Original subtitles

Thank you.

Mark?

Lieutenant? Morning.

Will you tell the commission I'm here? Of course.

Lieutenant Adams is here.

Tell him another minute, please.

Well, Bob?

There are enough criminals in the world without my spying on fellow cops.

I want you to investigate, not to spy. You're asking me to pussyfoot around in

another man's department.

Your file says that you're a special consultant to the police commissioner.

So I'm consulting you.

Why have car thefts in this city gone higher and higher?

Why have we recovered fewer and fewer of those stolen cars?

I've had to assign so many extra men to car theft that our performance in other

areas is being harmed.

You put a new man in charge of the whole mess. Now give him time.

Adams has been on this three full months, and not only haven't there been

improvements, but things are getting worse.

Send in Lieutenant Adams, please.

I thought he was a good man.

But he's failed at this.

Morning. Bill, how are you?

I don't know, Commissioner.

How am I?

Chief? Good seeing you again.

I hear you may be giving us some help in all of this.

I was just telling the Commissioner that I'm certain whatever has to be done is

being done.

Well, we're doing everything we can think of.

But what we need is new thinking.

Your kind.

My sentiments exactly.

Welcome aboard, Bob. Now, don't try to railroad me.

I haven't said yes.

Hope you will.

We need you.

All right.

Good. Now, if you'll just let me chat with Lieutenant Adams for a little

I'll send him up to you in a few minutes, Bob.

Thanks a lot.

If I fail in this, will you get to help me?

If you fail on this, there'll be a new commissioner here.

Let him worry about that.

Would you bring in your notebook, please?

How's he taking it? Who?

Alex, it's no secret, you know. The whole building's talking about the fact

in trouble.

Seems to be cooperative.

Happy to have our help.

If he's so happy, why were his hands shaking?

You have the makings of a first -rate cop, sir. Me?

And why do you think his hands were shaking, if they were? He's human.

Maybe he just doesn't like having a can tied to his tail.

Looks as if they've come up high and dry.

Unless they missed something.

Doubtful.

When John Breen started the Nautilus theft, some cars ran on steam.

He looks a little as if he did too.

Every serial number, every engine number.

Perfect. Absolutely perfect.

No stolen automobiles on this lot, and so much for that tip. Hello, Chief, how

are you?

Fine, Breen.

And you?

Blaine, except for having to spend the morning chasing down a bad tip on this

auto dealer. I'm interested in your opinion.

Six months ago, we were recovering 91 % of all stolen vehicles.

Today, it's less than 75%. Less than 74%. All right, less than 74%. What do

think?

To what strange born are almost 100 stolen vehicles a month disappearing?

If I knew that, I'd be a lieutenant or a car thief.

Still, you must have an opinion.

I have lots of opinions, but I...

I'd like to stay on the force for a while. What do you mean by that?

Well, I'm not much for guests, Chief. I'm what you might call a slogger. I

kind of slog along.

Tell you what, though. You know Joe Muldoon?

Yes. You see a lot of him? Well, we talk together on the phone, but he won't see

nobody at all. Thank you, Brain.

Turned up anything of interest to you?

Just background information.

For instance, somewhere in the United States, a car is stolen every 60

day and night.

map of the city with all recent auto thefts indicated on it. We'll see if

there's any preferred area.

Yes, sir.

Tell me, Bill, you know where your predecessor lives?

Muldoon? It shouldn't be hard to find.

Then let's go.

He said he'd see you, Chief Ironside, but nobody else.

friend sergeant brain is here too he says he just wants to see you

when

did you join the wheelchair club chief ironside chief of what

As you know, I'm not chief of anything anymore.

Just a consultant.

Now, why are you in that chair?

How is bright, shiny college boy Lieutenant Adams doing with the auto

Better than me?

Why don't they give him early retirement?

What's he, a sacred cow or something?

You keep in touch with your friends at headquarters, so you must know we're

as much in the dark now about the auto thefts as you were.

Give up.

Nobody is ever going to solve the auto thefts.

I'm afraid you'll have to explain that.

Well, thank man.

I couldn't solve it. My department couldn't. Why?

How long have I been a cop?

How many cases have I failed on?

How many?

If I couldn't beat this one, that college boy from Africa can't, and you

So there's no use wearing yourself down. I don't know what it is you're

suggesting. A hundred cars a month are stolen.

Let's figure a thousand dollars net profit per theft.

That's a hundred thousand dollars a month.

Over a million dollars a year that somebody's getting. You can make some

good payoffs with money like that. You're suggesting there's police

They didn't want it solved.

And when I got close, they retired me.

I see.

Years of... Good service on the force and then early retirement.

Why?

Why?

You didn't tell me why you're in that chair.

Lack of oxygen for near half an hour. Just give it to me straight.

I wasn't retired for health reasons. I was fine.

But suddenly...

Man gets so mad, so sick of his stomach about the dirt, the LSD, the things that

are going on, and the graft in high places that he just don't want to live

anymore.

I tied the knot wrong.

And they cut me down.

You know, the world is dirty.

But never dirty enough for that.

I say it is. I say it's not. You got any proof?

I'll get some.

It's just too easy to holler corruption.

Is there anything you need?

Yeah.

Something to believe in.

You still love that department.

I still do.

Maybe that's why I'm so sure you're wrong.

How is he? Still the same big, strong, furious man he always was. Big Joe, we

used to call him. That's him.

You got any ideas?

One.

Ed, Bill, I want you to look into all major automobile activities in the city.

Everything in which cars are bought, sold, dismantled, or shipped.

I want to know which ones have changed hands in the last six months.

You got it?

Got it. Right, Chief.

O 'Brien.

Yep.

Breen, do you think there may be departmental corruption here?

Some kind of payoff?

Look, I'm only asking for an opinion.

I know you're a slogger. I'm asking for a slogger's opinion.

Is that what the lieutenant thinks?

By the lieutenant, do you mean Lieutenant Muldoon?

I do.

That's what he thinks.

Well, then, that's what I think.

What's the matter, Mark?

Like I said, I thought maybe they were tying a can to Lieutenant Adams' tail.

But I didn't think they'd put a cherry bomb under it.

Corruption. I didn't invent the word. Adams is a good man.

How do you know?

Black solidarity, Mark?

Something wrong with that?

Not a thing.

Let's get going.

I think it's time we all taught a lesson in geography.

Every car stolen locally in the last six months is represented here?

Yes, sir. Either the place it was stolen from, or if that's not known, then the

address of the place it was usually garaged.

Doesn't look like much of a pattern, does it? I'd like to see another map

showing only thefts of cars which haven't been recovered.

A dot showing where every unrecovered car was stolen from? Of course.

Well, as we say in conversational French 22...

There's nothing very difficult about police work once you've learned the

Just a matter of routine.

Well, this is very interesting.

All right, what do you see that I don't see?

Well, it's obvious.

A total lack of pattern.

in the city, including used car lots, auction rooms, foreign shippers, salvage

and dismantling yards, etc.

Not one business has been bought or sold in the past six months.

Now, one salvage yard did change hands, but it wasn't bought or sold.

The owner died and the yard was inherited by his son and daughter.

A Burlingame family named Dunn.

Well, Miss Whitfield, what do you know about the Dunn family of Burlingame?

Well, I've seen their name on my mother's charity committees and a couple

club membership rosters, but I don't know them personally.

Ask around a little.

Where are you going?

Well, I have to change if I'm going to the Burlington Country Club for lunch. I

have to do my hair.

Eve, try to remember a car is stolen every 60 seconds.

I'll think of nothing else.

How much farther, Mark?

About ten minutes.

But why a junkyard?

All Eve said was that she wanted us to meet some very prominent people and that

she was sure we'd find it interesting.

Chief, this is Rosemary and Alfred Dunn.

I'm Alfred.

How do you do?

But, uh, we're flower people and we don't believe in shaking hands with

policemen.

Are you brother and sister?

Husband and wife? Or do you just cross -pollinate?

Oh, that's very funny.

Actually, I use the name dandelion, and my sister uses the name prettyweed.

We belong to a group of people that wishes to emulate the flowers of the

Meaning that you do not spin and neither do you weave?

Meaning that we do not kill, threaten with guns or truncheons or handcuffs or

napalm, or jails or courts or judges, like dandelions and prettyweeds.

We enjoy the sun in the short time that's allotted us. And try briefly to

beautify a corner of the dung heap which humanity's made out of God's world.

I see. We inherited this auto salvage yard from our late father. And needless

say, we have no knowledge of or about auto thefts.

It's a slightly embarrassing thing.

Inheriting. As we aren't really mad about the whole idea of private

How do you feel about the fuzz? We don't approve.

But that doesn't mean we approve of violent crimes either. I did a year in

Vietnam, so I earned the right to be nonviolent. You earned the right to be

nonviolent because there's a ring of fuzz around you protecting you.

Now, you say you have no knowledge of or about auto thefts. That's right. How

about the identification plates in the cars you dismantle? What happens to

We put them in little packages and mail them to the Motor Vehicle Bureau in

Sacramento, as required by law.

Look, we are innocent of vehicular theft or of abetting vehicular theft.

That seems to be true of everybody in San Francisco.

Well, thank you for your time.

May we go now? There's a party this afternoon and responses.

Anti -violence?

Anti -police brutality.

Why doesn't anybody ever give an anti -brutality to cops party?

Is there such a thing as brutality to policemen?

You think he was born in a wheelchair?

Let's see if we can still get some work done today.

There's one thing the computer's proven.

Of the stolen vehicles which aren't recovered, almost 90 % are passenger

less than three months old. You ever notice that, Lieutenant?

No. No, I haven't.

There's another way to say that.

Apparently, the newer the stolen passenger vehicle, the less chance we

recovering it. Has that always been true in the past?

No. Usually, we get the newer cars back fastest.

They're more easily recognizable and more valuable.

What does it mean?

It means we didn't need a computer to tell us that a commercial auto theft

prefers to steal shiny new cars instead of beat up old ones.

You know, I have an idea.

What about assigning Sergeant Breen to a kind of standby patrol?

Keep him on 24 -hour alert so that whenever an auto theft is reported, if

passenger vehicle less than a month old, Breen can get hopping on it within

minutes. Well, now, sir, I'll do anything I can to help, but that's a

man's job.

Sleeping in your clothes half the time.

I'll do it.

Thank you, Brown.

How old are you, Sergeant Brain?

I'm 47.

Well, you're going to settle down when you retire.

Time isn't here to think about that yet. Isn't it?

I herewith volunteer to share a standby duty with Brown.

Well, thank you, Brain.

That's very kind of you.

Well... We'd all better get some sleep.

You two start on standby tomorrow morning.

Work out your own relief schedule.

Ed.

Yes, sir?

Ed, I need an officer. Someone we can trust who doesn't know Lieutenant Adams

anyone in commercial auto theft.

I'm sure we can find someone.

Why? I know we've come up dry at the mid -city salvage yard, but it is the only

major used car activity that's changed hands, and I think it should be watched.

I noticed a help wanted sign on the gate there.

There are some burly types in the division. I'll check the list in the

All right, then. Good night.

You got something on your mind, haven't you? About the mid -city salvage

company. Yeah.

I want to know if any new cars come in there.

Specifically, new cars that have been totaled in a wreck.

What would that mean?

Somehow, a stolen car has to be given identification numbers and serial plates

that aren't on the police list.

Now, suppose a car came in there, a new car, and they got its identification

numbers.

Then all they'd have to do would be to steal a car of the same make and the

model.

Why don't I just tell Adams what you're thinking?

You too, huh?

It isn't a nice job, Mark, but the commissioner gave it to me.

Now, if there's something wrong in that department, I'm going to find it out.

You too.

If there's somebody on the force who isn't too friendly to Adams for any

it would be easy not to see anything at the Mid -City Salvage Company.

I think that's an unfair statement.

Maybe. But you're the one who always says anything's possible.

Look, I can get a job as a laborer.

I might not be bright, but I'm strong.

Out of the question.

Why? I need you here.

No, that's not it.

Maybe you don't trust me. Don't be silly. You're just not a cop.

You bet I'm not. That's why I could do the job.

Look, if there's anything wrong at that yard, they're going to smell cops a mile

away. I'm not a cop, and they'll know it.

No.

Besides, I'm going to care more than anybody else. Yep.

Mark, this is a million -dollar racket we're trying to break up.

Now, it's possible they'll react with violence.

You have no pension, no health insurance, no medical payments. Not one

of a civil service employee.

I have two weeks' vacation coming.

No. I'm an American citizen, and I can take my vacation anywhere I want.

In this yard, you keep your eye on that crane.

It goes where it wants to, and you duck.

That's right, I remember.

If you don't, you might get hurt.

You ain't much use to hard work, are you?

Not lately.

Been away.

Away where?

Just away.

Brand new, Mark?

I checked the speedometer. It only has 241 miles on it. Must have been a beaut

of a crash.

Good work.

This may be a big help.

Can I quit this job now? Every part of me aches, including my eardrums. That's

the trouble with volunteers.

They quit when the going gets tough.

Can't be much worse than working for me here, is it? That's like asking if I

prefer being hit on the head or poked in the eye with a stick.

A brand new model with only a couple hundred miles on it.

You know, we may have just gotten a break.

See if we can get Adams up here.

Well, it's not that difficult, Lieutenant.

That particular model's only been out a few days.

We haven't put more than 10 or 11 on the streets.

Good.

We'd like the names and addresses of all 10 or 11 buyers.

Please.

Just as soon as possible.

Thank you.

House headquarters and the commission are going to feel about this.

Keeping 10 or 11 cars under surveillance that haven't even been stolen yet.

And may not be.

I call headquarters everywhere.

They'll take the credit if it works and cut somebody's head off if it doesn't.

I was asking for encouragement, not the truth.

Here are 11 possible candidates for theft. We can't afford to watch them

If we were car thieves, which one would we choose?

Brain, you've spent the best years of your life among hot cars. Which one

you steal?

Like I said, Chief Ironside, I'm just a slogger. I don't have any imagination.

Doesn't take much imagination. I don't have much imagination either.

But if I were a car thief, I'd have to see the car.

See it on the street or something.

You take this one here.

The owner's a broker.

Drives downtown every day.

Lots of times he leaves the car right out on the street.

And he's a commuter.

He commutes down the coast every weekend by helicopter.

While the car sits all alone outside the hilloport.

Chief, if I were a car cat, this would make my mouth water. I'd have to get

one.

All right, Brown, stake that one out.

Particularly weekends.

You know, we're making a pretty big bet.

That car is the one most likely to be stolen.

How about it, Ed? Any action?

Everything peaceful, Chief.

I'm sorry to say.

Well, the break has to come sometime.

Unless I'm playing the wrong hunch.

Night, Ed.

rich you'll be when you enter civilian life.

It's all going into Litterman.

Mark, if I were going to remove identification plates from a car in that

when would I do it? What?

I wouldn't do it during the day, now would I? Now I get to sleep there. Is

it?

This is Ironside.

I want a sound activated tape recorder right away.

Mel then put me through to him.

We're going to leave a listening device there every night while you sleep

peacefully. Isn't science wonderful?

Contact.

Contact.

A suspect just forced left front door of car. He is starting car.

He's driving out of parking. I'm on my way.

He's heading out of the heliport.

Driver is a male Caucasian, middle height.

Ed, do you still have him?

Affirmative. He's heading south.

Turning on to Mountain View Road now.

I'll have to drop a little farther back.

Do that.

I'd rather you lost him than let him know we're in this.

On Mountain View Road now. Still proceeding south.

trying to force me off the road.

This is Ironside.

This is the highway patrol.

Ed!

Come in, Ed.

Ed!

If I'd stayed any further back, I couldn't have kept the car in sight.

you.

Anyway, they're alerted now.

I'm sorry, Chief.

You didn't do anything wrong. I did.

I should have had you covered by another car the way they covered their man.

Well, who could have figured that?

I could have.

Thank you.

One thing, though. They did steal a car you said they would.

That must prove some connection with the salvage yard. But stealing that car

just might have been a coincidence.

Yes, it might be a coincidence.

Mark, there was nothing at all on that recording machine?

Nothing. Minus nothing.

Well, my theory had been correct. Been involved there, A, spotting a new car

being dismantled, B, collecting the identification plate and license, C,

stealing a new car of the same make and model, D, putting the identification and

the license on that car and painting it to match.

Mark, let's hear that recording.

There's nothing to hear.

Humor me.

Well, one thing's for certain.

They're going to hit the ground for a while.

Yes, they will.

Another thing is certain.

Somewhere right now, they're busy as beavers altering the identification

numbers. But where right now?

There sure isn't any action at the salvage yard at night.

Listen.

Are you sure it was working?

It's working now.

You know, you'd think there'd be the sound of an occasional rat running

the yard. Or a horn somewhere.

The magnet.

What?

That tape recorder.

More correctly called a magnetic recorder, right?

Right. What would happen to that device if a very powerful electromagnet were

passed over it?

Well? An electromagnet strong enough to pick up a car.

Let me ask the technicians, but I think it would wipe the tape clear.

I think so, too. But they don't use the magnet at night.

Correction. They're not supposed to use that magnet at night.

So they could have been busy there last night.

And they could be busy there right now. Now, let's go.

Shouldn't we be hearing their footsteps or something?

I've never been in the field with a listening device as sensitive as this

but if it works, we should hear their breathing.

About there, aren't we?

Near here, I think. The place looks different at night.

The cop would remember exactly where he put that recorder.

I'm not a cop.

Then you shouldn't be doing a cop's job.

I had my reasons.

Maybe. You better go back to the van and wait.

Come on, boys, cut the gab.

They can't hear you, Chief.

I understand that, but it makes me feel better.

Well, you gonna leave?

You know, sometimes I get the feeling you're trying to get rid of me.

You got a reason?

Am I going to have to order you to go back? You can try.

Not being a cop, I don't take orders.

Come on, let's try over there, huh?

Chief? You can hear me.

Heading north.

If anybody were working in there, that machine would have heard them by now,

wouldn't it?

Oh, no, this is too highly directional.

We're only using it to cover our men.

If you want me to scan the yard, though, I'll be...

Find out what that is.

What's that?

I don't know.

Diathermy or... Or an electromagnet?

Could be.

All mobile units, this is Ironside. Stand by.

Those cars should have been here with us.

Intended to be a minimum operation.

Squad cars would have tipped them for sure.

There's anyone in there to be tipped.

as best we can.

How long is it going to take you to get that thing fixed?

I'm sorry, Chief. I don't know.

Chief, that was an automobile engine going over our heads.

Southeast.

I'm not sure if we were spotted.

I'm heading in that direction.

Alone. And you might get lost or... Stay here.

Come on, come on.

I'm doing my best, Chief.

I know.

If it wasn't your fault, I wouldn't be in there instead of here.

There.

The interference is gone, but I've lost our men.

Well, you better find them again.

They must be on the move.

I've got them. Good.

They seem to be heading back toward us. Unless it isn't them.

It could be a switchblade knife.

Graham, send them in.

He fought like a tiger, Chief.

Mark.

Mark.

But you have no knowledge of how or where the cars were sold.

Look, I'm a mechanic.

I work on cars.

Where they go, I don't know.

That's all clear except the critical question.

How did they dispose of the hot cars? They did their work in the center of the

yard here, moving their vehicles in by crane.

Our friend Alfred gave them the use of his yard.

That's not very nonviolent, is it, Rhododendron?

You must have known you were profiting from crime, which is violence against

society. It's a hard world to be nonviolent in. You know you and your

will be charged as accessories, don't you?

Everything we made, we gave to good causes.

We give green stamps for that.

Whenever they saw a new car about to be junked, they stole one just like it and

switched the registrations.

But we searched every used car lot and auction for cars being sold with wrecked

or dismantled IDs.

What difference does it make?

I still think private property is a thing of the past.

I don't even own a car.

They lend me a rental car.

you a rental car oh big deal a rental car with all the hot cars they have why

would they rent a car from hertz mavis no from a place on market street called

24 -hour rent -a -car

Hello, Muldoon.

What is it, Arnside?

We have some news for you.

Sergeant Brain.

Lieutenant, it was just a new wrinkle.

There wasn't any payoff or anything. Just a new wrinkle.

We were looking for them to resell the cars, and they never did.

What? They never sold them at all. No.

They rented them to doctors, businessmen, corporation presidents.

Well, in a way, it's a shame to shut them down.

They might have become number three.