Quentin Lance (1982 film)

Quentin Lance is a 1982 American action film based on the DC character of the same name created by Carmine Infantino and Robert Kanigher. Joel Schumacher produced, directed, and starred in the film, whose supporting roles include Al Pacino, Alex Meneses, Glenne Headly, and Charlie Korsmo. Quentin Lance depicts the detective's love relationships with Dinah Drake and Claire Temple, as well as his conflicts with crime boss Gat Benson. Lance also meets a young Oliver Queen. The film was a box office bomb, grossing only $59.5 million against its $83 million budget. Quentin Lance also received negative critical reviews.

Plot
In 1962, Robert and Moira Queen, Oliver's parents, get shot and killed by a masked archer. A rookie detective named Quentin Lance is at a diner about to propose to Clarice Winston, the love of his life who has come from a wealthy family. Detective Lance then gets contacted by his boss Commissioner Nudocerdo (Jon Polito) and partner Roy Stewart (Richard Roundtree) to investigate the death of the Queens. Lance meets a young Oliver and comforts him, promising to catch the killer before Oliver goes to his great-aunt Abigail Horton (Sylvia Sidney), who arrives at the crime scene to pick Oliver up. Meanwhile, a young street urchin witnesses the massacre of a group of mobsters at the hands of mob boss Gat Benson and his men. Benson's crime syndicate is aggressively taking over small businesses in the city. While Detective Lance and Stewart are at a restaurant, Lance catches the urchin, named Sara, in an act of petty theft. After rescuing him from a ruthless host, Lance temporarily adopts her with the help of Clarice.

Meanwhile, Benson coerces club owner Anthony Scarapelli into signing over the deed to the Midnight Lounge. Benson kills Scarapelli with a cement overcoat (referred to onscreen as "The Bath") and steals his girlfriend, the seductive and sultry singer, Dinah Drake. After Scarapelli s reported missing, Lance interrogates hit man Constantine Drakon, then goes to the club to arrest Benson for Scarapelli's murder. Drake is the only witness. Instead of providing testimony, she unsuccessfully attempts to seduce Lance. Benson cannot be indicted and he is released from jail. Benson's next move is to try to bring other criminals, including Mario Falcone, Rupert Thorne, Guido Bertinelli, and Hamilton Hill together under his leadership. Falcone refuses and is killed with a car bomb, leaving Quentin Lance, who discovered the meeting and was attempting to spy on it, wondering what is going on. The next day, Commissioner Nudocerdo, who is revealed to be corrupt, and several corrupt officers kidnap Lance and attempt to bribe him. Lance refuses, prompting Nudocerdo to attempt to kill him. Lance is saved by Sara, who gets prized by the police with an honorary detective certificate.

Dinah shows up at Lance's apartment, once again in an attempt to seduce him. Lance shows he is only human by allowing her to kiss him. Clarice witnesses this and eventually leaves town. Lance leads a seemingly unsuccessful raid on Midnight Lounge, but it is actually a diversion so that Officer Crosby can enter the building to operate a secretly installed listening device so the police can hear in on Big Boy's criminal activities. The resultant raids all but wipe out Big Boy's criminal empire. However, Benson discovers Crosby and captures him for a trap planned by Influence and Drakon to kill Lance in the warehouse. In the resulting gun battle, a vigilante calling herself "Black Canary" saves Lance after he is cornered and kills Thorne. Drakon escapes as Lance rescues Crosby from the fate that befell Anthony Scarapelli. Thorne tells Benson what happened and Benson is enraged that Lance is still alive. Lance tries again to get the testimony from Dinah he needs to put Benson away. She agrees to testify only if Lance agrees to give in to her advances. Clarice eventually has a change of heart, but before she can tell Lance, she is kidnapped by Black Canary, with the help of Benson's club piano player, 88 Keys. Lance is drugged and rendered unconscious by Black Canary, framed for murdering Nudocerdo and is detained.

Benson's business thrives until The Black Canary frames him for Clarice' kidnapping. Released by his colleagues on New Year's Eve, Lance interrogates Thorne and arrives at a shootout outside the Midnight Lounge where Benson's men are killed or captured by Lance and the police. Abandoning the crew, Benson and Drakon flees to a chemical plant and tie Clarice to the gears before they are confronted by Lance. Lance fights Nudocerdo and Drakon until Black Canary arrives to use her "canary cry", a high-powered sonic scream which could shatter objects and incapacitate others, to send Drakon falling off the catwalk. Lance catches Drakon's arm and attempts to pull him back up to safety, Drakon's leather glove slipped through Lance's and he plummets into the chemical vat below. Black Canary then holds Lance at gunpoint, offering to share the city with Lance after Benson is dead. When Sara arrives, Benson takes advantage of the distraction and opens fire before Lance guns him down, while Sara rescues Clarice. Mortally wounded, The Black Canary is revealed to be Dinah Drake, who kisses Lance before dying. All charges against Lance are dropped.

Later at the Queen Mansion, Lance goes there to visit Oliver and meets his great aunt Horton. Horton informs Lance that Oliver has begun to show erratic behavior, such as self-harm,[6] listening to heavy metal, drawing disturbing artwork, refusing to eat and overall behaving recklessly, doing things such as climbing on top of the roof of the Queen Mansion, burning himself, and cutting himself. Because of this,she has decided to make Oliver see a psychiatrist. Lance makes a promise to Oliver to try to find the archer who killed his parents after apologizing to him for letting Benson be a distraction. As Lance leaves, he is watched by Sara from a distance. Meanwhile, Drakon is with a hack plastic surgeon named Dr. Matthew Thorne, brother to the gangster Rupert Thorne, to get treated since he has had a horrible result from his chemical encounter. Despite going through the long and careful procedure, Matthew informs Constantine that he simply could not fix his face, due to both the sheer extent of the severed nerves sustained and Matthew's own lack of effective tools, which results into a permanent smile. After he is upset with the result, and he reflected on all that has transpired, Drakon, though apparently trying at first to let it go and failing, lost touch with whatever sanity that he had left. Drakon then begins to laugh maniacally and convulsively, then smashed the mirror and then uses an arrow to kill Matthew, revealing that he was the one who killed the Queens.

Cast

 * Warren Beatty as Quentin 'Larry' Lance
 * Al Pacino as "Gat" Benson
 * Charlie Korsmo as Oliver Queen
 * Sylvia Sidney as Aunt Abigail Horton
 * Richard Roundtree as Roy Stewart
 * Jon Polito as Brian Nudocerdo
 * John Dair as Rupert Thorne
 * James Caan as Mario Falcone
 * Jack Nicholson as Constantine Drakon