Crime Story: The Take (1990)

If a docuseries on the death of Eugene Izzi was made for Netflix, it would never be out of the streaming giant’s top ten. For now, though, Dave nods approvingly at the only feature to be adapted from the crime author’s work.

It was 11:30AM on 7th December 1996 when a doctor treating a patient in his office on North Michigan Avenue looked out of the window and saw the lifeless body of Eugene Izzi hanging from a fourteenth floor window. Izzi had been there long enough for the cold Chicago air to advance rigor mortis and make his corpse as hard as stone.

An author of hard-boiled crime fiction, Izzi had recently signed a five book contract with publisher Avon and, a few years prior, had a screenplay commissioned by William Friedkin. The coroner ruled Izzi’s death a suicide, but the countless conspiracy theories that have arisen since carry weight. Izzi was found wearing a bulletproof vest, and in his pockets were brass knuckles, mace, hand-written threatening notes, a transcript of a menacing phone call he’d received earlier in the week, and a floppy disk containing an unfinished manuscript that, reportedly, featured a scene strangely similar to its creator’s own demise. The most frequently espoused alternative to the record is that Izzi had infiltrated a white supremacist group to detail their activities in a forthcoming book and was found out.

Whatever the reality of the situation, such trivia is as fascinating as that which makes up Izzi’s sole film credit, THE TAKE. Be its lead actor facing lawsuits accusing him of deliberately infecting women with HIV; it being the final script from a double Academy Award-winning screenwriter; or its director sporting the moniker ‘The Scorsese of Salseros’ yet remaining virtually unknown outside of his fanbase, this little-seen thriller for the USA Network is awash with intrigue.

Adapted from Izzi’s 1987 novel of the same name, Ray Sharkey stars as Dennis Delaney: a crooked cop who’s sent down for fifteen years. Luckily for him, he’s out in four and his time behind bars has left him with a desperate desire to go straight, if only for the sake of his high-flying but long-suffering wife, Sally (Lisa Hartman). Trouble gravitates towards Delaney, though, and after connecting with an old friend, washed-up celeb Barry Shaw (Larry Manetti), the two stumble into the violent world of Floridian drug lord Victor Menocol (Orestes Matacena)…

A keen observer of cultural identity, The Take‘s Cuba-born director, Leon Ichaso, amassed a loyal group of admirers over his career (which, alas, ended this year when the helmer passed away on 21st May 2023, aged seventy-four). In 2007, singer Marc Anthony told The New York Times that Ichaso “understands the streets, the humanity of it and the poetry of it all. He captures the essence of our people, our neighbourhoods.” [1] That’s certainly the vibe here. The Take bursts with Latin flavour, and there’s a captivating realism to the supporting characters, notably Nelson Oramas as Delaney’s former partner. A serving member of the force, Oramas went on to act as a technical consultant on a number of Miami-lensed productions – John McNaughton’s Wild Things (1998) among them.

Naturally, said authenticity bleeds from the script. The last in a voluminous run of texts penned by Edward Anhalt, the astonishingly prolific scribe started his career with Avalanche (1946); bagged Academy Awards for Panic in the Streets (1951) and Becket (1965); and later wrote essential classics The Boston Stranger (1968) and Jeremiah Johnson (1972). While not quite matching any of those peerless wonders, The Take is as solid as the USA Network’s fellow 1990 standouts, I’m Dangerous Tonight and The China Lake Murders.

Sharkey is a big reason for that. The very definition of a problematic individual, Sharkey’s blasé approach to his own drug habit and psychopathic refusal to accept the dangers of his subsequent HIV diagnosis render his premature death hardly one to grieve over. Still, irrespective of how he was as a person, Sharkey was a brilliant actor and, at the time of The Take‘s making, was enjoying a resurgence in the wake of TV show Wiseguy despite his best efforts to derail it with numerous overdoses. Submitting a great performance, Sharkey is well supported by Manetti (who also produces) and R. Lee Ermey, in a rare non-shouty role, is a welcome inclusion. Additionally, Ichaso casts the film’s Latin contingent brilliantly, with Matacena, Roberto Escobar, Tony Bolano, and Christopher Pianno bringing a multi-cultural edge to a generally decent caper.

USA ● 1990 ● Thriller, TVM ● 91mins

Ray Sharkey, R. Lee Ermey, Larry Manetti, Lisa Hartman, Orestes Matacena ● Dir. Leon Ichaso ● Wri. Edward Anhalt and Handel Glassberg, based upon the novel The Take by Eugene Izzi