Burt Goes to Whole Foods

What I discovered on my quest to find a location from Shamus, is as sure a sign as any that gentrification is inevitable just about everywhere, no matter the aesthetic qualities of the place, or lack thereof.  In Shamus, Burt Reynolds goes to Gowanus (an industrial section of Brooklyn named for the body of water that cuts through it) to investigate a warehouse owned by the film's villains.  Using Google Maps, I found the exact location, one which I've actually driven and walked by countless times over the years.  The warehouse that Burt breaks into has been demolished (when, I'm not certain) and is now a construction site where a Whole Foods (the first in the whole of Brooklyn, somewhat amazingly) is going up.  They'll never make Gowanus pretty, but if the mob scenes around Trader Joe's and other Whole Foods outposts in NYC are any indication, it will now be a destination.

Shamus is nothing special as a film, but it is one of the few films of its period to shoot in this part of Brooklyn and, of particular importance, provides visual documentation of a place that is on its way to permanently changing in appearance and character, something that could probably be said for just about any spot in this city.

Burt goes to Whole Foods.

Former college football star Burt Reynolds, as Shamus, displays his physical gifts, leaping away from pursuers after breaking into a warehouse (seen in the background) that would eventually give way to a Whole Foods Market.

Trailer Not on the DVD: Shamus (1972, Buzz Kulik)

Burt's Dirty New York

Shamus.  Burt.  Gowanus.  Kentile sign.

Long before it became a beloved symbol of pre-gentrified Brooklyn, the Kentile Floors sign (and the company which it touted) were simply part of the landscape of an unglamorous, industrial section of Brooklyn, just the type of location used by Hollywood productions shooting in "Dirty New York," as was the case with 1972's Shamus, a mostly routine detective yarn with Southerner Burt Reynolds pretending to be a Brooklyn Philip Marlowe, even including a riff on the bookstore salesgirl scene from The Big Sleep.  Burt does plenty of running and leaping throughout the picture, showing off his formidable physical prowess, which is ultimately the best part of his performance.

Achtung Dynamit!

Burt is Shamus. Nobody leans on Shamus.

Can a man be more unimpressed by a naked lady than Burt is?

And Chuck Connors as Claw Zuckerman

Last week, I ventured into the film section of one of my favorite used bookstores, whilst waiting to go into a movie, and came out with a couple of out-of-print, coffee table-size hardcovers, John Springer and Jack Hamilton's They Had Faces Then: Superstars, Stars and Starlets of the 1930's (Citadel Press, 1974) and Harry Hossent's The Movie Treasury Gangster Movies: Gangsters, Hoodlums and Tough Guys of the Screen (Octopus Books, 1974). No dust-jackets, but in otherwise acceptable condition.

Both feature some gorgeous full-page and two-page stills. Here's a few from the gangster book from the then-new 99 and 44/100% Dead and the then-recent Shamus: