Product Description

Seven-ups are those criminals due to serve at least that number of year in jail -- if they get caught. Roy Scheider is a cop who catches them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4560 in DVD
• Brand: SCHEIDER,ROY
• Released on: 2006-05-23
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.com
The Seven-Ups of the title are a hot-dogging special unit of the New York Police Department led by street smart Roy Scheider, who applies unconventional techniques to crack tough cases and nab untouchable criminals. When a pair of police impersonators pulls a series of mob kidnappings, the local hoods get very nervous and Scheider's boys investigate, leading to a squad member's death that turns the case personal. Director Philip D'Antoni previously produced Bullitt and The French Connection and learned the importance of a good car chase: with craftsmanlike efficiency he delivers a textbook example of the inner-city chase, lacking style but chock full of squealing tires, careening cars, fleeing pedestrians, and dynamite crackups. The New York City street shooting and the ever-present street sounds give the film a solid sense of place, and Scheider applies his usual thoughtful intensity as the vengeful cop, but the rest of the cops are woefully undeveloped. Only Tony LoBianco, as Scheider's childhood buddy turned hustler and street snitch, has any real presence next to Scheider. In the pantheon of '70s cop thrillers, The Seven-Ups ranks below the more vigorous and ambiguous classics like Serpico and The French Connection, but excellent stunt work and gritty action raises it above the pack. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Cult 1973 crime thriller with plenty of style and substance!
Cult crime film, that's virtually unknown by many film fans, however this gritty 1973 crime thriller is still edgy and captivating viewing over thirty years later, and effectively captures the tense and often violent relations between the NYC detectives and their hoodlum prey. The term "seven ups" was actually coined in the late 1960's in relation to a special squad of detectives operating in New York City who were pursuing high profile felons convictable of prison terms of seven years or more.

Ex-NYC detective Sonny Grosso ( the real life "Cloudy" of "The French Connection" fame ) penned the story for "The Seven Ups" based upon some of his personal experiences and observations in the NYC police department. A steely and youthful Roy Scheider is the lead actor portraying uncompromising detective "Buddy Manucci". Scheider was at that time just breaking through to mainstream cinema, and had recently gained high praise from critics for his role as Gene Hackman's cop buddy in the sensational "The French Connection"...plus, Scheider would soon become a familiar face as "Chief Brody" in 1975's biggest blockbuster "Jaws". Fellow actor from "The French Connection", Tony Lo Bianco appears in "The Seven Ups" as an oily, two faced mob undertaker, manipulating both his criminal cohorts and his friend Buddy via the use of sensitive information on the mob's business dealings. The plot of the film primarily centres around the double crossing activities of Vito ( Lo Bianco ) as he uses his child hood friend Buddy ( Scheider ) to identify potential mob identities that Vito's crooked partners can kidnap and hold for an exhorbitant ransom. Both the cops and the mob are rattled as they struggle to identify the mole betraying the fingered mob bosses for hefty ransom's. Vito's kidnapping colleagues are played by swarthy Richard Lynch ( Starsky & Hutch, Vampire, Invasion USA ), and shifty Bill Hickman ( one of Hollywood's top stunt drivers ) and a key sequence of the film has the two merciless kidnappers flee a garage after a shooting to be pursued by Scheider in one of the finest car chases you will ever see on film !

( Forget all the nit-picking criticisms about which direction they are driving on various expressway's, and being on the wrong side of railings, and tour buses etc etc......the fact is that the car chase between the kidnappers in an Oldsmobile Delta 88 and Scheider pursuing in a Pontiac Ventura is brilliantly photographed, well paced, exciting and keep's your eyes glued to the screen ! )

The film was shot during an icy NYC winter, and the use of various bleak and mud spattered industrial estate's, warehouse's and rail freight yard locations around NYC, give the movie a really strong "street" feel that strongly parallels the grimy under belly of the various crooked characters peopling the cast. One can only hope that this under rated piece of classic 70's crime cinema eventually makes it to DVD !! Highly Recommended !!

New York Locations Galore
Not a review, but a commentary on filming locations, all in New York, most in the Bronx. The funeral parlor scene (at Hoffman St & E184 St across from St Barnabas Hospital) features footage of the Third Ave El train tracks, demolished soon afterwards. The funeral procession follows along Pelham Pkwy past the White Plains Rd train station. Other Bronx landmarks seen are the Valentine Theater on Fordham Rd, the HighBridge (that supplied drinking water from upstate through the Old Croton Aqueduct over the Harlem River into Manhattan), the Arthur Ave Market, the Botanical Gardens Conservatory, and Tracy Towers on Mosholu Pkwy. The shootout at the end takes place on the Amtrak rails between Co-Op City and Pelham Bay Park. The car chase starts on Manhattan's West Side and (despite driving over the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey) ends with the crash on the Taconic Pkwy in Westchester County. Locations seem to have been chosen for their gritty looks, and the action is rife with geographic incongruity, with rather distant areas represented as being adjacent.

Low-key, realistic police drama
It remains in the shadow of its famous predecessor, 'The French Connection,' but 'The Seven Ups' is required viewing if you're in the mood for a no-nonsense, unglorified NYC police story. There's an incredible end to the car chase, the film's trademark, but watch it for the straightforward acting, jolting plot twists, and unvarnished picture of workaday New York in the '70s. The music lends an eerie mood, and there's plenty of small touches of realism. My favorite is a grim view of a muddy New Jersey wasteland--trains of oblivious commuters roar by the cops and villains on foot. 'The Seven Ups' is a rare breed--it looks like it could have happened the way it was filmed. Unspectacular but rewarding.