The Glitter Dome

Seedy atmospherics, and heavy themes are handled (sort of superficially) in Stuart Margolin's made-for-television hardboiled police procedural story of a murder involving a Hollywood movie mogul with possible links to a child-pornography ring. James Garner is the disconnected, and dryly sardonic L. A detective on the case, while John Lithgow playing his partner is the in-too-deep, and emotionally unstable cop. Garner's on-going noirish narration was on the distracting side, but his presence maybe more so. Lithgow's performance gave his character much added weight, and convincing dynamics that counter balanced Garner's laidback, and on-the-nose delivery. There's an interesting cast of names to boot with small, but striking turns from Margot Kidder, John Marley and Paul Koslo.

James Garner and John Lithgow shine in this classic as detective sergeants Mackey and Wellborn. I thoroughly enjoyed Garner's character's reaction as a staid old-fashioned sort of cop interacting with extremely sexually liberated Willie played by Margot Kidder. Stuart Margolin's direction gives this film a sort of "Rockford Files" feel. The ending is sad and predictable with Wellborn's (Lithgow) inability to depersonalize the crimes he investigates. But there are some entertaining moments like in Colleen Dewhurst's great scene in which her character, Lorna Dillman, proves herself incapable of the crime. Simply priceless.

If you like Garner and Lithgow, you'll love this one!

This was a great book, and the casting(except Margot Kidder) seems pretty good. What in the heck happened? I would guess this was Stuart Margolin's first and last directing job. To think that John Lithgow actually had to go thru with this makes you appreciate him all the more. Clearly he got his over-acting out of his system with this woofer. Joe Wambaugh should get this film re-done by someone competent, it'd be an academy award winner. I'd like to see that movie, avoid this one at all costs, unless you are a fan of the morbidly unwatchable. And if you are a fan of that, watch a Bush speech instead. Bigger laughs, and bigger tears.

The glitter dome is probably Wambaugh at his most sleazy and cynical. It is hilariously funny but even jaded readers might need a shower afterwards. Given that you have a comedy involving hard drugs, pedophilia, prostitution, child murders and incompetent corrupt alcoholic cops the casting seems like a weird choice. Garner and Margolin are certainly known for comedy, but generally of the light harmless variety (Rockford Files, Maverick) where gunshots always miss and women and children always come away unharmed. Although cast against type, Garner does a decent job here as the corrupt boozehound detective Mackey. Lithgow is given a lot more to work with as his neurotic repressed partner who is in the midst of a psychological melt down due to various personal and professional problems. Lithgow actually does an excellent job and gives probably the most standout performance in the entire film. I will hand it to Margolin he didn't hold back, the movie is very faithful to the nasty sleazy source material and he manages to handle the delicate balance of revolting sleaze and wacky comedy pretty well, though I can understand why many viewers may be put off by the tone, the book also had a sort of scizophrenic feel to it. The only thing I didn't like was that it sort of mangled a few important plot points (how they discover rollerskating pornographer "Mr Wheels" makes a lot more sense in the book) and it jettisons altogether some of the novel's funnier side plots to instead focus on the mystery and also the romance plot. However that is to be expected given that the novel is relatively long and complex with many characters and different plot threads that eventually all intersect to help resolve the mystery.

Overall I was pretty impressed with this film, it's an HBO movie from the era before HBO Films was synonymous with prestige. During the 1980s they were mostly known for making somewhat seedy cheap thrillers like The Hitcher, Apology, or Cast a Deadly Spell. I dont think this film has ever been released on DVD but you can find it bootlegged online from VHS sources and maybe even a find a VHS kicking around on ebay somewhere. I say check it out!

John Lithgow's character, a man who was unable to push away the atrocities he had seen in his work as a cop, was heart-rending tragic. (The scene of an abused little boy whom he had rescued is haunting.) Colleen Dewhurst's character was an odd mix of crustiness, worldliness and a little bit of Mother Teresa, with regard to how she took a runaway teen/porn actress under her wing. Although the movie doesn't address it outright, we suspect that Dewhurst's character was a lesbian. It was interesting to see Willie (played by Margot Kidder), react to being treated like a lady by Garner, after having coming on to him in the S&M manner that she was accustomed to.

No, this movie isn't a great, timeless classic. But I found myself intrigued by the characters and the story. Stuart Margolin directed the movie, acted in it, and also composed music for it. It is interesting to see this versatility from a gentleman who has made a career of playing sleazy slimeballs.