Get Your Reps In: 1970s Crime Clichés Converge in “Night of the Juggler”

Night of the Juggler (1980)

By the end of the 1970s, what New York crime films were left to make? We’d had stately period pieces (The Godfather), cowboy cop Oscar winners (The French Connection), subway heists (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three), iconic Harlem PIs (Shaft), ambivalent vigilantism (Taxi Driver), laudatory vigilantism (Death Wish), and a hundred more. Perhaps the only thing left to do was take every archetype in the decade’s playbook and tear across the boroughs like a pulverizing game of tag. (The Warriors knew this, too, by the way.)

That’s the approach of the now-rescued Night of the Juggler, never before available on disc or streaming, but coming to the Hollywood Theatre on Aug. 26 in 4K thanks to a restoration released earlier this year.

After his daughter is kidnapped in Central Park, a cop-turned-truck driver (James Brolin) embarks on a 24-hour sprint in pursuit, bouncing off a gallery of New Yorkers—a mad dog cop (Dan Hedaya), a curb-agnostic cabby (Mandy Patinkin), and a gold-hearted animal shelter worker (Julie Carmen). There’s an attempted witness interrogation through a polygonal glass peepshow box in Times Square so dizzying it’s worth the price of admission alone. Hollywood Theatre, Aug. 26.

Also Playing:

5th Avenue: Silvia Prieto (1999), Aug. 22–24. Academy: Se7en (1995), Aug. 22–28. Cool Hand Luke (1967), Aug. 22–29. The Warriors (1979), Aug. 22–28. Cinema 21: Brick (2006), Aug. 22 and 23. The Wanderers (1979), Aug. 23. Cinemagic: Danger: Diabolik (1968), Aug. 23. WALL-E (2008), Aug. 23–27. Fast Times at Ridgmont High (1982), Aug. 23–28. Zeirman (1991), Aug. 25. Kamen Rider ZO (1993) and Kamen Rider J (1994), double feature, Aug. 26. Clinton: The Snow Woman (1969), Aug. 21. Bushido (2024), Aug. 22. Asako I & II (2018), Aug. 23. The Friend (1994), Aug. 23. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Aug. 23. Black Tight Killers (1966), Aug. 24. Dogra Magra (1988), Aug. 24. Typhoon Club (1985), Aug. 26. Peasants of the Second Fortress (1971), Aug. 27. Cult Classics: Society (1989), Aug. 24. Hollywood: Million Dollar Baby (2004), Aug. 21. 12 Monkeys (1995), Aug. 22 and 23. There Will Be Blood (2007), Aug. 23. RRR (2022), Aug. 24. First Reformed (2018), Aug. 24. Purple Rain (1984), Aug. 25. Tomorrow: Three Kings (1999), Aug. 21. Girl, Interrupted (1999), Aug. 23. Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Aug. 23. This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Aug. 24.