The Gauntlet

The Gauntlet is a 1977 American action thriller film directed by Clint Eastwood, who stars alongside Sondra Locke. The film's supporting cast includes Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney, and Mara Corday. Eastwood plays a down-and-out cop who falls in love with a prostitute (Locke), to whom he is assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix for her to testify against the mob. Plot Ben Shockley, an alcoholic cop from Phoenix, is given the task to escort witness Augustina "Gus" Mally from Las Vegas. His superior, Commissioner Edgar A. Blakelock, says she is a "nothing witness" for a "nothing trial". Mally protests that they are both set up to be killed in a hit, which a jaded Shockley doubts. Mally reveals herself to be a belligerent prostitute with mob ties and is in possession of incriminating information concerning a high figure in society. Her suspicions are confirmed when the transport vehicle is bombed and Mally's house is fired upon. Shockley and Mally are then pursued across the open country with no official assistance and with the police force regarding them as fugitives. They kidnap a local constable, whom they then let go, as Mally knows there will be another hit. The constable is killed at the hands of several men armed with machine guns. They eventually run into a gang of bikers, whom Shockley threatens with his revolver, then confiscates one of their motorcycles and takes off on it with Mally. Blakelock is revealed to want the pair dead because Mally understands about Blakelock's secret life. Assistant District Attorney John Feyderspiel is involved with the plot to kill Shockley and Mally. They are also the prime suspects in the murder of the constable.