The Mighty Quinn (film)
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''The Mighty Quinn'' is a 1989 American
mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...
comedy thriller film Comedy thrillers are a hybrid genre that draw subject matter generally from comedy and thrillers. Criteria They often include a darker tone, relative to other genres, of humor. List of comedy thriller films * '' The Big Fix'' (1978) * ''Charad ...
starring
Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington ha ...
in the title role, alongside Robert Townsend,
James Fox William Fox (born 19 May 1939), known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor. He appeared in several notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including '' King Rat'', '' The Servant'', ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' and ''Performan ...
,
Mimi Rogers Miriam Rogers (née Spickler; born January 27, 1956) is an American actress. Her notable film roles are ''Gung Ho'' (1986), '' Someone to Watch Over Me'' (1987), ''Desperate Hours'' (1990), and '' Full Body Massage'' (1995). She garnered the grea ...
, M. Emmet Walsh, and
Sheryl Lee Ralph Sheryl Lee Ralph OJ is an American actress and singer. She made her screen debut in the 1977 comedy film '' A Piece of the Action'', before landing the role of Deena Jones in the Broadway musical ''Dreamgirls'' (1981), for which she received a ...
. The screenplay by
Hampton Fancher Hampton Lansden Fancher (born July 18, 1938) is an American actor, screenwriter, and filmmaker, best known for co-writing the 1982 neo-noir science fiction film ''Blade Runner'' and its 2017 sequel '' Blade Runner 2049,'' based on the novel '' ...
is based on A. H. Z. Carr's 1971 novel '' Finding Maubee''. In the film, Washington plays Xavier Quinn, a police chief who tries to help his childhood friend Maubee (Townsend) after he becomes a murder suspect. The film takes its name from the
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
song of the same name, and a
reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...
performed by Michael Rose, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Cedella Marley and Sharon Marley Prendergast which appears on the soundtrack. Film critic
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film an overwhelmingly positive review, calling it one of the best films of 1989. He described the film as "a spy thriller, a buddy movie, a musical, a comedy and a picture that is wise about human nature."


Plot

Xavier Quinn is the chief of police in Jamaica. When Donald Pater, the millionaire owner of a luxury resort hotel, is found murdered, everyone assumes that the culprit is Maubee, a petty crook who also is Quinn's best friend. Quinn does not believe it and clashes with the island's inept Governor Chalk and his arrogant political fixer Thomas Elgin. Quinn's worries over the murder exacerbate his troubles at home; he is estranged from his wife, Lola, and rarely has time to see his son. Maubee eludes the police at every turn. Quinn questions a witness, who says that Maubee had a (rare) United States $10,000 bill. Trying to track down Maubee, Quinn questions Ubu Pearl, the local witch and aunt of Maubee's girlfriend, Isola. Chalk introduces Quinn to Fred Miller, an affable American said to represent Pater's company. Pater had been found floating in a hot tub, decapitated. Against Chalk's instructions, Quinn has the body autopsied and finds that Pater died of a venomous snake bite and was already dead when his head was cut off. Quinn arrests Jose Patina, who claims to be on vacation, but has also been questioning people about Maubee's whereabouts. After Patina is bailed out of jail, he confers with Miller in a seedy hotel. Miller tells him the "operation" is over, then kills Patina. Miller goes to Ubu Pearl and demands to know where Maubee is. When she refuses, he burns down her house, with her inside. Quinn discovers that Pater, a close associate of the President of the United States, brought stacks of $10,000 bills to the island to be picked up by Patina. The President wants to fund an anti-Communist revolution in Latin America, but Congress would not support this. The President acts illegally, using the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
to deliver discontinued currency that is still legal but will not be missed from storage at the US Treasury. The murder interfered with the plan, so the CIA sent Miller to retrieve the money and "plug up the holes." Quinn tracks Maubee down at their childhood playground in an ancient ruin. Maubee explains that Pater impregnated Isola when she was a maid at his hotel. When Ubu Pearl demanded that Pater support the child, Pater fired Isola. Ubu Pearl instructed Isola to go to the hotel and leave a snake in Pater's room. Maubee sped to the hotel and arrived just as Pater was dying from the snakebite. He cut off Pater's head, put his body into the tub to attempt to conceal the cause of death, and grabbed the sack of money. Miller appears and holds the pair at gunpoint. Maubee hands over the money and Miller departs in a helicopter. Enraged, Maubee grabs onto the helicopter as it lifts off over the ocean. Miller shoots at Maubee and Quinn watches helplessly as his friend's body falls into the ocean. A snake hidden in the sack of money slithers out and fatally bites the helicopter pilot. Miller struggles to regain control, but the chopper crashes into the old ruins and explodes. Grieved at the loss of his friend, Quinn returns home and reconciles with his wife. As he walks on the beach with his son, the camera pans down to show a line of barefoot prints emerging from the water, leading to a rock with a $10,000 bill sitting on it.


Cast

*
Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington ha ...
as Chief Xavier Quinn * Robert Townsend as Maubee *
James Fox William Fox (born 19 May 1939), known professionally as James Fox, is an English actor. He appeared in several notable films of the 1960s and early 1970s, including '' King Rat'', '' The Servant'', ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' and ''Performan ...
as Thomas Elgin *
Mimi Rogers Miriam Rogers (née Spickler; born January 27, 1956) is an American actress. Her notable film roles are ''Gung Ho'' (1986), '' Someone to Watch Over Me'' (1987), ''Desperate Hours'' (1990), and '' Full Body Massage'' (1995). She garnered the grea ...
as Hadley Elgin * M. Emmet Walsh as Fred Miller *
Sheryl Lee Ralph Sheryl Lee Ralph OJ is an American actress and singer. She made her screen debut in the 1977 comedy film '' A Piece of the Action'', before landing the role of Deena Jones in the Broadway musical ''Dreamgirls'' (1981), for which she received a ...
as Lola Quinn *
Esther Rolle Esther Elizabeth Rolle (November 8, 1920 – November 17, 1998) was an American actress. She is best known for her role as Florida Evans, on the CBS television sitcom '' Maude,'' for two seasons (1972–1974), and its spin-off series ''Go ...
as Ubu Pearl * Art Evans as Officer "Jump" Jones *
Henry Judd Baker Henry Judd Baker (died August 28, 2016) was an American actor known for such films and television shows as Oliver Stone's ''Seizure'', ''Clean and Sober'', '' The Mighty Quinn'', William Friedkin's '' Cruising'' and ''Dark Shadows ''Dark Sha ...
as Nicotine *
Norman Beaton Norman Lugard Beaton (31 October 1934 – 13 December 1994) was a Guyanese actor long resident in the United Kingdom. He became best known for his role as Desmond Ambrose in the Channel Four television comedy series ''Desmond's''. The writer S ...
as Governor Chalk * Alex Colon as Jose Patina * Tyra Ferrell as Isola *
Keye Luke Keye Luke (, Cantonese: Luk Shek Kee; June 18, 1904 – January 12, 1991) was a Chinese-born American film and television actor, technical advisor and artist and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild. He was known for playing Lee Chan, t ...
as Dr. Raj * Carl Bradshaw as Cocodick, The Prisoner * Ron Taylor as Officer McKeon * Oliver Samuels as Officer Rupert


Production

''The Mighty Quinn'' was filmed at various locations throughout
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
, with the principal outdoor scenes shot in
Port Antonio Port Antonio is the capital of the parish of Portland on the northeastern coast of Jamaica, about from Kingston. It had a population of 12,285 in 1982 and 13,246 in 1991. It is the island's third largest port, famous as a shipping point for b ...
. Interior scenes of Donald Pater's mansion were filmed at Golden Clouds Villa in
Oracabessa Oracabessa is a small town in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica east of Ocho Rios. Its population was 4,108 in 2009. Lit in the afternoons by an apricot light that may have inspired its Spanish name, ''Oracabeza'', or "Golden Head", Oracabessa's comme ...
.


Reception

''The Mighty Quinn'' gained mostly positive reviews from critics. It holds an 88% rating on
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 16 reviews, with the consensus reading: "A deft hybrid of laughs, espionage, and music, ''The Mighty Quinn'' is a smart, pleasant entertainment that offers an early example of Denzel Washington's onscreen magnetism."
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film four stars. The high point, he said, was Washington's performance:
The film stars Denzel Washington in one of those roles that creates a movie star overnight. You might have imagined that would have happened to Washington after he starred in "
Cry Freedom ''Cry Freedom'' is a 1987 epic apartheid drama film directed and produced by Richard Attenborough, set in late-1970s apartheid-era South Africa. The screenplay was written by John Briley based on a pair of books by journalist Donald Woods. Th ...
" as the
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n hero Stephen Biko. He got an Oscar nomination for that performance, but it didn't even begin to hint at his reserves of charm, sexiness and offbeat humor. In an effortless way that reminds me of
Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...
,
Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
or
Sean Connery Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...
in the best of the
Bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...
pictures, he is able to be tough and gentle at the same time, able to play a hero and yet not take himself too seriously.
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
makes reference to the movie in his 2004 autobiography '' Chronicles: Volume One'': : On the way back to the house I passed the local movie theater on Prytania Street, where ''The Mighty Quinn'' was showing. Years earlier, I had written a song called 'The Mighty Quinn' which was a hit in England, and I wondered what the movie was about. Eventually, I'd sneak off and go there to see it. It was a mystery, suspense,
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
n thriller with
Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington ha ...
as the Mighty ''Xavier Quinn'' a detective who solves crimes. Funny, that's just the way I imagined him when I wrote the song 'The Mighty Quinn,' Denzel Washington.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mighty Quinn, The American mystery films American police detective films 1980s crime films 1989 films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films set in the Caribbean Films shot in Jamaica Films based on American novels A&M Films films Films scored by Anne Dudley African-American films Films directed by Carl Schenkel 1980s English-language films 1980s American films