Film

Brannigan

Name: Brannigan
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller, Comedy
Released: 1975
Cast: John Wayne, Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, Mel Ferrer, John Vernon

Crime

A hard-nosed Chicago cop (John Wayne, no-nonsense as ever) is sent to London to extradite a mobster, where he butts heads with stuffy Scotland Yard detectives. It's a fish-out-of-water action thriller that runs on the charm of Wayne playing an American bull in a British china shop, mixing cop-procedural plotting with comedy. Made for anyone who loves seventies crime movies or Wayne trying something slightly different.

TMDb rating

3.0

If you liked this

The French Connection1971

A gritty New York cop pursuing a criminal across borders, hunting down the same obsessive intensity and moral compromise. Popeye Doyle is cut from similar cloth as Brannigan—dogged, coarse, effective. This one set the template for seventies cop thrillers.

But Much darker and more pessimistic in tone; less interested in charming fish-out-of-water comedy, more in the corroding effect of the job itself.

Dirty Harry1971

Clint Eastwood as another lawman who breaks rules and antagonises bureaucrats to get results. Same decade, same swagger, same willingness to bend procedure in the name of justice. Iconic cop-action energy that Brannigan draws from.

But Far more violent and cynical; Harry's San Francisco is bleaker and meaner than Brannigan's London-as-comedy-set.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid1969

A Western star (Paul Newman) playing an outlaw with surprising wit and charm, mixing action with humor and character work. The tone—serious stakes, genuine thrills, but never entirely humourless—is the DNA of Brannigan.

But A masterpiece of its kind; Brannigan is more modest in ambition and execution. You might find it hard not to compare them.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid poster

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Prime Cut1972

Both are displaced-lawman narratives where geography and culture become obstacle. Prime Cut is what happens when you strip away the charm and lean into the threat.

Lee Marvin as a Chicago enforcer sent to Kansas to collect a debt, where he finds himself in rural horror. Like Brannigan, it's a displaced tough guy thrust into a foreign landscape with its own rules. But this one leans hard into menace and exploitation; it's the dark mirror of the fish-out-of-water comedy. Genuinely unsettling.

But Brutal and misogynistic in ways the film doesn't examine; built on violence against women in a way that will alienate many viewers rightfully.

The Italian Job1969

A heist film set partly in London with an ensemble cast, quick plotting, and a cheerful tone that lets characters have personality. The fun-within-crime-story vibe matches Brannigan's lightness.

But Much slighter in structure; built on a single set-piece rather than sustained narrative drive.

Rio Bravo1959

Wayne himself in the role that defined his later career—a lawman standing firm against pressure, supported by an ensemble of flawed characters. The template for everything Wayne did in his sixties.

But A Western, not a contemporary thriller, so the setting is alien. Also longer and paced for a different era of filmmaking.

Coogan's Bluff1968

Clint Eastwood as an Arizona sheriff loose in New York City, the spiritual grandfather of Brannigan. Fish-out-of-water cop action, modern setting, that exact culture-clash comedy between rural tough and city bureaucrats.

But Short and lean to the point of feeling thin; Eastwood's blank affect doesn't have Wayne's natural warmth to anchor the humor.

In the Heat of the Night1967

Sidney Poitier as a Philadelphia detective working with a white Southern sheriff in Mississippi. A cops-on-a-case thriller that uses culture clash seriously rather than comedically, with great character interplay and mystery.

But Far more serious in register; treats the social friction as tragedy rather than source material for laughs.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three1974

A crime procedural with bite and style, mixing action, dark humor, and competent men doing their jobs under pressure. Walter Matthau as a New York transit cop matching wits with Robert Shaw. Exactly the seventies cop-thriller frequency.

But Tighter and grimier than Brannigan; trades the fish-out-of-water charm for urban paranoia and cynicism.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three poster

The New Centurions1972

Both center police work as a profession and character study rather than just plot. Where Brannigan finds comedy in procedure, The New Centurions finds tragedy.

A George C. Scott ensemble police procedural that treats cops as working men with private lives, struggles, and mortality. Not a thriller—it's a meditation on the cop's job as grinding, repetitive, sometimes meaningless. Seventies cop cinema at its most serious and humanistic.

But Episodic and deliberately unglamorous; no climactic set-piece, no villain to defeat. The film refuses the shape of a traditional thriller.