McQ is a 1974 neo-noir crime film directed by John Sturges, starring John Wayne. The film made extensive use of Seattle locations. The beach scenes were filmed on the Pacific coast at Moclips.
Eddie Albert and Diana Muldaur co-star. The film also features Roger E. Mosley as a pimp and police snitch, Clu Gulager as a corrupt police detective, Colleen Dewhurst as a cocaine addict and Al Lettieri in one of his final roles, as the most visible villain of the film, the drug king Santiago.
Wayne had rejected the lead in Dirty Harry a few years prior to this film, which he later admitted to regretting. The producers of that film chose Seattle as its location in an earlier version of the script; it was later changed to San Francisco when Clint Eastwood became connected with the project. The film has a dramatic car chase, with Wayne in a green 1973 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am "Green Hornet," influenced by Steve McQueen's chase scene in Bullitt.
One of Wayne's famous lines from this movie is delivered after his character is trapped inside his car after it was crushed between two large trucks. He says to one of the reporting officers "I'm up to my butt in gas."
