I recently found this movie online and watched again many years after first seeing it on television. It felt like there were some things missing from the recent version I saw so I did some digging and found I was right.

The original movie was actually a tv mini-series that was 6 hours - so figure a 4-5 night run depending on commercials. The version I saw the other night was around three hours and was missing the one scene I most wanted to see - William Holden performing the night stick tricks for a few of the kids on his beat. I remember being in awe of how he made that piece of wood dance!

Unfortunately that scene and number of others that added to character and story development were missing. The 3-hour movie was still good but I know it was better so I went looking for the full version. So far I haven't found it (Amazon, e-bay, etc.) so if anyone here knows where I can get it I'd appreciate the recommendation as this is a movie I would like to add to my collection.

I had the entire collection of Joseph Wambaugh books. The books are better than the movies. I wish he was still writing them.

It was good when I saw it years ago. The book was good also.