Bullitt - ITV4 | What to Watch

Steve McQueen is suspicious of Robert Vaughn

Steve McQueen revs up for one of cinema's most famous car chases - a fast and furious pursuit through the streets and over the hills of San Francisco. 5/5 stars

Still exhilarating more than 50 years on, that sequence's inspired combination of real locations and dynamic editing puts the audience right in the front seat alongside the star.

Giving a charismatic, hard-hitting performance, McQueen is the epitome of 1960s cool as cop Frank Bullitt, who investigates the murder of a Mob informer and finds top-level corruption along the way.

Jacqueline Bisset's strikingly warm portrayal as his love interest turned her into an international sex symbol and Robert Vaughn sweats impressively as a sleazy politician.

The plot will keep you guessing right up to the end and this amazingly tense, well-staged cop action thriller is a much-loved classic.

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.