Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels seem tailor-made for movies, but there have only been a few. One of the best, oddly enough, is barely recognizable as one of McBain's police procedurals. ``High and Low'' (1963), directed by Japan's legendary Akira Kurosawa, focuses as much on the victim of the crime -- a botched kidnapping -- as on the cops' pursuit of the kidnapper. Toshiro Mifune plays a shoe-company executive who ransoms his chauffeur's son, who was mistaken for his own son by the kidnapper. Mifune thus loses the capital he needs to beat back a cabal of greedy colleagues fed up with his refusal to cheapen their products to increase profits. Instead of taking control of his company, he loses everything. As his life unravels, the police launch a full-bore offensive to catch the kidnapper, even after the boy is recovered unharmed. Kurosawa's best known for his costume dramas (``Ran,'' ``Yojimbo''), but this is one of his best movies.
Review of High and Low
