The Gauntlet

I have never seen a more hideous video cover than the one for The Gauntlet, but fortunately the film is not as dreadful as the cover suggests. Clint is the tough but apparently somewhat hard-drinking cop Ben Shockley, who is sent off to Las Vegas to bring an insignificant witness back for a trial in Phoenix, Arizona. A piece of cake, is Shockley's impression, but the witness, the hooker Gus Mally, resists, as she only feels safe in a prison cell. Shockley soon sees for himself: both police and gangsters are on their tail. It dawns on Shockley that his boss Blakelock is in league with the Mafia, and Gus Mally's testimony can evidently bring him down. So the pair must not be allowed to reach Phoenix alive, but Shockley does not give up so easily.

Exaggeration aids understanding must be the film's motto, for never has one man had so many enemies, and never have they fired so wildly and unrestrainedly. It seems like a joke that Gus Mally's house actually collapses under the hail of bullets.

The hooker is not the product of male-chauvinist thinking, for Gus Mally is college-educated, quick with a retort, resourceful and - when she wants to be - sweet. She is not the typical passive, half-witted heroine. One of the film's best scenes is when she verbally humiliates a foolish police officer, giving as good as she gets.