The streets of Chicago are almost without profile in movies or television for certain years under the gimlet eye of the elder Mayor Daley. The short list of artifacts grew by one in September, when a seventy-four-minute TV movie broadcast in January 1972 materialized on YouTube, starring actor-playwright-producer-director Peter De Anda as “Cutter,” a black private detective. With lots of cocktails with a sprinkling of cocktail jazz, driving a compact white Mercedes, Cutter likes to hand over his card with a curt “Frank Cutter. Investigator. Private.” No office? “No office. Just the phone number. Keeps life simple… and safer.” A gratifying amount of location work shows up in Cutter’s pursuit of a missing quarterback. The character who sets Cutter on his quest passes the Wrigley Building against the night sky in the first shots and then under the chaser lights of the Chicago Theatre—ALL SEATS $1.00 TIL 12 NOON—where the movie “Kotch” sets the location work in September 1971. Rushing past branded storefronts, the man skips to Lake Street and up the stairs to the El to a safe payphone to call Cutter. Cutter’s with a woman. As he ends the call, a woman brings him a cocktail. “Problem?” “Maybe.” She asks something about his reaction. “It’s how I do business.” “Why don’t you bring your business over here?” Two white men bust in; the one with the Gabe Kaplan mustache is incensed. “Husband?” Cutter deadpans. Shenanigans! Also: The Drake neon by night; Marina City casually center-framed seen from a skyscraper window; the domed pool at 400 East Wacker hosting a swimsuit photoshoot, where the view from its balcony provides an almost unobstructed view of the John Hancock, making 1971 look like a pretty cow town. A mansion at the northeast corner of Erie and Wabash is the site of a wealthy man warbling about “the ideals of the free-enterprise system… The point here is not that one family has amassed what some might call a fortune… no, the point here is all the people of Chicago have benefitted by Chicago’s vitality.” Two further, almost vital setpieces: a clandestine meeting in a dusty industrial area that could be straight out of early Antonioni and a racketing lower Wacker Drive between chase scenes with two boxy ambulances. “Cutter” tickles, mostly because it doesn’t exist. Or didn’t, until this purloined, splotchy 16mm print was uploaded. (Ray Pride) youtube.com/watch?v=HxdS0lXdvM8
