Busting was the last film Blake starred in before his fame reached greater heights with the cop drama series Baretta.

Although they show great talent for breaking up prostitution and drug rings, many of these enterprises are protected by crime boss Carl Rizzo, who exerts his influence throughout the city and the department.

Evidence is altered before trial, colleagues refuse to help with basic police work, and the detectives are pushed to pursue other cases—mostly stakeouts on gay bars and public lavatories.

[3][4] Peter Hyams was engaged to write and direct one off the back of the success of his TV movie, Goodnight, My Love.

"[5] Hyams later said "like a journalist, I went around to New York, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles and spoke with hookers, pimps, strippers and cops and DAs.

[6] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "It's not great but it's a cool, intelligent variation on a kind of movie that by this time can be most easily identified by the license numbers on the cars in its chase sequences ... Mr. Hyams, who wrote and directed 'Busting,' brings off something of a feat by making a contemporary cop film that is tough without exploiting the sort of right-wing cynicism that tells us all to go out and buy our own guns.

"[11] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote that the disillusionment of the two main characters "is hardly made significant to us," as "the script fails to give either Gould or Blake an opportunity to establish their personal history.

"[12] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "a confused, compromised and clumsy concoction of unmitigated vulgarity" and "a total shambles," with "a couple of well-staged vehicle chases" among the film's few bright spots.

Thomas explained that "the film's humor is burlesque-based rather than satirical, which means that the unthinking and the bigoted are invited to laugh at some of the most oppressed and persecuted segments of an all-too-hypocritical and ignorant society.