"Dirty Cop No Donut" is a dark and gritty journey into the night and the mind of corrupt law enforcement officer Gus Kimball. The imagery of Kimball's face being flashed at rapid-fire velocity by his vehicle's flashing red strobe light, while he rambles angrily and aimlessly at the beginning of the movie, is both powerful and memorable.

The basic premise of this 1998 Tim Ritter production is a night in the life of Gus Kimball as filmed live a la "Cops". In short order you find yourself wondering why someone who so flagrantly flaunts the law he is sworn to uphold is allowing himself to be filmed-you will find out the reason by the end of the movie.

This is a brutal and a harsh movie, but a movie that will have the viewer both analyze its merits and dwell even deeper into the mind of Gus Kimball, what makes him tick, and why, once they have seen it. Wynkoop's acting is absolutely stunning--his portrayal of the out of control, drunken with authority and thoroughly corrupt Kimball is so convincing that you'd better pray to God Almighty that Joel D. Wynkoop in a cop uniform never busts you for as much as jaywalking.

Chronologically starting in the early evening and ending in the wee hours of the morning, Kimball takes us to various situations. The entire movie is filmed at night, which as mentioned above, only adds to the darkness of its content. In his one night out on the town amongst other things he forces a drug lord to snort blow to the point of cardiac arrest and then takes all the dead man's stash for resale, coerces a homeless man to ride the entire evening in his car's trunk, thoroughly destroys the car of a DUI with his billy club, rampages and destroys a pawn shop, conducts all arrests without warrants, trades sex for arrest with a hooker, and in one of the movies most terrifying and well-acted scenes, forces a sexual deviant to emasculate himself -- a younger and longer-haired Bill Cassinelli does a superb acting job in that sequence.

Although you find yourself despising Kimball throughout the majority of this movie, you also find a sick rationalization as to why he does so many of the heinous and unspeakable acts that he does-basically because he is dealing with heinous and unspeakable humans that our court systems unleash back on to our streets time after time. This rationalization touches very deeply upon the psyche of most any sane person watching this film who is of the belief that our judicial system is in many ways in a total shambles today. It also underscores the tremendous mental anguish and abuse that is inherent with being an officer of the law, particularly for those very many who are not corrupt but serve honestly and valiantly to preserve the social good.

From left: Joel D. Wynkoop, William Moriaty, Nolan B. Canova, and Joel's girlfriend, Cathy, meet at the Egg Platter on Gandy Blvd in God's own South Tampa.  Photo by Gustavo Perez.

The movie is not without its humorous moments-- Wynkoop produces earth-shattering belches throughout the movie. In addition, when Kimball requires the "film boy" to give him affirmative or negative responses, the camera man does so silently by moving the camera up and down for yes and sideways for no.

Wynkoop's most brilliant acting is when he recounts the horrendous way that his father, also a cop, died while trying to break up a domestic dispute between a pimp and his 'ho. Needless to say, the only type of criminal activity that Kimball tries his best to refuse to participate in resolving is a family dispute, which does occur near the end of the movie.

I'm not sure if the producer was toying with our minds (and I'm sure that he was), but the majority of locations are shown to be in south Florida. The last scene is in Peachtree, Georgia, many miles and hours from the Gold Coast! And in the fine Twisted Illusions tradition, there is a "Longfellow Road" mentioned in one of the scenes ("Longfellow" is the character name that Wynkoop plays in the 2001 Michael Hoffman Jr. movie "Scary Tales", and the current production of "Scary Tales II--The Return of Mr. Longfellow".

This is a rough, but thought-provoking effort by Tim Ritter that is a must for any Joel D. Wynkoop fan.