The Gauntlet

Clint Eastwood directs and stars as Ben Shockley, an alcoholic Phoenix police officer whose career has stalled. He is handed what looks like a routine assignment: bring a witness from Las Vegas to Phoenix. The witness, however, turns out to be Augustina "Gus" Mally, a sharp-tongued prostitute with ties to organised crime who is supposed to testify against a powerful figure. When an attempt is made on their lives, the escort job becomes a running fight, as the pair faces ambushes and hired killers while trying to reach their destination. Sondra Locke plays Gus, with Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney and Michael Cavanaugh in supporting roles. The screenplay is by Dennis Shryack and Michael Butler, and Robert Daley produced for Warner Bros. alongside Eastwood's own Malpaso Productions.

Released in December 1977, the film was the sixth of forty that Eastwood has directed, arriving between The Outlaw Josey Wales and Bronco Billy. Made for a modest budget, it returned several times its cost at the worldwide box office. Reception was middling: on IMDb it holds a rating of 6.4 from around 27,000 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 6.5 from roughly 626 votes. A critics' score of 5.8 from twenty-eight reviews places professional assessment slightly below the audience ratings, though all three figures point to a film regarded as solid rather than exceptional.