Lost and Found: Night of the Juggler

Several years ago at my old blog, while writing about the criminally unsung Night of the Juggler (1980), I lamented that the now-forty-four year old movie is increasingly difficult to find, having never been released on DVD or Blu-ray. In the 1980s and early 1990s, I was introduced to the film thanks to my beloved WPIX Channel 11, “New York’s Movie Station.” These days though, Night of the Juggler is completely absent from streaming services, seemingly only available on poor quality VHS rips uploaded to YouTube. It’s a shame, because Night of the Juggler is a wildly entertaining exploitation-style movie that deserves to be seen.

After a few opening scenes establish the characters, Night of the Juggler floors it into high gear and rarely, if ever, slows down for a breather. James Brolin, still rocking his 1970s wild man hair and beard from The Amityville Horror (1979), is ex-cop Sean Boyle. He witnesses his young daughter Kathy being abducted right in the middle of a crowded New York City park. The kidnapper Gus Soltic, played with unsettling intensity by Cliff Gorman, is an aggrieved lunatic who also happens to be an idiot—he meant to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy elite member of society; instead, he nabs a middle-class truck driver’s kid.

After Soltic drags Kathy away by the arm, Boyd immediately gives chase on foot, and we’re off to the races. The movie puts the pedal to the metal and hardly ever eases off the gas. Brolin runs, and runs, and runs, and runs some more, seemingly cutting a path clear across Manhattan and into some neighboring boroughs for good measure. Along the way he steals cars, hops subway turnstiles, battles street gangs, and beats up cops who get in the way of his single-minded—and incredibly inspiring—pursuit to save his child. Brolin’s performance is stoic and intense. I’ve always felt Brolin does a good job plastering the intensity and fear motivating Boyd’s pursuit all over his face.

The film’s many chase sequences also serve as a grim and gritty reminder of times past, with astonishing shots of the kidnapper dragging the teenage girl across the bleak rubble and ruin of Bronx neighborhoods left for dead by the city, and the nation, during the 1970s. Few films have ever captured the “Drop Dead” bankruptcy era, with New York City on the brink of total disintegration, better than Night of the Juggler.

A subplot about a cop (played with wild-eyed insanity by Dan Hedaya) with a grudge against Boyle only adds to the film’s frenetic, anything-goes style. One of the most implausible yet exciting chases occurs when Hedaya starts firing a sawed off shotgun at Brolin across crowded, rush-hour New York streets teeming with pedestrians and cars. I don’t know what’s more amazing, that no bystanders are killed, or that Hedaya’s loose cannon doesn’t even get reprimanded for his Wild West style policing.

It should he noted that this is the second “Lost and Found” film to feature Lounge favorite Julie Carmen, after Fright Night Part 2. In her theatrical debut, Carmen plays a kindhearted City employee named Maria, who crosses Boyd’s path during his pursuit and offers to help him. As with her brief opening scene in John Cassecettes’s marvelous Gloria (1980) from the same year, Carmen is a warm, engaging presence. Whenever Julie Carmen shows up onscreen, I want more.

Veteran actor Gorman is truly unsettling as kidnapper Gus Soltic. The film’s bizarre title, which makes one think it’s about a circus performer, comes from one of Gus’s unhinged rants, when he whines that the city’s rich are always “juggling the books” in their favorite. “I’m gonna juggle the books my way and it’s going to balance out for me.” As pathetic as Gus is, Gorman still manages to make him slightly sympathetic at times. It’s a fine line and Gorman plays it beautifully.

The less said about child actor Abby Bluestone’s grating performance as Kathy the better. Scene stealing cameos from stalwart character actors Mandy Patinkin as a Hispanic cab driver (it was 1980, folks), Tony Azito as a peep show manager, and Richard S. Castellano as NYPD Lieutenant Tonelli add some over the top flavor to the proceedings. No one goes for broke quite like Hedaya, though. He’s out of his mind and it’s both absurd and awesome, in equal measure.

Cinematographer Victor Kemper shot several of my favorite New York City films, including Dog Day Afternoon (1975) and Eyes of Laura Mars (1978). He always manages to capture the chaotic nature of the city at that time as well as anyone. His camera work in Night of the Juggler elevates the film from B-movie schlock to something closer to art.

As I noted at the top, Night of the Juggler was a cable movie staple, briefly, during the 1980s. That’s where I first caught it, and the abduction was particularly frightening to me as a child, thanks in part to Gorman’s creepy performance. The overcrowded New York streets, the porno theaters Brolin brawls his way through, and the scary underground tunnels also left an impression. A gritty, nasty little slice of urban decay, Night of the Juggler is a hidden gem certainly worth seeking out.

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Night of the Juggler can usually be found on YouTube.

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Now for a special thanks to our Gal Friday, Yvette…

As you might recall, the Lounge’s resident French maid, newly appointed business manager, and all-around Gal Friday Yvette dug out this post on Night of the Juggler from down in the oblivion of the drafts archive. She’s still digging through the Lounge’s overstuffed basement, unearthing buried treasures along the way—she has the torn stockings to prove it—so be on the lookout for more of Yvette’s deep-dive finds. Merci, Yvette. You’re the engine that keeps this place running!

Yvette: De rien, monsieur. I shall be sending you ze bill for ze replacement stockings soon.