''Hit!'' is a 1973 action film directed by

Sidney J. Furie Sidney Joseph Furie (born February 28, 1933) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for his extensive work in both British and American cinema between the 1960s and early 1980s. Like his contemporaries Norman Jewison ...

and starring

Billy Dee Williams William December Williams Jr. (born April 6, 1937) is an American actor. He appeared as Lando Calrissian in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, first in the early 1980s for ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) and ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), and thirt ...

and

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...

. It is about a federal agent trying to destroy a

drug A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

zone after his daughter dies from a

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

. An alternate title for the film was ''Goodbye Marseilles''.

Plot summary

The film opens on two separate storylines intercut with each other. In

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, a man and his girlfriend board a yacht. He retrieves a bundle of

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

attached to a sea buoy and delivers it to a man in a chateau who processes the opium into

. The chateau man transfers the processed heroin to the ringleader who takes it to the docks and hides the drugs inside bicycle frames designated for transport to the U.S. In

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, Jeannie Allen gets picked up for school by her boyfriend. After school, Jeannie’s boyfriend buys some heroin and injects Jeannie with it. She has a fatal overdose. Nick Allen is horrified to visit his daughter's grave. He tracks down the drug dealer who sold the heroin and nearly beats him until the dealer convinces Nick that the real villains are the ones supplying him. The Director of Nick's unnamed federal agency offers his condolences over Jeannie’s death and suggests an easy assignment to get Nick’s mind off the tragedy. Nick suggests instead going after the head of the heroin ring. Nick’s supervisor wants nothing to do with the conversation and washes his hands of Nick. Nick assembles a team of outcasts by pressuring each in different ways. Agent Dutch Schiller is near retirement and frustrated that his violent tactics get drug pushers released back onto the streets. Nick convinces him to go to France and reconnoiter on the drug cartel. Nick offers an addict prostitute, Sherry Nielson, a daily supply of dope. He also enlists Barry Strong, a former military sniper by pressuring him on his unpaid taxes. Mike Willmer is a former Navy sailor whose wife was raped and killed by a junkie. Elderly Ida & Herman have mysterious backgrounds in

clandestine operations A clandestine operation is an intelligence or military operation carried out in such a way that the operation goes unnoticed by the general population or specific enemy forces. Until the 1970s, clandestine operations were primarily political in ...

and they had a son who died from drug addiction. The Director of Nick’s agency sends two goons, Carlin & Crosby, to assassinate Nick, but he escapes and hurries his team to a hideout in the fictitious coastal town of Hamilton Point, British Columbia. Dutch presents all the intelligence he’s gathered on the heroin operation and identifies nine targets, claiming that the cartel will collapse if they are killed. The team trains for a week before heading to Marseille where they carry out their operation. Herman kills his target with a shotgun in a movie theater as the man watches ''

The Godfather ''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling 1969 novel of the same title. The film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, ...

''. Ida stabs hers in the bathroom at a restaurant. Mike shoots the yachtsman with a speargun as he tries to retrieve another package of opium. Barry and Dutch drive straight onto the grounds of the chateau and shoot the opium processor. Sherry poses as a waitress and poisons another leader of the ring. Barry and Sherry go to a fashion house and assassinate two other ringleaders there. Meanwhile, Nick poses as a gas serviceman digging a new trench for a pipe at the mansion. He kills his target with a

bazooka Bazooka () is the common name for a Man-portable anti-tank systems, man-portable recoilless Anti-tank warfare, anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the ...

. The Director confronts Nick after the operation is complete and offers a solution to coverup what happened, claiming the French are furious at the U.S. Nick sees through the ruse and says that the Director is furious because Nick showed how easy it was to destroy the cartel with a ragtag team. The Director threatens to have Nick killed. Nick smiles and leaves.

Cast

as Nick Allen *

as Mike Willmer *

Paul Hampton Paul Hampton (born August 20, 1937) is an American actor, singer, lyricist and writer. He is listed as one of one hundred major architects of American rock and roll in the British rock journal "Footsoldiers and Kings." While he was a sophomore ...

as Barry Strong *

Gwen Welles Gwen Welles (born Gwen Goldberg, March 4, 1951 – October 13, 1993) was an American actress. Early years Gwen Welles was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as Gwen Goldberg. She was the daughter of clothing designer Rebecca Welles and Barton G ...

as Sherry Nielson * Warren J. Kemmerling as "Dutch" Schiller * Janet Brandt as Ida *

Sid Melton Sidney Meltzer (May 22, 1917 – November 2, 2011), known professionally as Sid Melton, was an American actor. He played the roles of incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe in the CBS sitcom '' Green Acres'' and Uncle Charlie Halper, proprietor ...

as Herman * Zooey Hall as Carlin * Todd Martin as Crosby *

Norman Burton Norman Burton (December 5, 1923 – November 29, 2003) was an American actor. He was occasionally credited as Normann Burton. Early life Born in New York City, Burton was a student of the Actors Studio. After early work on stage, he broke in ...

as The Director * Jenny Astruc as Mademoiselle Frelou *

Yves Barsacq Yves Barsacq (17 June 1931 – 4 October 2015) was a French film actor, who appeared in more than 150 films. He is the son of the French-Russian production designer Léon Barsacq and the nephew of the French theatre director André Barsacq. ...

as Romain * Jean-Claude Bercq as Jean-Baptiste *

Henri Cogan Henri Cogan (13 September 1914 in Paris – 23 September 2003 in Boulogne-Billancourt) was a French actor and stuntman. Biography Before Henri Cogan became a fight choreographer for European action films he proved his expertise in hand-to-hand comb ...

as Bornou *

Pierre Collet Pierre Collet (10 March 1914 – 30 October 1977) was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films and television shows between 1943 and 1977. Selected filmography * ''Goodbye Leonard'' (1943) - Le marchand d'habits (uncredite ...

as "Zero" *

Tina Andrews Tina may refer to: People *Tina (given name), people and fictional characters with the given name ''Tina'' Places *Tina, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran *Tina, Tunisia, a town in Sfax Governorate, Tunisia *Tina, Guadalcanal, Solomon ...

as Jeannie Allen, Nick's Daughter

Production

Many of the people, both cast and crew, involved in this film had previously worked on '' Lady Sings the Blues'' (1972). The F/V Victory, which Richard Pryor is seen piloting, was supposed to be blown up, with money being offered to owner Donald Gillich (who actually steered the boat from the pilot house below) for a replacement. Gillich however shot the producers down, saying he didn't want his family's boat destroyed. The role of Nick Allen was originally written for

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of the counterculture of the 1960s, made him a top box-office draw for his films of the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1 ...

Reception

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "It's a movie out for kicks, but the kicks are so implausible, so humorless, so without redeeming style and wit, that to sit through it is to give oneself a false low." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' faulted the film for "illogical plotting" and a too-long running time that "allows for some tedium," but praised "a charismatic dimension to Williams' leading performance, some tautly edited and dramatically photographed action setpieces and some nifty comic business deftly handled by Furie," as well a "consistently excellent supporting cast."

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' gave the film three stars out of four, writing that it "isn't going to win any prizes for originality," but nevertheless provides "solid entertainment and should be a box office smash."

Charles Champlin Charles Davenport Champlin (March 23, 1926 – November 16, 2014) was an American film critic and writer. Life and career Champlin was born in Hammondsport, New York. He attended high school in Camden, New York, working as a columnist for the '' ...

of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' wrote that "at the level of calculated make-believe it was seeking, the movie succeeds extremely well. It is a big, long (two hours and a quarter), richly glossy international crime adventure, a generally suspenseful piece of storytelling centering on the strong and sympathetic performance of Billy Dee Williams in the lead role." Champlin, Charles (October 3, 1973). "Billy Dee and the Soiled Six". ''

''. Part IV, p. 1.

Home media

''Hit!'' was released to DVD by Olive Films (under license from Paramount Pictures) on April 24, 2012.

References

External links

* * * {{Sidney J. Furie 1973 films 1970s crime action films American crime action films Films directed by Sidney J. Furie Films scored by Lalo Schifrin Films about the illegal drug trade Films set in Marseille Films about the French Connection 1970s English-language films 1970s American films