Confronting Raimy and insisting he review his business ledgers, Harry convincingly offers $52,000 as all he can liquidate. Harry finesses Raimy's name from a prostitute (Vanity) who asks, "if you take an umbrella, what kind of day is it?" For her betrayal, Bobby Shy ( Clarence Williams III) nearly suffocates her with a teddy bear. Although shaken, Harry still refuses to pay, deciding this time to formulate a plan to provide a much-needed education for his tormentors. Raimy next moves on to plan B: He shows Harry a video of his girlfriend being murdered with his own gun.
After his confession, she tells him she suspected as much and even wonders why he bothered telling her. He refuses to pay, deciding to solve the problem by telling all to his wife. Then, one day, three blackmailers, led by the sleazy Alan Raimy ( John Glover), appear with a videotape of Harry making love to his topless-dancer girlfriend Cini (Kelly Preston), which they threaten to send to his politically aspiring wife, Barbara ( Ann-Margret), unless he forks over $110,000.īut Harry, a self-made man and Korean War veteran, isn't one to take this sort of arm-twisting lying down. Harry Mitchell ( Roy Scheider) is an affluent businessman whose metallurgical company has recently landed a hefty government contract. The film version of 52 Pickup changes the setting from Detroit to Los Angeles. So much of the dialogue from the book was used that Frankenheimer thought Leonard should get a screen credit despite the fact his only changes were correcting Steppling's punctuation errors. Omitted from the film was work slowdown at Schedier's manufacturing plant which parellels his major problem of dealing with the blackmailers. Frankenheimer added a subplot of Ann-Margret working for a political candidate who may be threatened by Scheider's indescretion. Set in Detroit, the story is of a blackmailed industrialist, played by Scheider, whose affair with a mistress leads to blackmail and then murder. Elmore Leonard's suspenseful novel 52 Pick-Up was the source for this screen thriller directed by John Frankenhiemer with a solid cast of Roy Sheider, Ann-Margret and some good bad guys in John Glover and Clarence Williams III.
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