Freebie and the Bean / Hickey & Boggs

FREEBIE AND THE BEAN, 1974, Warner Bros., 113 min. This cop-buddy action film directed by Richard Rush was mercilessly savaged by critics who found it disturbingly offensive – but it packed them in at the box office. Contrary to most then-current reviews, Rush’s approach is so insanely over-the-top, so remorselessly profane and politically incorrect, it transcends into an anarchic, anything-goes, live-action cartoon universe. Sensitive though hot-tempered Latino cop Alan Arkin is repeatedly provoked by his abusive, foul-mouthed partner James Caan as they wreck most of San Francisco trying to capture mobster Jack Kruschen.

HICKEY & BOGGS, 1972, MGM Repertory, 111 min. Dir. Robert Culp. An uncompromisingly realistic detective noir with two world-weary private eyes -- Robert Culp and Bill Cosby – whose search for a missing girl opens a Pandora’s box of death and destruction in smoggy, sunbaked L.A.