Set on what critic Pauline Kael called "the witty, steep streets of San Francisco," this fast-action detective thriller contains one of the fastest and best produced car chase sequences in the cinema, the inspiration for many chases to come. Steve McQueen gives an acerbic portrayal of the anti-hero police detective Frank Bullitt, who smells something fishy along the San Francisco waterfront when he is assigned by his politically ambitious boss (Robert Vaughn) to guard a Mafia hit-man who has agreed to testify before a Senate subcommittee. Robert L. Pike's novel Mute Witness was translated into almost purely cinematic terms: what the script lacks in originality is more than made up for in direction, cinematography and editing that capture in gritty detail this cynical story of politics and policing in the City by the Bay.