Hustle

Burt Reynolds really channels a young Marlon Brando in this film. He plays Lt. Phil Gains and is a cool character who doesn't like to get too close to people(he has a penchant for 30's style music and vernacular). He lives with his girlfriend, played by Catherine Deneuve, who happens to be a Call Girl but neither of them are willing to give up the dangers(mental and physical) of their careers. However, they dream about running off to Europe. It's as if they are afraid of what will happen if they do.

To sum it up, Gains is called in to investigate the body of a young girl found dead on a beach. It is ruled a suicide but the girl's parents, mainly her father, refuse to believe it. The father, played by actor Ben Johnson, is seeking revenge and Gains wants to be one step ahead of him.

To me, the standout in this film is actor Eddie Albert, who I've always had a crush on. This is probably the creepiest role he ever played. He's a lawyer with mob connections and won't let anyone stand in his way. He is also a client of Deneuve's character and grins ear-to-ear when talking about the dead girl and the pleasure he and friends got from her. We're talking HUGE creep factor here. In one scene he refers to the girl by saying "She could get milk out of a crowbar." Don't think I need to explain THAT line.

This film is the typical 1970's cop film with lounge jazz music playing over a car scene. Pretty tame by today's standards but did earn an R-rating. There is reference to a porno film that is supposed to feature Albert's character Leo Sellers(again pushing that creep factor up!). "Hustle" is probably one of Burt's more forgettable films but it is fun to see him take to a role so seriously after seeing him in Smokey and his other action films.

Great, underrated film noir, expertly written, master class of the genre. Begs to be rediscovered. If you are a purist of noir, then this is a gift to you, courtesy of Aldrich. There is so much more to Burt Reynolds than people give him credit, and he proves it here. I may be alone in this, but i got the impression the film was lit for black and white and comes off badly in colour - the contrast is too extreme, and ultimately works against the film. Curiously, when i tuned it to b/w it looked incredible - as moody and mean as Aldrich would would have intended. And Deneuve isn't as bad as the critics made out. if you love noir and have a problem with this film, i can't begin to understand why.

There is a "cop confronts a crazy guy holding a hostage" scene in the middle of "Hustle," but the film makes clear that this is peripheral to the real problems of the city and the film's protagonist. Burt Reynolds plays an L. A. cop who is rather complacent and pays scant attention to the death of Ben Johnson's 20-something daughter until he is compelled to, largely to prevent Johnson from creating too much damage with his own one-man investigation.

The movie meandered along until its 2 hour running time was up. I couldn't detect any narrative urgency here, but maybe my problem was that I couldn't buy Reynolds as a cop with a moral crisis. I found Ben Johnson far more interesting and found myself wishing that "Hustle" had been about his efforts to find out where his daughter had gone wrong. (Wasn't that what Paul Schrader's "Hardcore" tried to do several years after this film?) Also, Ernest Borgnine dominated the too-few scenes he had as Reynold's unlikeable boss. Still, the supporting characters couldn't push the film over the top for me.

Speaking of supporting players, I thought the guy in the liquor store robbery looked familiar. He turned out to be Robert Englund, ten years before he took up residence on Elm Street as Freddie Kruger. That reminded me of Sylvester Stallone's and Jeff Goldblum's brief turns as robbers in "Bananas" and "Death Wish".

Having collaborated on "The Longest Yard", director Robert Aldrich cast Burt Reynolds and Eddie Albert again in the enigmatic "Hustle". Reynolds plays LA cop Phil Gaines. He and his wife have basically no relationship, so Phil lives with call girl Nicole Britton (Catherine Deneuve). When a young woman gets found dead on the beach one day, Phil and his colleague Louis Belgrave (Paul Winfield) get hired to investigate. They conclude that she died of a self-induced drug overdose. But they don't tell her parents (Ben Johnson and Eileen Brennan) that there were massive amounts of semen in all three orifices of the woman's body, and that the woman was a stripper in a nightclub. The father is convinced that this was not a suicide, and is determined to investigate on his own if necessary.

I have to say that the movie has a rather convoluted plot: the number of characters - and the question of each character's relationship to each other - makes the whole thing hard to follow at times. As it is, following the revelation of the body at the beginning, the movie sort of throws Phil into the story from right out of the blue. It seems that mostly, the movie functions as a look at the underbelly of 1970s LA, including a hostage situation in one scene. And, if all else fails, there's always something sexy for Catherine Deneuve to do (namely the part about what Switzerland has). A surprise appearance - although they do credit him - is Ernest Borgnine as Phil and Louis's superior; he's the only character who seems as if he's about to have a seizure or something.

Overall, I think that the movie is seeing, if only once. While it is true that the movie progresses pretty slowly, I actually would assert that that adds some realism: not every detective/action story has to be a series of explosions and mayhem.

All in all, a worthwhile movie. BTW, did you notice who the hold up man at the end is? It's Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. And I wonder if David Spielberg is related to Steven Spielberg.

Sammy Davis Jr. hugging Nixon...

'Hustle' is an overlooked film, though it is easy to see why.

Stylistically it is very low-key with no notable flourishes or tricksiness. It boasts little in the way of 'action'. A hostage situation sequence seems to have been added purely to provide something in that line for fidgety Burt fans. It is profoundly cynical and resolutely (almost excessively) downbeat. But it is also very thoughtful, atmospheric, well acted and absorbing. A kind of modern dress companion piece to 'Chinatown'. And whilst not quite achieving the force and subtlety of that film, it remains highly creditable.

Reynolds is effective as the world weary cop in love with a French prostitute, a cipher whom Deneuve turns into a real person. Her character represents some sort of unattainable, glamorous continental dream to the policeman. This idea is explored and reinforced by numerous references and allusions to European cinema, culture and locale.

Burt looks uncannily like a youthful Brando and brings great restraint to a role which could have been horribly over-played. Ben Johnson, Eileen Brennan and Paul Winfield also all give good performances as beaten, screwed-up people. The outstanding turn, though, comes from Edward Albert as Leo Sellers, a wealthy and powerful businessman with dubious tastes and connections. This character is key to Steve Shagan's screenplay in the same way that John Huston's Noah Cross was to Robert Towne's 'Chinatown'. A persona symbolic of corruption and degeneracy, but also integral to the prosperity of the society he is such a part of. Sellers is a refined, intelligent man with a keen eye for people's weak spots and fingers deft enough to push all of their buttons at once. Mr. Albert brings him to life with a palpable evil.

'Hustle' is a film that I like to reacquaint myself with from time to time. Whilst Shagan's script is occasionally a tad overblown and too fruity for its own good, there are some great lines and moments. For me, it's noirish exploration of thwarted romanticism is pretty much irresistible.

A minor classic.