Police Commissioner Alex Glass has been twisted into a sarcastic cynic by the hard luck story that is his life and by his daily contact with the criminals of Berlin's underground. His new assistant, Shirly Mai, is an attractive and conscientious woman who embodies a quality of virtue that her boss gave up a long time ago. They have both been assigned to solve a series of gruesome murders that have been taking place in Berlin's drug and prostitution ganglands. The prime suspect is George Miskowski, a pusher who supplies Berlin's brothels and hookers with cocaine and heroin.
"When the clock strikes twelve, evil rules the city."
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A FEW PICS
1 USER REVIEW
Wuchak
8/4/2021
6 / 10
_**Dirty Harry in Berlin (sort of) with choppy editing**_
An aging, cynical detective in dreary Berlin (Armin Mueller-Stahl) investigates the murder of a young woman while dealing with a new female partner who hasn’t lost sight of virtue (Julia Kent). Michael York plays the DA, Frank Stallone a pusher and Morgan Fairchild a hooker.
"Midnight Cop" (1988), aka “Killing Blue,” is a dreary big city detective drama/thriller with enough entertaining aspects to make it worthwhile for those interested, but it’s horribly marred by awkward editing. I don’t know if the jerky pacing was a Euro thang at the time or the filmmakers were trying to be avant-garde (or perhaps it’s just incompetence?). But, if you can acclimate, there are several highlights, including the winsome Julia Kent and the stunning Morgan Fairchild, not to mention a couple of other beauties. Meanwhile, the jazzy score is interesting with “Whiter Shade of Pale” thrown into the mix. And, despite the darkness, there is some effective humor.
It’s basically an 80’s Euro meshing of movies like the Dirty Harry flicks, “The Organization” (1971), “Death Wish” (1974) and “Lantana” (2001), just lacking their editing smoothness. I advise using the subtitles since the mumbled dialogue is often hard to make out (especially by Mueller-Stahl). Speaking of which, although the characters speak English (some of it obviously dubbed), you’re supposed to imagine they’re speaking German.
The film runs 1 hour, 35-40 minutes, and was shot in West Berlin, Germany, but don’t expect any beautiful shots of the city as the urban photography is always dark, grey, industrial and unappealing, which fits the mood of course.
GRADE: C+/B-
