Two for the Money (1972 TV Movie) User Reviews (7)

Three for the Oscars.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 20 December 2020]

There are three former Academy Award winning actors in this film, one former nominee and one future winner. This television film's stars (Stephen Brooks and Robert Hooks) aren't award winners, but they are very good as former cops who becomes private detectives after Brooks is shot in the line of duty.

Their first case involves the missing Richard Dreyfus (the future Oscar Winner) whose mother (Anne Revere, Supporting Actress winner for "National Velvet") and sister Catherine Burns (Supporting Actress nominee for "Last Summer"), discovering racism through small town sheriff Neville Brand and a gun toting Walter Brennan (three time Supporting Actor Winner). Brennan is furious over the murder of one of his family members, leading to another case involving a serial killer.

A dark, stormy night inside a dilapetaded house and a locked room full of rats leads Hooks into further danger while Brooks is out on the town with pretty librarian Shelley Fabares, harassed by Brand, obviously a hater of anything big city. Brooks and Hooks, friends as well as parents, are perhaps the Starsky and Hutch (or Ponch and Baker) in this obvious TV pilot that had great potential and sadly didn't sell.

Former child actor Skip Homeier is seen briefly as Brooks' doctor, and there's also a creepy cameo by the other Oscar winning Supporting Actress Mercedes McCambridge, seen with the young Dreyfus. The elderly Brennan is pretty agile for some of the scrappy things he has to do. The cameos by these veteran actors offers a bit of nostalgia to this TV film, aiding in making it quite above average.

Tight murder mystery that's well written and acted

[rudy-30 · 15 February 2002]

Somebody murdered Walter Brennan's relative. As it turns out, the killer is wanted for a crime he committed several years ago, but has not been captured. Two detectives become private eyes hoping to catch the killer before Brennan can get his vigilante revenge. The acting is marvelous, and the scenes between Richard Dreyfuss and Mercedes McCambridge are stand-outs. This movie used to be re-run in the 1970's, and I wish it would be shown again.

Not a bad idea...but the logical leaps annoyed me.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 30 May 2020]

The story begins with two cops trying to make an arrest. One is shot and injured badly...so badly that he'll never be a street cop again. Instead of taking a desk job, the injured Chip and is partner, Larry (Stephen Brooks and Robert Hooks) start their own private detective company. Their first case involves trying to find a mass murderer who killed five folks twelve years ago.

While the other reviewers (so far) have really liked this made for TV movie, I didn't. First, some of the characters really made no sense...particularly the sheriff played by Neville Brand. The surviving family member (Walter Brennan) also didn't behave very logically. But the biggest problem was that Robert Hooks' character made some HUGE logical leaps in order for them to find the killer--such huge ones that it completely took me out of the story. It's a shame, as some parts of this film were good.

By the way, this sure looked like a TV pilot episode....especially how the show ended. See it...see if you, too, see this.

Great 70's Flick

[darlenecarlo · 8/10 · 12 August 2014]

I remember this movie from the 70's. Mercedes McCambridge's performance has stuck with me all these years. I can still hear her singing "my hands are clean, my hands are clean and hey noni noni noni". If you saw the movie that will bring back memories. Yes, great buddy cop flick. The two lead actors had a great camaraderie. Someone killed Walter Brennan's family and just disappeared. For a small screen movie it was very good. The acting was very good. It was very suspenseful as you watched these two cops investigate and try to figure out how someone could kill a whole family and just disappear. I wish I could find this somewhere to watch again. Very satisfying.

Mercedes McCambridge GOLD

[billohno · 9/10 · 30 November 2002]

Even if you don't like this police procedural, you will need to jump to around the 58 minute mark where the Mercedes McCambridge master class gold starts. Working with a young Richard Dreyfus, McCambridge's brief performance would give this young kid in 1972 nightmares.

Her incessant rant was limited to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing with portions of Balthasar's song in Act 2, Scene 3:

Sigh no more ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever, One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never.

Then sigh not so, but let them go, And be you blithe and bonny, Converting all your sounds of woe Into hey nonny, nonny,

Of interest is that Mercedes McCambridge, who played her Mrs. Castle character so flawlessly, would, herself, struggle with alcoholism and mental illness in real life. And there is a most tragic end to her son's life in which, in a murder-suicide, he would take the lives of his wife and two children, but not before penning a pointed note to his mother.

Throwaway title for a memorable film

[michael.will · 20 July 2004]

Saw this exactly once, when it aired three decades ago, and it's really managed to linger. Superb cast in a genuinely creepy and involving mystery thriller. The then-trendy "buddy police procedural" approach, that the title suggests, is so incidental to the true tone that it seems written in to sell the thing, while the macabre storyline is what barrels along to the jarring conclusion. After all these years it's more a case of highlights and impressions I recall, but it had the aura of something that could've been a successful theatrical release, rather than just another M.O.W. that's been lost to time. Pity it wasn't written and produced 15 or 20 years earlier -- doubtless would've been a noir with major cult status.

Any leads on tracking this one down will be most welcome.

Memorable & well acted

[glvandermeer · 8/10 · 28 December 2019]

I saw this when I was 11 years old and still, after the thousands of films I've seen it sticks with me, the thought of Mercedes McCambridge hauntingly singing "men were deceivers ever..." still sends chills down my spine.