There’s not a lot that is remarkable about Rent-a-Cop. At best, it’s an ‘80s cop show with naughty words and flirtations with more explicit violence. I don’t think it deserved the attention from the Razzies, but the only particularly remarkable thing about it is how well Liza kept warm throughout the winter exterior shoots. And, hey, at least Burt was not trying to sing (we’ll get to that, eventually).
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Rent A Cop
Format: Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Rent-a-Cop – The Film
It’s a buddy flick where the (ex) cop and the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold team up to take down the bad guy. Police officer Tony Church (Burt Reynolds) is the sole survivor of a failed bust where a gunman killed his team. High-end callgirl Della (Liza Minnelli) happened to see the perp before things went wrong. Church is fired, and Della is targeted by the killer but survives and seeks him out to keep her safe. Will this unlikely pair overcome their differences and, just maybe, fall in love?
Rent-a-Cop – The Furs
This fur flick is almost all Liza. The film’s opening sets up the plot, where Della, Church, and the killer “Dancer” arrive at the same hotel, and Della does so in a white fox stole.
Like the other major fur in the film, Della’s white fox stole is well shot and given a lot of screen time.
Now, cinematically, one might argue the setup of the film took way too long, but when that means we see more white fox stole, that’s a good thing.
Very briefly, Della appears in neither fox fur. This mink coat is seen for a few moments when Dancer tries to eliminate her. The moral of the story: mink will get you killed; wear fox instead.
Della tracks down Church for protection, finding him working mall security. We see the red fox fur stroller that will carry us throughout the film.
Della’s incognito in a blonde wig, but once Church is fired, it gets dumped.
Della and Chruch team up to catch the killer. Della wears the red fox stroller throughout much of the film.
There are a couple other furs to note. In the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it category is this white fox stroller worn by an extra outside of a party where Chruch gets into a fistfight.
And there’s this blush fox collar worn by “special guest star” Dionne Warwick, who is killed by Dancer while wearing it. The moral of the story: wearing fox-trimmed coats will get you killed; wear full fox coats instead.
Finally, any good fox coat deserves an accessory. Della adds a black fox fur muff to her ensemble for act 3.
The muff is plot adjacent as their “sting operation” to capture Dancer involves Della packing heat. In her muff.
I needed to be reminded that the use of the term “muff” as a double entendre is not completely cross-cultural and has perhaps fallen out of favor even in the good ole USA due to the declining popularity of fur fashion. Worry not; I will still make muff jokes at every opportunity.
As we book Rent-a-Cop, know that I disagree with Liza’s Razzie “win” for the performance. She’s pretty entertaining doing what amounts to a character from central casting, and it is abundantly clear she’s bringing more charisma to the part than it deserves. The fact that she’s in fur for much of the film is undoubtedly a bonus. The runtime is a solid 18 minutes of almost all fox goodness, bringing the ratio to an impressive 19%, one of the top performers of all films profiled so far.
Fur Runtime: approx 18 minutes
Film Runtime: 96 minutes
On-Screen Fur Ratio: 19%
Find-a-Fur: Rent-a-Cop, 1987
(all times are approximate)
- 02:15 – 03:40 – white fox stole
- 04:45 – 06:24 – ”
- 08:50 – 09:50 – ”
- 13:30 – mink coat
- 18:30 – 21:50 – red fox stroller
- 22:50 – 26:12 – ”
- 33:55 – 43:10 – ”
- 45:20 – 46:50 – ”
- 52:00 – 53:15 – ”
- 59:05 – white fox stroller (breif)
- 59:51 – blush fox collar
- 1:07:10 – 1:07:50 – red fox stroller
- 1:10:00 – ”
- 1:11:00 – 1:13:00 – ” + black fox muff
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