Norman Mailer

This improvisational film is the first effort by author Norman Mailer. Wild 90 refers to the length of this talkative exposé wherein three mobsters are the only remnants of a once-powerful gang of crooks. The Prince (Mailer) and his two cohorts Cameo (Buzz Farber) and 20 Years (Mickey Knox) are holed up in a Brooklyn warehouse hiding out from the police. They are visited by Kid Cha Cha (ex-prize fighter Jose Torres) and a police Lieutenant (magazine publisher Dick Adler). Mailer does an excellent job of acting, adding non-acting friends from real life to give the film an art-house flavor. In between the inactivity are some genuinely comedic passages and dialogue. Mailer, as do many independent filmmakers, owes a debt of gratitude to John Cassavetes who pioneered this style of film. Mailer, Farber and Knox would often spend time in local New York coffee shops where they would pretend to be gangsters, hence the idea for the story and film.

Author Norman Mailer's sporadic ventures into filmmaking are usually pretty bad, but never without interest. Beyond the Law co-stars Mailer and several of his cronies, including fellow-author George Plimpton and actor Rip Torn. Also in the cast is Beverly Bentley, the onetime Mrs. Mailer. Set in a New York police precinct house, the improvised plotline concerns illicit gambling, motorcycle bums and corrupt city officials. The stilted, self-conscious performances of the cast indicate that Mailer might have been better off with a real script. Only Rip Torn looks as though he's playing a character rather than playing an actor playing a character.