THE TAKE

Years before he played Lando Calrissian and Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent, Billy Dee Williams headlined the mediocre and morally ambiguous crime film, THE TAKE (1974) .

Looking for all of the world like a made-for-television movie with a TV-centric cast to boot, THE TAKE is the story of San Francisco police detective Lt. Sneed, who is sent to Paloma, New Mexico to help take on the burgeoning organized crime ring (hereafter referred to as "The Syndicate") muscling in on the city. Sneed arrives in town just in time to take part in a courthouse shoot-out that leaves several dead, including three cops. Sneed is under the command of harried police chief Berrigan (Eddie Albert). Another cop, Captain Dolek (Albert Salmi) sticks close to Sneed and with good reason. 

Come to find out that Sneed and Dolek are bent cops, with both of them on the payroll of mob boss Victor Manso (Vic Morrow). Sneed plays both ends against the middle as he continues to take money from Manso (money which he launders through real estate developer Oscar (Sorrell Booke)) while heading up a strike force to bring down Manso's drug and counterfeiting operations. 

The best cover for a crooked cop is to be a good cop is Sneed's philosophy and he not only succeeds at this but he gets away with it. That's right, a crooked cop is the hero of this run-of-the-mill crime film. Sneed not only pockets the cash at the end of the film, he's promoted to captain for his troubles. 

I don't know if director Robert Hartford-Davis and screenwriters Franklin Coen and Del Reisman wanted to make some kind of a "statement" film about how corrupt many American police departments were in the mid '70s or if they wanted to try to cash in on the DIRTY HARRY phenomenon by having a cop who breaks all of the rules but is, in the end, the only man who can do the job. 

Either way, THE TAKE is a lackluster effort from all involved. A couple of decent action scenes and beautiful New Mexico locations can't save this one. 

Thumbs down.