Clegg, (a.k.a. The Bullet Machine, Clegg Private Eye and Harry and the Hookers) is a 1970 British crime film directed by Lindsay Shonteff. It features Gilbert Wynne in his first starring role.
Harry Clegg is an ex-policeman turned Private Detective who fights dirty. His latest assignment is to track down a crazed prostitute responsible for a string of murders.
Tropes:
- The Alleged Car: Harry drives a car so dilapidated that he won't allow clients to see it: preferring to park it a distance away and walk to meetings (two miles in one case).
- Bear Trap: Lord Valentine steps in a bear trap set for him by Suzy while hunting rabbits. While he is helpless on the floor of the forest, she shoots him.
- Best Served Cold: Wildman waits 20 years before killing the men responsible for his father's death because he wanted them to build up empires based on the money they embezzled so it would hurt more when he stripped it from them.
- Car Fu: Harry finally disposes of the Giant Mook on Wildman's estate by running into him repeatedly with his car.
- Deadly Bath: Suzy slips Lord Cruikshank a mickey, then lures him into the shower with her. She then strangles him and finishes the job by drowning him in the bath.
- Dirty Old Man: Lord Cruikshank, whose major hobby is ogling beautiful women. Proves to be his undoing when Suzy the Slag lures him back to his hotel room and murders him.
- Disconnected by Death: Clegg calls Lord Cruikshank as Cruikshank is being strangled by Suzy. Cruikshank manages to knock the handset off the cradle but all Clegg can hear is a few gurgles. He runs to the hotel but Cruikshank is dead by the time he gets there.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The film establishes that Clegg and Cruikshank have travelled to Paris with a shot of the pair of them with the Arc de Triomphe in the background.
- Erotic Eating: When Harry visits Wildman's house, it is full of identically dressed models all of whom are lasciviously licking identical lollipops. During a second visit, the audience is treated to prolonged close-ups of the tongue of one of the girls playing across the lollipop.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Col. Sullivan facetiously suggests that maybe Wildman hired prostitutes to carry out the assassinations, Harry suddenly realises that this is exactly what Wildman has done. Or rather, one specific prostitute.
- Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: When Harry first meets Francis Wildman, Wildman is is emerging from his study with one of his Paid Harem; both of them in the act of getting dressed. Wildman sends the woman on her way with a slap on the ass.
- Giant Mook: When Harry attempts to leave Wildman's estate, he is ambushed by a huge thug (listed in the credits as 'Dirty Giant') whom is only able to defeat by ramming him repeatedly with his car.
- Honey Trap: Suzy uses herself as bait to lure Dirty Old Man Lord Cruikshank back to his hotel room where she murders him.
- IKEA Weaponry: When Suzy the Slag assassinates Sir Adrian, she assembles a Mauser M712 Schnellfeuer with shoulder stock, sniper scope and silencer from her briefcase.
- It Works Better with Bullets: Harry is held at gunpoint by a Mook in the back of a car:I really wasn't worried. The zombie was using my own .38 and I just remembered: I'd forgotten to load it that morning.
- Man Bites Man: When Harry is being strangled by a Giant Mook, he breaks the thug's hold on him by biting his nose.
- Market-Based Title: Was released in the US as The Bullet Machine and re-released as Harry and the Hookers.
- One-Word Title
- Paid Harem: Wildman has a mansion filled with identically dressed models who spend all of their time lasciviously licking identical lollipops.
- Predatory Prostitute: Wildman employs a former blue movie actress named Suzie the Slag as his personal assassin. She poses as a streetwalker to lure Lord Cruikshank to his death.
- Private Eye Monologue: Clegg provides a first person narration of the events in a typical hardboiled style. The opening lines set the scene:That's me. My name is Harry Clegg. I'm a private eye. I'm also a cold-blooded killer, a lecher, a liar and a thief. My big problem is I've been a loser since the day I was born. I was returning from a little job in Brighton, having picked up a tenner for my part as co-respondent in a divorce case. I hadn't worked for four months. If that was work, I liked it. She turned out to be a real swinger. And it proved to be one hell of a job. Why my client failed to get his divorce, I'll never understand. Unfortunately, he didn't. And he wanted his money back so I left town fast.
- Private Detective: Protagonist Harry Clegg is an ex-policeman turned Private Detective.
- Protagonist Title
- Robbing the Dead: Ends with Harry Clegg—who has had three clients die on him before they could pay him—rifling through the pockets of the dead Big Bad Francis Wildman and taking his cash and anything of value as recompense while his Private Eye Monologue comments that "it's a dirty business".
- Role Called: Alternative title Clegg Private Eye.
- Shady Lady of the Night: Wildman employs a former blue movie actress named Suzie the Slag as his personal assassin.
- Shower of Love: Suzy the Slag slips Lord Cruikshank a mickey, then lures him into the shower with her. She then strangles him and finishes the job by drowning him in the bath.
- Slipping a Mickey: Suzy slips Lord Cruikshank a mickey, then lures him into the shower with her. She then strangles him and finishes the job by drowning him in the bath.
- Where's My Gun?: When confronted by a Giant Mook, Harry reaches first under one armpit and then the other before remembering that he left his gun at home that morning.
- You Killed My Father: The killer's motivation turns to be avenging his father by murdering the men who framed him and sent him to prison, where he died.
