Framed

Everything about this film is ugly and elephantine. A barely audible Joe Don Baker becomes the victim of a baffling frame-up involving people in 'high places', does a spell in jail, then sets out full of vengeful bitterness to unravel the whys and wherefores. The fragmented direction, which persists in spotlighting the irrelevant, is not even within shouting distance of creating any suspense or intrigue; one violent act merely mindlessly succeeds another. The performances are tediously one-dimensional: Joe snarls, Conny breaks down, while the various legal guardians bully. The final twist loses any power it might have had when the one vaguely sympathetic cop, leafing through evidence of top-level corruption, passionately declares, 'Oh no, not him!'