This is one of Jack Nicholson's most underrated performances and director Tony Richardson's most overlooked films. Nicholson is a member of the U.S. Border Patrol who moves with his materialistic wife (Valerie Perrine) to a small Texas town. There, his new colleagues try to pull him into the web of corruption that runs through the local department and he's tempted, because the illicit cash will help pay the bills that his charge-happy wife is running up. But his conscience gets the better of him when he gets involved in a case of a young Mexican woman whose baby is stolen to be sold for adoption. Nicholson simmers, stews, and eventually explodes. The superior cast includes Perrine, Harvey Keitel, and Warren Oates. --Marshall Fine
