I always loved the use of Can’s ‘Vitamin C’ in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, but you know who used it first in a private eye flick way back in the 1970s? Samuel Fuller did, shooting an episode of a German crime TV anthology in West Germany (called Tartot) and spinning that into his own feature film called Dead Pigeon On Beethoven Street (1972). Using music from Can as the score (credited as ‘The Can’), Fuller sets a zany, self-aware tone in the title credit sequence, cutting between an actual carnival in the city streets to shots of the cast and crew wearing carnival hats, posing for the camera as their credit appears. Drawing on the Profumo scandal as inspiration, Fuller follows a twisty plot where an American private eye named Sandy (Glenn Corbett) is on a case to track down sordid photo negatives that could ruin the career of an American senator. There’s a blackmail ring spearheaded by a regal fencer (Anton Diffring) and his key operator, the seductive femme fatale (Christa Lang, Fuller’s wife) featured in the photos. Sandy tracks her down and sets up a sting to collaborate with the blackmail ring. Cliches and complications ensue, all with an air of knowing satire and cartoonish fun; the movie is shot through with a love of crime movies and of making movies. Fuller keeps the camera moving and the editing urgent. While the director’s cut has a few slow patches, there are plenty of great German locations, fashions and gags throughout. With a moustache and a turtle neck, Corbett looks like an American Franco Nero, and is a wry, laconic lead. Lang is great as the skilled “actress” and their eventual relationship has shades of the push-and-pull of Fuller’s Pickup On South Street. I have an interest in Fuller’s post-Hollywood work in the 1970s and 1980s, and I had no idea about this movie until I read about it on Letterboxd. I streamed a good quality copy of the director’s cut on YouTube. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 