Although DOWN, OUT AND DANGEROUS may be condemned as reactionary twaddle by advocates for the homeless, for mean-spirited thrill-seekers it's as much fun as stuffing oneself with a bag of cookies. Empty-calorie escapism, this tango between a decent suburbanite and a demented street
person gets a lot of mileage out of the question: how much can that bum get away with?
White-collar worker Brad Harrington (Bruce Davison) toils at an office without getting the respect he deserves from a jittery boss, Lance Fredericks (George DiCenzo). At home, he deals with the needs of his wife Monica (Cynthia Ettinger) and with the pettiness of his neighbor Mr. Burrows (Stuart
Pankin), who forces Brad to demolish backyard landscaping in a property-line dispute.
Seeking to help the less fortunate while clearing off branches, Brad employs Tim (Richard Thomas), a dispossessed sociopath with a low tolerance for the slurs of the gainfully employed. After a particularly nasty argument with Burrows turns violent, Brad knocks him unconscious. While Brad isn't
looking, Tim kills Burrows with a blow to the head. Brad thinks himself responsible, and doesn't interfere when Tim helps him cover up the crime. Tim uses this leverage to wheedle his way into a job at Brad's firm.
Ingratiating himself with Fredericks and with a secretary, Leslie McCoy (Christine Cavanaugh), Tim horns in on one of Brad's key deals as Detective Danner (Jason Bernard) lays the groundwork for Brad's arrest for homicide. As Brad's lawyer pal, Grant Cromwell (Steve Hytner), checks out crazy Tim's
past, Tim plants doubts in Monica's mind about Brad's fidelity and sabotages Brad's investment strategies so badly Brad ends up being fired. In addition to canceling Brad's credit cards, bloodthirsty Tim kills Mr. Fredericks and one of his employees, and implicates Brad in the crimes. While Grant
tells police about Tim's homicidal past, Brad rids his life of this cancer by bashing Tim on the noggin with a wood shard after Tim has already stabbed himself during their struggle.
The unseemly incidents come fast and furious in this psycho-flick. Tim's ingenious nibbling at the core of Brad's being is so incessant that viewers never have time to question the preposterousness of the plot's set-up. What is less persuasive is the cool maniac's campaign of total annihilation
against Brad. Instead of showing how cagily Tim supplants Brad, the film opts for a slasherama approach with Tim self-destructing in his war against his benefactor.
Overlooking the overkill of Tim's hunger to squash unselfish Brad, horror fanciers will eat up the high body count. Reunited from LAST SUMMER (1969), Davison and Thomas make such formidable adversaries that audiences will never question the downward reversal of the two characters' fortunes.
(Graphic violence, adult situations.) leave a comment