Mad Dog And
Glory (1993)
crime comedy
directed
by : John McNaughton
featuring
: Robert DeNiro - Uma Thurman - Bill Murray - David Caruso - Mike Starr
running
time : 1 hour 37 minutes
John McNaughton directed this Richard Price-scripted
comedy about a cop who learns to love an unwanted gift from a gangster.
Robert DeNiro plays Wayne Dobie, a shy and reclusive Chicago cop who has
never fired a gun. Dobie is an evidence technician who takes photographs
at crime scenes, earning the moniker of "Mad Dog" for his diffident attitude.
One day Dobie walks in on a convenience store holdup and saves the life
of Chicago mob boss Frank Milo (Bill Murray). Frank is impressed by the
way Dobie handled the holdup and wants to pay him back for saving his life.
In thrall to Frank is Glory (Uma Thurman), who is working off her brother's
gambling debts by living with the mobster. One day, Glory turns up at Dobie's
house, explaining that Frank is giving her to him for one week as a gift.
Initially Dobie wants nothing to do with Glory, but as the week goes on,
he realizes he is becoming intensely attracted to her.
One of the most underrated comedies
of the early '90s, this clever caper takes two regularly typecast stars,
Murry and DeNiro, and reverses their roles. The stars clearly relish sinking
their creative fangs into the types of parts normally off limits to them,
Murray as a fiendishly arrogant crime boss who really wants to be a comic,
DeNiro as a nebbish police photographer afraid of his own shadow who is
pining to become an artist. They're not the only ones who shine here, however,
as the leads are backed up ably by reliable character actors Mike Starr
and David Caruso, the latter of whom gives a literally star-making performance
of raw masculine power. The cast is backed up by a stellar script from
Price, chock full of memorable one-liners ("Your friend is very sarcastic")
and unexpected turns, save for a somewhat predictable ending that at least
doesn't succeed in derailing all that's come before. Mad Dog And Glory
is that rarest of combinations, a delightful farce with genuinely great
acting.