Bullitt

Bullitt. 1968 Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Pictures.
Starring: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, James Hagan, Vic Tayback, Bill Hickman, Suzanne Pleshette, Martin Landau, Norman Fell, Don Gordon
Director: Peter Yates
Amazon listings: Two-disc special edition. Also part of the Essential Steve McQueen Collection.

Based on the 1963 novel Mute Witness by Robert L. Pike, Bullitt contains one of the most influential car chase scenes in cinematic history.

We begin with a California politician, Walter Chalmbers (Vaughn), organizing a Senate subcommittee hearing in San Francisco to deal with organized crime. Chalmbers is hoping to bring mobster Pete Ross (Tayback) to justice with the aid of a key witness: Pete's brother Johnny (Felice Orlandi), which would improve Chalmbers' political standing considerably. The movie takes place the weekend before the hearing.

Two million dollars is stolen, and Johnny escapes to San Francisco from Chicago, where he is placed in the San Francisco Police Department's protective custody. Chalmbers requests Lieutenant Frank Bullitt's (McQueen) detective unit be assigned to protect Johnny, who is housed at a cheap hotel with around-the-clock protection. This doesn't stop two hitmen, Mike and Phil, from ambushing the hotel room, shooting the inspector and Johnny. While the two are hospitalized, Bullitt wants to investigate Mike and Phil and find the mafia boss who ordered the hit; Chalmbers, only interested in his political career, threatens to ruin Bullitt's job if Johnny dies.

Johnny dies after surgery, and Bullitt deliberately suppresses any word of the death, to the point of asking a doctor to misplace the chart, and having Johnny's body placed in the morgue under a John Doe identity. While Bullitt is retracing Johnny's steps, an angry Chalmbers finds out that Johnny is missing, and pressures the police department into finding a witness. Following the infamous car chase scene, Bullitt investigates his one remaining lead, a woman in a San Mateo hotel, only to realize that everyone had been fooled by shenanigans orchestrated by the real Johnny Ross, who switched identities with a paid assistant, and is attempting to flee for Europe when Bullitt tracks him down at the airport.

Highly, highly recommended.