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Chief Harold Lutz is the overarching antagonist of the 1987 film Beverly Hills Cop II, the second installment in the Beverly Hills Cop film series.
He was portrayed by the late Allen Garfield.
Biography[]
Harold Lutz first appeared as the Chief of the Beverly Hills Police Department, having been appointed from this position by Mayor Ted Egan two months prior to the events of the movie.
Unfortunately, Lutz ended up taking a vindictive and "'political' approach of his influence over the police force - such as firing every other cop who served under Chief Hubbard, some of whom had served for decades and were close to retirement.
At somepoint, he began clashing with Detective Billy Rosewood, Sergeant John Taggart, and Captain Andrew Bogomil, going as far as to assign Rosewood and Taggart traffic duty as punishment after Rosewood had simply contacted the FBI for help with the Alphabet Bandit case by making an excuse of how this action could hurt Mayor Egan’s political career, despite Bogomil insisting Rosewood was following a hunch. He also suspended Bogomil due to him being Taggert and Rosewood's commanding officer and when he had a go at Lutz for his behavior as well. When Bogomill was later shot by gunwoman Karla Fry not long afterwards, Rosewood contacted his friend Axel Foley to help with the case. Axel agreed with Rosewood and Taggart to conduct the investigation secrectly due to the two having been threatened by Lutz with demotion or getting fired. Soon enough he posed as a member of a fictional "multi-jurisdictional federal task force against organized crime", with some assistance from Jeffrey Friedman posing as Inspector Todd on the phone.
When the heroes later secretly foil a robbery at the Bank depot, Lutz behaved abusively at the meeting concerning the robbery. Mayor Egan stopped him, citing that Lutz's behavior was inexcusable while reminding him of the fact the robbery was prevented and the money was saved. He then told Lutz that the police should be focusing on learning where the next Alphabet Crime is going to be before leaving the police station. Lutz reluctantly obliged, but then moments later ordered Axel to leave once Mayor Egan had departed.
Later on, after the Alphabet Crimes' gun member Charles Cain was found dead at the scene of the Alphabet Heists and the code in the letters left at the crime scenes appeared to be uncovered at last, Lutz promptly took credit for this "accomplishment"; he then announced the end of the Alphabet Crimes to the public. However, the heroes learned that the letters were merely decoys to fool Lutz; they eventually discovered the real motivation behind the crimes - a major arms deal between Karla's employer Maxwell Dent and fellow crime boss Nikos Thompolis. In the end, the heroes manage to foil their plot that led to the deaths of both Dent and Fry as well as Thompolis getting arrested in the end.
When Lutz arrived at the scene with Mayor Egan, he was furious at Rosewood and Taggert for their insubordination and tried to have Axel arrested. But then Rosewood and Taggert finally stood up to Lutz when he continued to dismiss their explaination, with Roseword telling Lutz to shut up in an angry outburst and leaving Lutz baffled in front of Mayor Egan upon explaining the true circuimstances behind the Alphabet Bandit case; Mayor Egan instantly took notice of Lutz's incompetence by studying Thomopolis' notebook in which the deal was noted down, before Taggert stating that he and Rosewood had to team up with Axel to solve the case due to Lutz's refusal to hear the truth.
Instead of apologizing to Rosewood and Taggert, let alone commending them for their work, Lutz fired them just to be spiteful. But this proved to be the final straw for Mayor Egan, who promptly fired Lutz for jeopardizing the investigation and his abusive attitude. Lutz unsuccessfully attempted to talk his way out of it, but Egan made it clear his decision was final, having now regretted making Lutz the Chief of Police in the first place. Lutz bitterly tells Egan that he'll regret it, only to be dismissed for his actions before Egan proceeds to sack Lutz's personal assistant Henry Biddle moments later.
Once Lutz had left the scene, Egan rehired Rosewood and Taggert and promoted the recovered Bogomil to replace Lutz as the new Chief of the Department and Axel returns to Detroit.
What happened to Lutz after he got fired is unknown, but it's likely that he'll never get work for any police department due to his abusive attitude. By the time of the fourth movie, it's implied he died due to his actor's death in 2020.
Personality[]
Lutz proved to a be completely arrogant and impulsive bully who constantly abused his power as the chief of police throughout the movie. This was proven when he became verbally abusive towards Andrew Bogomil along with Billy Rosewood and John Taggart upon clashing with them as well as Axel Foley later on. In Foley's view, he considered Lutz as a "shit-for-brains tinhorn politician" upon first meeting him.
Lutz turned out to be highly egotistical, refusing to take criticism and good advice and never acknowledging good police work if it left him out of the spotlight. He reacted angrily to when Rosewood contacted the local FBI office about the Alphabet Bandit, suspending Bogomil and putting Rosewood and Taggart on traffic duty as punishment by using Mayor Egan’s political ambitions as an excuse. He also proved to be incompetent, as well as believing that the Alphabet Crimes case was solved via the supposed right numbers discovered at the scene of a crime. But the heroes later discovered this to be false whereas Lutz never saw right through it, even when Taggert and Rosewood exposed the truth, Lutz refused to accept the fact they and Foley had solved the Alphabet Crimes, thus further showing Lutz's impulsiveness.
By the end of the movie, Lutz became spiteful and vindictive once his incompetence was exposed to Mayor Egan, and rather than apologizing to Rosewood and Taggert for his behaviour, not to mention commending them for their work, Lutz fired them out of spite. But this proved to be his downfall when Mayor Egan reacted to this by firing Lutz for jeopardizing the investigation and his abusive attitude.
Despite his attempts to suck up to Mayor Egan, and treat him like a personal friend by calling him by his first name, Egan never saw Lutz as a friend as he didn't like Lutz calling him by his first name when he left the meeting concerning the attempted robbery at the bank, and he was appalled at the way how Lutz was treating his own officers. It was only when Egan learned that Rosewood and Taggart had to go undercover with Axel to solve the Alphabet case to avoid Lutz's interference and his continued verbal abuse, Mayor Egan finally saw how horrible Lutz was and fired him.
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 Villains
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Beverly Hills Cop Beverly Hills Cop II Beverly Hills Cop III Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F | ||