohibition,[1] a police lieutenant known by his last name, Speer (Eastwood), is acquainted with a former cop turned private eye named Mike Murphy (Reynolds). Speer and Murphy were once good friends, which changed after Murphy left the force.[1]
On a rainy night, Speer comes to a diner for coffee. Two goons arrive, looking for Murphy. They pounce the minute Murphy arrives, starting a fistfight. Speer, no fan of Murphy’s, ignores the fight until a goon causes him to spill his coffee. Both goons are thrown through the front door. Murphy sarcastically thanks Speer for saving his life.
The two rivals have eyes for Murphy’s secretary Addy (Jane Alexander). She loves both and proves it when, after tenderly kissing Murphy goodbye, goes on a date with Speer. Murphy does have a new romantic interest, a rich socialite named Caroline Howley (Madeline Kahn), but finds himself unable to commit.
Speer and Addy go to a boxing match at which the mob boss Primo Pitt (Rip Torn) is present. Murphy’s partner Dehl Swift (Richard Roundtree) is also there, and seems to be in cahoots with Pitt and his gang. Swift is in possession of a briefcase whose contents, secret accounting records of rival gang boss Leon Coll’s operations, are the target of both Pitt’s and Coll’s gangs.
Swift, tailed by Speer and Addy, is confronted by Pitt’s thugs at his apartment with Ginny Lee (Irene Cara) taken hostage. Ginny Lee manages to escape but Swift is shot and killed during a struggle with Pitt. A thug opens the briefcase but there’s nothing inside. He picks up Swift’s body and throws it out the window, where it lands on the roof of Speer’s parked car (which is occupied by the horrified Addy, who waits after Speer goes to investigate in the apartment).
City Heat (1948)
Directed by: Richard Benjamin
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn, Rip Torn, Irene Cara, Richard Roundtree, Tony Lo Bianco
Screenplay by: Blake Edwards
Production Design by: Edward C. Carfagno
Cinematography by: Nick McLean
Film Editing by: Jacqueline Cambas
Costume Design by: Norman Salling
Set Decoration by: George Gaines
Music by: Lennie Niehaus
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: December 7, 1984
Views: 117
