Hard-hitting, realistic detective melodrama.

The scenes scored to action sound more like the theme to a late-night talk show, and the romantic scenes are so bombastically saccharine that they practically scream, “Listen to the sweeping strings, the swell of the orchestra, this is romance!”

This notion that an instrument need not necessarily be perfect to perform properly is, perhaps, a valid one, but, if so, it's the only thing that is in Madigan, which is executed on the level of a TV soap opera.

Siegel aims for a documentary style with Widmark as Madigan, but the film and its provocative politics are steeped in the essence of the swinging 60s and falter considerably in its achievements when compared to other period films.