Hustle (1975) (Region 2) (Import)

At times it's hard to know quite what to make of Hustle. There's certainly a good film in there, but there's also a bad one as well and Robert Aldrich doesn't make the two into something entirely cohesive. Joseph Biroc's photography is somewhat schizophrenic too. The police station interiors and night shots look great with a classic neo-noir look to them with their deep blacks, but some of the daytime work looks like painfully artificial TV movie stuff. Some of the editing is awkward and some of the writing so on the nose it's like someone decided to film `My First Cop Movie' while the references to Moby Dick (the film, not the book) come over as Symbolism 101, but then it delivers something good enough for you to want to file away and use yourself at a later date.

Where it scores is in its portrait of a job and a place where you can all too easily lose all sense of yourself, a side of Los Angeles the film captures remarkably well (there's a reason so many Angelinos move to different States or even countries). Burt Reynolds' cop is so desensitized to his job that he obliviously talks to the morgue staff about football scores while escorting a father to see his daughter's dead body, behavior no-one finds shocking in a place where people only count if they're `somebody.' In many ways the most impressive thing about it is its determination to avoid becoming a murder mystery: no-one, least of all Reynolds, has any interest in investigating a murder, and neither does the film. Instead it's more interested in the emotional fallout from the death and how it affects (or rather fails to affect) those around the death. It all ends in violence, naturally, albeit with the caveat that you end up paying for the sins you didn't commit rather than the ones you you did.

Paramount's DVD boasts a good 1.85:1 widescreen transfer but, as usual with the studio, no extras at all.

Hustle' stars Burt Reynolds in his post deliverance prime along with a great supporting cast, not least Catherine Deneuve his girlfriend by choice and hooker by profession. Reynolds convincingly plays a jaded detective who investigates the death of a poor mans daughter whose father played by a bemused Ben Johnson seeks truth and justice in a jaded world. Along the way the outwardly traditional detective/murder plot and Reynolds unconventional professional and personal relationships, morph into a parallel critique of crime and corruption in contemporary USA society. Panned by critics on its release in the mid 1970s, `Hustle' nevertheless remains a conventional/unconventional genre stretching movie ahead of its time. Easily worth 5 stars for the casting of the co stars alone. A must see for a good movie night in.

Hustle is directed by Robert Aldrich and written by Steve Shagan. It stars Burt Reynolds, Catherine Deneuve, Ben Johnson, Paul Winfield, Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert and Eileen Brennan. Music is by Frank De Vol and cinematography by Joseph Biroc.

A dead girl on the beach, that creates heat.

When the body of a young hooker and drug user is found on the beach, the weary LAPD detectives wrap it all up quickly as a suicide. But the father is having none of it and sets about doing his own investigation. All parties involved with the woman, known or presently unknown, are heading for a collision course.

You are doing it for a nobody.

It's a bleak and seamy L.A. that forms the setting for Aldrich's sadly undervalued neo noir. A place where the police are often corrupt, turning a blind eye to illegal activities perpetrated by high profile suits, where pimps, pushers and prostitutes thrive. Unfaithful wives, a shoe fetish and rebuilt asses also mark the land! Our central cop is Lt. Gaines (Reynolds), a cynical classic movie buff yearning for the European world of harmony depicted in the movies he so enjoys. He's in a relationship with a French call girl (Deneuve), it's a strained relationship, but there is love there if the two of them could just unshackle their hang-ups and vulnerabilities. And then there's the tortured father of the dead girl (Johnson), an ex-serviceman of the Korean War, he's highly strung, volatile, he carries deep emotional baggage that will become heavier the more he learns about his baby girl's existence.

I'm starting to draw dirty pictures of what you do.

The case of the dead girl is merely a backdrop to the unravelling of the primary characters' make ups. This is very much a character driven piece, a slow burn, complex and cynical picture. All characters mean something, adding much to the near depressing tone that Aldrich, Shagan and Biroc have (rightly) favoured. These characters give the film many layers, rendering all dialogue to be of interest, while ensuring the narrative is not linear. It failed at the box office on release, it's perhaps not hard to see why. On the surface, via plot summary and marketing, the film lovers of 75 thought they were getting a murder mystery-cops and villains-crime story, with Reynolds leading the machismo fight for justice. But this is far better than your run of the mill crime picture, it's dark, brooding, and even allows itself some moments of humour to nestle in nicely with the uneasy nature of the beast. While the finale is pitch perfect noir, it's not apologia, it brings the film to a cruelly ironic close.

Patiently crafted by the brilliant Aldrich, and performed with considerable skill and emotion by the cast, Hustle is top line neo noir and deserves a more appreciative audience. 9/10