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A perplexing mix of styles clash and sputter when screenwriter Dillon's satiric, quirky parody of gangster movies meets flashy director Frankenheimer's slick and inventive visuals, neither of which complement the other. Coupled with Harris' typically irritating performance, this project must have seemed doomed from the start. O'Brien, a gruff and aging gang lord, hires hit-man Harris to kill Dillman, a rival gangster who is muscling in on his rackets. The milieu Harris enters is a strangely futuristic realm where almost anything can happen. High-speed car chases, a society of cement-shoed corpses in the river, and a sewer full of albino alligators are just some of the bizarre sights to be seen. Perhaps the strangest creation is that of Connors' character, dubbed the "Claw." This crazed killer has a metal stump for a hand that can be fitted with dozens of detachable appliances from household (a corkscrew) to lethal. All in all, the film is wildly inventive but uneven to the point of distraction, with moments of funny satire being punctuated by outbursts of sadism and violence. Surprisingly, Dillon and Frankenheimer teamed up again, this time much more successfully, for FRENCH CONNECTION II (1975).