The Stoolie

Financed by nightclub comedian Mason, completed by George Silano (it was shot in sequence) when Avildsen left to start Save the Tiger, this wry look at society's margins and its realities is quite a charmer in its modest way. Mason plays a small-time drug-pusher and police informer who absconds to Miami with police funds after coming face-to-face with the bleak future that awaits him. Frazer is the police officer blamed for the loss, who hounds him but (a little predictably) comes to view life from the other side of the fence, and Kurtz the lonely secretary who brings a fumbling hint of romance to his life. A touch of Marty here (although the film is really more like Midnight Cowboy without the pretensions), but whenever sentimentality threatens to raise its head, it is kept firmly at bay by the quirkish characters, the marvellously offbeat locations, and the gently mocking humour that reigns throughout.