Ed McBain's 87th
Precinct - Heatwave
Director: Douglas Barr
Year: 1997
Rating: 5.0
This is the third and last of the Ed McBain 87th
Precinct TV movies. It is a creepy serial rapist this time around and the
boys of the 87th keep screwing up time after time. Carella especially. He
is played by Dale Midkiff for the second time but his partner Meyer Meyer
gets a new face in Paul Ben-Victor. A good portion of the film goes to Detective
Eileen Burke who also gets a new face - a very pretty one in Erika Eleniak.
In the previous film Ice, she was bait for a rapist and gets the same duty
this time around.
Some 18 months previously a rapist in a
black mask raped a group of women and then disappeared. He is back. After
the same women. It begins with him in an office late at night chasing one.
Carella and Meyer Meyer had been on the previous case and came up empty and
basically forgotten about it. There is a link which they never figured out.
Poor police work. And this time is no different. He puts Burke in the firing
line and then screws up and she is a victim. He has the guy in his sight
about ten yards away and lets him get away. Shoot the fucker. He had raped
all these women and killed one of them. What the hell. White privilege? And
then of course Teddy has to almost get it. Annoying film only saved by a
nice performance from Erika. I was trying to remember why I knew her
name - ah, Baywatch. Not that I watched Baywatch - honest - but she was the
latest blond bomb of the day for a while and on all the magazine covers.
Larry Cohen wrote this script as he did Ice - times must have been tough
for him. Q is still a favorite.
