Another old school Hollywood director struggles for relevance in 1970's Hollywood. Robert Aldrich coming off his success of The Longest Yard with Burt Reynolds teamed up with Reynolds again for this "sleazy slice" of Los Angeles life.
Aldrich was always a director with a blunt hit you over the head technique but this story set a new low for him. Cynical cop Burt Reynolds is shacked up with high class hooker Catherine Denevue. Reynolds investigates the drowning of a girl who was involved in the sex trade business in L.A. Meanwhile the dead girl's father wants revenge as the cliches pile up higher and higher. Hustle is either a criticism of the lack or morality in a corrupt American culture or a big time Aldrich wallow in slime.
Aldrich cast some of his old actor buddies like Ernest Borgnine and Eddie Albert and he had his usual cinematographer Joseph Biroc with him but it's not much help. Borgnine and Albert seem like they should be in another film preferably something set in the 1950's and for a film showing the grimy aspects of Los Angles, Biroc made the whole thing way too pretty.
The crappy screenplay was by a hack writer with pretensions named Steven Shagan who let everyone down for this film.
120 minutes.
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