52 Pick-Up

Synopsis: Harry Mitchell, an L.A. manufacturer with a fancy car, a nice house, and a wife running for city council, has his life overturned when three masked blackmailers appear with a video tape of Harry and his young mistress. He's been set up, and they want $105,000. To protect his wife's political ambitions, Harry won't go to the police; instead, he shines them on and then doesn't pay. They up their demands, so he goes on the offensive, tracking them down and trying to turn one against the other. Their sociopathic leader, Alan, responds with violence toward the mistress and menace toward Harry's wife. Will Harry let up and pay off Alan or can he find some other solution?
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Director(s): John Frankenheimer
Production: Cannon Group
  1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
6.4
Rotten Tomatoes:
43%
R
Year:
1986
110 min
468 Views


(ENGINE ROARING)

(JAZZ MUSIC PLA YING ON RADIO)

(BELL RINGING)

(TRAIN HORN BLARING)

- Hey, boss. You want in the baseball pool?

- Let's try this one.

- What inning? Valenzuela.

- The third.

Great. Good luck with it.

- Good morning.

- Good morning.

- Hello.

- Hello.

Well? Will you do it?

It's quite a surprise.

Good morning.

- Good morning.

- Good morning.

- You have a 10:
00 with Sol Rosenthal.

- Thank you.

SECRETARY:
Coffee's on its way

and, please, call your wife.

Hi, Barb. How's it going?

Well, tell me when you see me.

No, I'll probably be late again.

Preparing a demonstration for tomorrow.

If you need me for anything

and the nightline is busy,

I'll be back in the shop.

So just leave a message,

and I'll get back to you. Okay?

I love you, too. Bye.

- Oh, hello there.

- Good morning.

Cini!

Cini!

Sit.

- Where's Cini?

- ALAN:
No talking during the show.

You've seen some of this before, Mitch,

stuff your girlfriend shot,

Las Palmas Hotel, Palm Springs,

August 17 through 21st

while your wife thought you were

in a convention in Miami. You rascal.

Now here you are shooting a broad.

Nice little body.

Great tits, what do you think?

Hot sh*t hotel. Two bills a day.

It's a very jazzy outfit.

Oh, that's a jazzy outfit, too.

Still with the beer.

That's your background showing, man.

What? Eleven years at Douglas, right?

And a few more at Lockheed?

I want you to know what we know

so your mind will be clear. You dig?

What is this? Live nude models?

Oh, there's your girlfriend again.

She told you she was a model, right?

What, did you think it was for Vogue?

(LAUGHS)

There she is again.

In your very snappy car.

I must say, very snappy, indeed. Jag XKE?

You restored it yourself, didn't you?

Oh, I really like that car.

And as the sun sets slowly in the west,

we say goodbye to beautiful Palm Springs,

Oasis of Intrigue

and extracurricular games of

Hide the Salami, and we return to real life.

Here comes some of the new stuff.

You recognize this?

Ranco Steel.

Gross sales last year, almost 12 mil.

Huh? Oh, there goes one of your trucks,

probably taking a load to the bank.

Eighty some employees,

and you hold some patent

that fuses f***ing metal together. Right?

They use it mostly

on those spaceships, huh?

You get a smooth 120 grand on that alone.

And there's your old lady.

Keeping herself in shape for you.

It's not bad, Mitch, huh?

Oh, you've got good taste in broads.

Chalet Lodge Motel. Oh, I like this one.

This one here. This expression, huh?

Mr. Casual.

It's not a bad place, 40 a night.

That's you going in to buy the room

while the broad stands outside. Christ.

You know, you start chasing that

young p*ssy, you got to stay in shape.

I bet she drains you dry.

Too bad we hadn't had time to

score the sh*t, but we're working on it.

Jesus, Mitch,

you don't mind my saying so,

but for a guy

who was a major in the Air Force,

decorated in Korea,

and now a successful businessman,

you got f***ing rocks in your head

to let yourself get put on film like that.

I mean, as you can see,

it's just plain f***ing dumb.

- Well, sport, here's the deal.

- The girl in on this?

Let's just say she did what she was told,

but back to the deal.

You pay us 105 grand, that's not even

what you make in one year on that patent,

you get to buy this video

for your very own.

Nice color footage

of a very expensive piece of ass.

105 grand, and it's done.

You think I just walk into a bank

and withdraw that kind of money?

It could take some time. Sure.

105 grand's a lot of money.

So, let's keep in touch.

And as a sign of good faith,

the first payment is,

shall we say, 10 grand day after tomorrow.

We'll let you know where and when.

Oh, and, yeah,

you get the tape after the last payment.

So why don't you be a good boy

and stick around for another five minutes?

- Okay? So long, sport.

- LEO:
Take care.

(BOBBY HUMMING)

(GRINDER WHIRRING)

(CAT MEOWING)

Come on, sweetheart.

We're getting too busy, you know,

the two of us.

You think perhaps I could

book an evening with you?

Sure.

- Soon?

- Why not?

They want me to run with Arveson.

- You want to do it?

- I don't know yet.

- When do they have to know?

- I have to make up my mind pretty soon.

You see, if I do it,

it means spending even more time...

I know. I know.

Look, I gotta meet O'Boyle this morning

because we're having that

special demonstration for NASA.

Can we talk about it tonight?

- Congratulations.

- Thanks.

- They made a good choice.

- Say, "Hello."

Yeah. I will.

FOREMAN:
We're gonna look at a series

of three explosions, Mr. Mitchell.

I think we're set for the series.

So anytime you're ready

to conduct the demonstration,

just give me a signal

and we're all set to go.

HARRY:
Okay. You'll tell

the guy in the crane?

Yeah, and I'll be over here

waiting for your instructions.

Okay, that's good.

All right, all right. Easy, easy.

This is it? You just blow it up?

How does that fuse metal?

You ram the layer of titanium down

on top of the layer of steel

with such force that they fuse together.

It's very simple.

Yeah. So simple

you're the only one doing it.

How can a guy smart enough

to invent all of this, patent it, even...

- How can...

- All right. Don't say it.

Okay. You met her at a bar.

What? A few months ago?

Yeah. With a client.

What were you looking for? A little action?

No. He was.

It was a Friday night after a convention.

I took him into Hollywood.

- O'BOYLE:
What kind of shape were you in?

- Fine. You know me. A couple of beers.

So, you sat down and started talking.

Yeah, more or less.

She had this friend who danced there.

A black girl. A beautiful black girl.

Anyway, I bought her a drink.

She tells me she's going to

secretarial school at night

and working in this modeling place

in the daytime with the black girl.

- Mr. Mitchell!

- Oh, excuse me.

How far apart would you like

these blasting trays?

This is good. About 20 feet.

One, two, three, four, let her go.

I must have thought I was falling in love.

What an a**hole.

And Barbara?

Oh, don't think she didn't know

that something was going on.

And the irony of the whole thing is,

that morning I went to see the girl,

I was going to call it quits.

Quits, for Christ's sake.

And the video. The guy talking,

you ever heard this guy's voice before?

Never.

Eventually, we're gonna have to take it

to the police.

No.

Barbara told me this morning

that she's running as a candidate

on Arveson's ticket.

Can you imagine

what the papers would do with that?

Look, Jim, she stuck with me

all these years while I built this.

What am I going to do?

Am I going to destroy the one thing

that she's built for herself?

I can't do that. I won't do it.

- Do I pay them and just forget it?

- That wouldn't end it.

- You mean these guys don't forget.

- Yeah.

(SIREN BLARING)

BOB:
How do you do?

HARRY:
My lawyer, Jim O'Boyle.

My assistant, Bob Parker.

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Elmore Leonard

Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fiction and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into motion pictures. Among his best-known works are Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Swag, Hombre, Mr. Majestyk, and Rum Punch (adapted as the movie Jackie Brown). Leonard's writings include short stories that became the films 3:10 to Yuma and The Tall T, as well as the FX television series Justified. more…

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