EIGHT PEOPLE KNOW WHO THE KILLER IS – AND THEY’RE ALL DEAD!

One late evening in San Francisco, a massacre takes place on a bus with a sole survivor; one of the victims turns out to be a cop.

This Americanization of a Swedish crime novel is quite effective, with the obvious ambition to portray the work of policemen and doctors as realistically as possible. Unfortunately, after a dynamite opening the proceedings turn less exciting and, though well-acted, the characters played by Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern (who find their partnership an uneasy alliance) more clichéd.

Still, it’s a good story and the San Francisco locations help.

1973-U.S. 111 min. Color. Produced and directed by Stuart Rosenberg. Novel: Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö. Cast: Walter Matthau (Jake Martin), Bruce Dern (Leo Larsen), Louis Gossett, Jr. (James Larrimore), Albert Paulsen, Anthony Zerbe, Anthony Costello, Joanna Cassidy. 

Trivia: British title: An Investigation of Murder.