18: 52 Pick-Up (with Zach Vasquez)

Los Angeles-based film writer Zach Vasquez comes on the show to discuss John Frankenheimer’s sordid 1986 crime melodrama 52 Pick-Up, one of the only legit good movies made by Cannon Films, a slept-on eighties classic. With a screenplay by Elmore Leonard adapted from his 1974 novel, 52 Pick-Up was not well-received upon release but time has been extremely kind to this shocking and grimy thriller about a wealthy businessman (Roy Scheider) who becomes the target of a blackmail plot, and has to use his wits to outsmart a trio of sadistic creeps from the porn world who keep upping the ante to horrifying levels. Zach and I also talk about that brief period where Cannon Films tried to make prestigious arthouse/grindhouse fare, the greatness of Frankenheimer, the film’s engagement with the sleazy reality of Los Angeles in the eighties, it’s influence on the other great Elmore Leonard LA lowlife crime drama Jackie Brown, and how 52 Pick-Up contains not one but two unforgettable movie villains, Clarence Williams III and John Glover. Follow Zach Vasquez on Twitter. Zach's new piece about Fellini, for Crooked Marquee A nice appreciation of the movie from the New Beverly Cinema blog. Trailer for 52 Pick-Up (Frankenheimer, 1986)