I haven't seen this movie in years, but I would not mind seeing it again. Pretty good, gritty cop movie. Why do I hate the tag line? Because with a tag liner like that, who needs a spoiler? Moriarty's performance is very typical of the period and of his performances during the 1970s (see also "Who'll Stop the Rain"). I'd be curious to see him again because he was unknown to me in 1975, I'd compare his performance to what he's done since. When I think back on that movie, I now imagine it as if a young Gordon Clapp played the lead. Everyone else is memorable, too. Susan Blakely knocked me out--and that was when she was fully dressed. Yaphet Kotto is rightly well-remember for this movie. But I would not want to see this movie remade only because I generally do like to see remakes. They make me feel old.

The 70s were definitely a great time for cinema, giving us gritty NYC thrillers and dramas like "Across 110th Street", "Serpico", "The French Connection", and "Dog Day Afternoon". "Report to the Commissioner", based on the novel by James Mills, can join those ranks, with its matter of fact, semi-documentary approach. Its characters are vivid and convincing, and the performances memorable. The story allows for some tense scenarios, and offers an interesting look into departmental politics within the police department, and how this sort of thing can create its share of victims.

Michael Moriarty stars as Beauregard "Bo" Lockley, a hippie-ish rookie detective on the police force who's overwhelmingly naive. He's partnered with the hard-boiled veteran Richard "Crunch" Blackstone (Yaphet Kotto), and gets a little taste of the street life. His own "doing good" mentality gets him into a lot of trouble when he ends up shooting Patty Butler (Susan Blakely), a beautiful young detective working deep undercover. She'd made the bold decision to move in with a drug pusher, Thomas "Stick" Henderson (Tony King) to get the goods on him, and Lockley had been fed a line of bull about her identity in order to make the whole thing look good. Now the NYPD has to decide what to do with this mess, and how much to tell the commissioner (Stephen Elliott).

For this viewer, the only real debit was Moriarty. Sometimes his eccentricities can benefit a movie (ex: his hilarious performance in "Q: The Winged Serpent"), but here, he's just too whiny and mannered to make his character as sympathetic as he should be. Fortunately, there's lots of heavy hitters here to pick up the slack: Kotto, Blakely, Hector Elizondo, Michael McGuire, Dana Elcar, Bob Balaban, William Devane, Elliott, Vic Tayback. And it's cool to see a young Richard Gere making his film debut as Billy the pimp. Real life NYC detectives Sonny Grosso and Albert Seedman have small roles.

Some of the story is played out in the form of interviews, helping us to get insight into character motivations. There's one damn entertaining, and lengthy, foot chase, which also delivers beefcake for the audience because the studly King is running around wearing little. The entire sequence on the elevator is riveting, especially since we definitely get a sense of how hot it must be in there for Moriarty and King. And Balaban figures in what has to be one of the most original "tailing" sequences seen on film. The location shooting (cinematography by Mario Tosi) is excellent, and Elmer Bernstein supplies a sometimes unusual but generally effective music score.

This one is well worth catching for fans of the actors and lovers of 70s cinema.

Eight out of 10.

It's 1974 New York City. Policemen find a dead woman. She's an undercover cop and Richard 'Crunch' Blackstone (Yaphet Kotto) is in charge of the investigation. Policeman Bo Lockley (Michael Moriarty) is brought into the psych ward after shooting the woman. Starting from the beginning, Bo is a new breed of young sensitive cop and Cruch tries to teach him the real ways of the streets. Patty Butler (Susan Blakely) is a cop undercover trying to get close to drug dealer Thomas 'Stick' Henderson.

This has a young Richard Gere in his first theatrical movie. It has some good actors and good writers. The issue is the flow of the story. It reveals too much at the beginning. The movie should have started with the elevator stand-off. It shouldn't reveal Chicklet. Revealing so much takes away a lot of the tension. Right off the bat, we know that Bo is going to kill Chicklet in that loft and Bo would survive. Bo is a frustrating, arrogant, and naive character. The movie drags after the elevator as I wait for it to end. There are some great ideas but the movie needs some rearranging.