Kris Kristofferson‘s first cinematic vehicle Cisco Pike (1972), written and directed by Bill L. Norton, is dark and offbeat but not very successful. A cool dude, Cisco Pike, has quit selling drugs but must submit to a hypocritical—and damaged—establishment figure, Gene Hackman‘s police detective. The cop is driven to force Cisco to raise money for him—yes, through selling drugs. Some effective details crop up, but the story is vacuous and wispy. The ending is worthless . . . The acting of Hackman and Harry Dean Stanton is solid. Kristofferson, though, is uninteresting as Cisco. He mainly goes around just looking wary. Karen Black (as Cisco’s girlfriend) is terrifically attractive both clothed and in the nude. But she is not histrionically “natural” enough to portray a character, this woman.