There is a structure and a mood for most thrillers of the 70s, and if it's a light-hearted comedy, as long as it has a good script with witty lines and memorable characters, it's going to stand the test of time. But when they try to have too many themes and different moods, then they don't hold up as well. "The Big Fix" was a little hit in 1978, and for Richard Dreyfuss, coming off his Oscar-winning role in "The Goodbye Girl" as well as "Close Encounters" made him a hot actor. He basically is playing the same character that he played in "Goodbye Girl", and while he's still wisecracking, he's gone from actor to a private detective, from New York City to Los Angeles. An ex-girlfriend of his, Susan Anspach, involves him in a case concerning an old protest buddy of theirs from the 1960's, Andrew turns into a wild adventure that ends up with murder. As if he doesn't have enough on his plate, ex-wife Bonnie Bedelia keeps harassing him for child support but barely let him see the kids. Boss John Lithgow harasses him and he ends up being chased all over L. A. by some mysterious man and the cops, and he's determined to solve this case as well as come out of it alive.

A great use of vintage Los Angeles locations (not the places that you usually see in Southern California set movies) takes Dreyfuss on too many adventures, and it's interesting to see how much the City of Angels has changed. Rita Karin is very funny as Dreyfuss's outspoken aunt, a Russian Jewish immigrant who has Todd Dreyfus everything he knows about fighting for social injustice and being considered subversive. That's where the plot leads us to, political machinations and other unforeseen twist, with a lot of interesting supporting players and a steady Pace. The first half is a lot funnier than the second half, and going from the mixture of action and comedy to very serious action as the plot comes to its head. F Murray Abraham, Nicolas Coster and Fritz Weaver have good supporting roles. A funny scene in a federal penitentiary has two life term inmates distracting the guards by singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" while they pass information to Anspach and Dreyfuss. There have been better political comedies that have stood the test of time, but Dreyfuss's performance and non-stop activity makes this worth seeing even if it is a bit dated.

Roger L. Simon adapted his own novel about how the wonderful/volatile, idealistic 1960s evolved into this cynical age, the corrupt and immoral 1970s. One-time student activist from Berkeley, now a weekend-dad working as a private eye, becomes involved in a case of political dirty pool when the liberal elect for California's governor is falsely implicated in a partnership with a fugitive radical. Star Richard Dreyfuss, one of the top actors at the time (following "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and his Oscar win for 1977's "The Goodbye Girl"),also co-produced this mystery yarn, turning it into a wan and wholly unconvincing actor's showpiece. Sporting a shaggy, curly hairstyle and a thick mustache, Dreyfuss isn't quite at home in these plastic, fake-noir surroundings--he doesn't even try to assimilate himself. Whether he's fighting with his ex-wife or romancing a former girlfriend, the actor is relying on externals and shtick (that of a raffish Jewish snookums) to take the place of a performance, something which director Jeremy Paul Kagan appears to be complicit with. Dulled-out and bland, the picture certainly isn't helped by Bill Conti's obtrusive music, nor by Frank Stanley's muddy cinematography. A minor hit, the film was soon forgotten in the wake of Dreyfuss' Hollywood hot streak hitting a speedbump. *1/2 from ****

****SOME SPOILERS*****Sharp and feisty movie about ex-1960's radical who's having a hard time making child support payments for his two kids. while trying to support himself as a small time private investigator in LA.

Moses Wine, Richard Dreyfuss, at home one night watching a football game that he bet on is contacted by an old flame back from his radical days in collage Lila, Susan Anspach. Lila wants Moses to work for a candidate for governor of California, Milles Hawthorne. Moses goes along with Lila to the Hawthorne campaign headquarters even though Moses is apposed to his policies as well as having a low opinion of Hawthorne's intellect. "This is a guy who thinks that Captain Kangaroo is too controversial" Moses tells Lila about the person she want's to get elected.

Told by Hawthorne's campaign manager Sam Sebastian, John Lithgow, that there's a flayer being distributed around the state with a doctored photo of Hawthorne and radical Howard Eppis, who's on the lamb from the police since he was convicted for inciting violence against the government. The phony flayer is telling everyone that Eppis is supporting Hawthorne for governor, which is not true, which will destroy Howthorne's chances for being elected and Sabastian want's Moses, a private eye, to find out who's disturbing it.

Moses and Lila go underground in the radical movement to find out who's behind these flayers and this whole Eppis mania. One night Moses goes over to Lila's home for a quite and uneventful dinner dinner and finds her murdered. Moses after overcoming the shock and grief of Lila's tragic death now has a more personal interest in the Hawthorne/Eppis case since he feels that Lila's murder was because of it.

Going on his own Moses starts to make inroads in his search for the elusive Howard Eppis and runs into people who in the past were supporters of Eppis who would now want to break Howard Eppis's neck. A group of radical Mexicans farm workers who's leader Louis Vasqaz, who had mysteriously vanished, felt that Eppis is a phony and an opportunist There's also the very wealthy industrialist Oscar Procari Sr. Fritz Weaver who holds Eppis responsible for his son's conviction for attempting to overthrow the government and flight from the law. This is due his involvement with Eppis in what was called the trial of the California Four.

Later Moses is picked up by the FBI and grilled by them about what he knows about Howard Eppis. It seems that everyone in the state of California wants to know where is Howard Eppis? It comes out later that someone that Moses came in contact with in the movie came up with an hair-brain scheme to blow up a section of the California freeway and blame in on Howard Eppis. This insane plan at the same time will destroy the Hawthorne campaign for governor by making it look like that Eppis was supporting him but who is it? and why was Lila murdered? did she stumble across something that if made public would blow the whole hair-brain scheme?

Richard Dreyfuss was never better then he was in "The Big Fix" With a wonderful supporting cast that carried the story from it's delightful and funny beginning to it's tense and griping final conclusion. And speaking of casts it was hilarious how Moses who was wearing a cast on his right hand, during the entire movie, came up with different reasons when anyone asked him how he broke his hand according to what their political or moral positions were.