The Moving Finger

The Moving Finger, the 'plus' feature on a DVD featuring Brian De Palma's Murder a la Mod, was made by Larry Moyer, a strictly independent/B-movie director who apparently never really directed again after this (he has one animation co-direct credit on a short). Not too surprising why; his film is a blend of even-for-then tired clichés between a heist plot and the swarm of the Beats down in the Village in the late 50s and early 60s. It's about a bank robber who gets shot, and is somehow able to make it on a bus down to Greenwhich village and hide out among a group of bum-beatniks who are allowed to stay as long as they appease the man who owns a dingy poetry club (inimitable, gravel voiced Lionel Stander, like Mickey from Rocky with "poetry in 'im").

Not much happens really, and despite Moyer's attempts to capture some reality of the squalor of the village scene at the time he doesn't get enough. He's tethered to a bad plot with crummy actors (save for Barry Newman, star of Vanishing Point, who oddly enough is here almost as a goof in the midst of the "tea-heads"), and long stretches of dancing and dialog to B-movie music that doesn't stick well. With more creative direction, and maybe more of an attempt to go with style as do the poetic bums of this world, this premise could have some lift. As it is, it's barely a half step above Mystery Science Theater status.

It's not a movie to seek out specifically if you've never seen it, and I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it again if I rent the Murder a la Mod DVD again. Only redeeming quality is a scene with a cockroach race.