Report to the Commissioner (1975)

United Artists
Directed by Milton Katselas
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(MGMHD)

Gritty police drama in the tradition of The French Connection and Dog Day Afternoon. A young Michael Moriarty is the rookie undercover cop assigned to hardboiled veteran Yaphet Kotto. Moriarty's character is a dangerous combination of idealism and naivety. He is told to find a runaway girl named Chiclet, but is unaware she is actually an undercover cop. He catches up with her in the apartment of a pimp named Stick. She is killed in the shootout, but Moriarty chases the nearly naked black man over rooftops, through the streets and into Saks Fifth Avenue. A long set piece in an elevator features a Mexican stand-off in stifling heat. It suffers from a predictable downbeat ending and an unnecessarily complex, non-linear plot, but otherwise a neglected gem.