McQ (1974)

McQ is a tough, rain-slick slice of 1970s urban paranoia that’s especially fun because it drops John Wayne—America’s towering icon of frontier certainty—into a modern cop story where the streets are murkier and the loyalties are worse. Director John Sturges keeps the pace lean and the atmosphere gritty, letting the investigation tighten like a noose while the action arrives with bruising, unglamorous force rather than flashy heroics. The pleasures are in the steady accumulation of suspicion and the satisfying turns of the screw, as the film keeps finding new ways to complicate what you think you know without ever turning into a puzzle-box. It’s not for viewers who want a sleek, contemporary thriller or a gentle Wayne picture, but if you’re in the mood for a hard-boiled mystery with real bite and a lead performance that carries both authority and unexpected humanity, this one goes down easy.

McQ is trying to graft John Wayne’s old-school moral certainty onto a then-modern, gritty urban cop thriller, with corruption, drugs, and a lone-wolf investigation driving the plot. The problem is the movie often feels stiff and oddly sleepy between the action beats, so what should be tense and dangerous can land as flat or even unintentionally funny. Wayne has presence and there are a few solid set pieces, but the supporting characters are thin and the pacing makes the mystery feel more like trudging through clues than being pulled into them. If you want a sharp, propulsive 70s crime film, this may test your patience; if you’re here mainly for Wayne doing tough-guy business in a different era, you’ll likely get enough to justify the watch.