Ticket 2 Ride

Never heard of this film? It didn’t invent the buddy-film genre, but it did popularize the buddy cop-film genre that began in the 1970s.

Freebie and the Bean was a popular early 1970s film, although few people remember the film now. It took me until its fiftieth anniversary to see the entire film. Why? Because when I first saw the trailer (back in 1974), I thought the film looked stupid. Panned by critics at the time, the film has achieved a cult status through the years.

Freebie (James Caan) and Bean (Alan Arkin) are San Francisco police detectives assigned to the intelligence squad. Yes, that will prove to be ironic. As originally written, the film was supposed to be a drama about two cops after a crime boss who they ended up having to protect, rather than arrest. Producer/director Richard Rush (The Stuntman) took the story and rewrote it with Bob Kaufman turning it into a very dark action comedy. Rush was said to have brought Caan and Arkin in to collaborate on the story, underscoring the relationship between the detectives and allowing the actors to contribute to the dialogue. At times the banter does feel improvised. Freebie and Bean are highly competitive and alternate between friendship and loathing each other.

Within the first ten minutes of the film, I thought Freebie and the Bean was the model for Riggs and Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon. The constant arguing, carnage, and Keystone Kop-type action sure seemed familiar. The stunt work in Freebie and the Bean, particularly the driving and car crashes, is quite good. The budget for vehicles and filming in downtown SF must have been a considerable part of the production cost. I’m guessing the number of vehicles totaled rivals The Blues Brothers production. There is even a chase where the suspect drives through a parade, bouncing members of a marching band off the car hood.

There are two other action scenes that are very enjoyable in the film. The first one is when Freebie and Bean are pursuing a suspected hitman and are cutoff by a train. Freebie spots a loading ramp and guns the throttle to speed the car up the ramp to jump over a flatbed train car to rejoin the chase.

The other spectacular vehicle stunt occurs when an arguing Freebie and Bean carelessly drive over the barrier of an elevated highway and crash their police car into the apartment of an older couple sitting in bed enjoying their breakfast. Of course this is ridiculous, but it’s very funny, especially the deadpan humor used after the crash.

Arkin and Caan are an interesting team. Arkin made his mark on Broadway in the early 1960s and moved on to film with several fine roles. He starred as Yossarian in Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Catch-22 (1970), which by most accounts was a big disappointment. I disagree, but no one asked me. Since then, Arkin’s career has been some underwhelming films and directing (Little Murders) that was more of a curiosity than a hit. In Freebie and the Bean, Arkin’s Bean, a Mexican-American, is not much more than an ethnic caricature who shouts most of the time.

Caan was coming off of Brian’s Song and The Godfather, a different career arc than Arkin, yet had been around for a decade in supporting roles and offbeat films. Caan is the a wisecracker and full of himself, and mostly the cause of Bean’s shouting and nervousness. Caan is behind the wheel for the zany car chases and crashes.

This film was made at a time when cops beating up suspects, tying up the suspect’s nude girlfriend in a kinky manner, reckless car chases, wild gunplay, taking gratuities on duty and having a person of Latin ethnicity played by an Anglo, and referring to him as “Bean” were all considered acceptable humor.

Valerie Harper (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhonda) plays Bean’s wife. Apparently the hot-Latina who Bean suspects is cheating on him and driving him crazy. Harper is wasted in this role and again, why not have a Latina play a Latina?

Freebie and Bean are on a stakeout, playing bodyguards and mistake an out-of-town salesman for a hitman, beating him severely. Normally, assaulting a citizen would be a big deal, but Freebie and Bean just walk away clean, perhaps because the married salesman is hiding a mistress and doesn’t want the publicity. Another example of the absurdity of this film.

This film ventures into Dirty Harry territory (it is San Francisco) with shootouts in a bowling alley bathroom and a dentist’s office, as hitmen are eliminated by Freebie and Bean. This leads to another shootout in side-by-side glass hotel elevators, a chase on a motorcycle running over car tops, through an art show, outdoor cafe, hotel dining room and kitchen, with the suspect getting a tomato sauce bath.

The protected criminal survives the attempts on his life, only to die of a heart attack. There’s a final shootout, in another bathroom, at the stadium where the Super Bowl is being played! Oh yeah, this story takes place against the Super Bowl, but don’t worry because it really doesn’t figure into the story. Other films will deal with that.

In an attempt to apprehend their criminal, Bean is shot in the shoulder, and is believed to have died from the wound. As Freebie rides with him in the ambulance, Bean awakes and asks for food. Freebie is angry, discovering his partner is actually alive and the two of them struggle, causing the ambulance to crash. They tumble out the back, still fighting, the camera pulls back into a long shot as the film fades out.

So, is this a good film? It’s a wild, offensive, screwball, anti-authority, action-comedy. That does not answer the question. It’s a snapshot of morality and film humor in the early 1970s. Did I mention that it’s very offensive to women, Mexican-Americans, gays, and shows no respect for due process rights of the accused? Blazing Saddles was even more offensive, but that film was a total spoof, Freebie and the Bean tried to play it both ways, like M*A*S*H did successfully.

With the right perspective, Freebie and the Bean can offer some laughs. There is no subtlety, which director Rush intended. Arkin and Caan were at the epitome of their fame at the time, although Freebie and the Bean was not mentioned as a highlight of either actor’s career.

3/5