[2][3] A murder charge is dropped against San Francisco black militant Frankie Steele, who is represented by liberal attorney Joe Ricco.

An eyewitness, the young son of a friend of Ricco's, identifies Steele as the man he saw leaving the scene of the crime.

"[5] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded the same one-and-a-half star grade and stated, "Lackluster action (even the chase sequence is tepid) reveals the story as hackneyed for the black movie market.

Dino seems hopelessly out of place without a backup chorus line of bikinied broads; the camera often catches him smiling when he should be scowling.

"[6] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "a very bad urban melodrama," adding, "Everything about the character Mr. Martin plays, a man named Ricco, looks like displaced Southern California: the tan, the hair-set and even the boredom, which suggests the fellow wants to get back to that old gang of his in the Polo Lounge as quickly as possible.

The film is a tedious and corny hodgepodge about a San Francisco criminal attorney whose client is suspected of murder.

Compounded cliches and fatuous dramaturgy run amok in Douglas Netter's otherwise good-looking location production.

"[7] Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a lethargic, mediocre melodrama," adding that "Paul Bogart's stiff direction suffers from the same low energy level that stifles the rest of the movie.

Wandering nonchalantly through his customary relaxed charm routine with the aid of a shaggy dog who tactfully retrieves mis-hit balls on the golf course and provides some comic asides with the outraged owner of a virginal poodle next door, Dean Martin coolly belies the supposed atmosphere of racial tension the script works so hard to suggest.