1982 - STILL OF THE NIGHT, misfired tribute to Alfred Hitchcock

Probably one of the worst films I have recently seen.  This attempt at a Hitchcock type of thriller is a complete misfire.  The plot such that it is involves the  murder of Meryl Streep's lover.  Psychiatrist Roy Scheider sets out to find the killer all the time wondering if Streep is the murderer.

The director and screenwriter Robert Benton for some reason got it into his head that he wanted to pay tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's films.  There are references to Vertigo, The Birds, North by Northwest and Spellbound.  Benton has set up a series of clues for Scheider to solve and we dutifully sit there as he goes through the crime solving motions.  What Benton apparently forgot was that Hitchcock rarely made whodunits.  Mystery stories were not a primary interest for Hitchcock in his films.

  

Meryl Streep has been directed to play one of Hitchcock's famous "cool blondes."  She has gone on record as saying that this is one of her worst performances in a film, no argument here.  Scheider is I guess the Jimmy Stewart character. a man obsessed with mysterious Meryl.  But it's hard to understand what he sees in her bland and frankly uninteresting character. The fact of the matter is that the plot necessitates that he become involved in the murder mystery by falling in love with creepy Meryl even though it is never explained why he is so obsessed with her or exactly why he is even bothering to solve the murder.

The movie is so poorly directed that at the very least Benton could have  copied Hitchcock's visual style with some interesting camera angles but this film is shot almost like a TV show.  The cinematographer was Nestor Almendros who had done outstanding work for Eric Rohmer, Terrence Malik  and  Francois Truffaut, but you won't find anything special about his photography in this film.

Running time, 93 minutes.

1972 - BAD COMPANY, a very dour western

Robert Benton and his writing partner David Newman had written the script for Bonnie and Clyde. With the success of that film, they had enough clout to get one of their personal projects made.  They chose to film a cynical western about a group of young men heading west during the Civil War.  They hired a decent cast in particular Jeff Bridges who was always a likable actor.   The cinematographer Gordon Willis who shot Bad Company had been associated with urban dramas like The Godfather and many of Woody Allen's best films.  The result was a well acted but depressing film story wise and visually.  

Gordon Willis was known for pushing the limits when it came to filming in darkness and shadows and he really pushed it here.  Scenes set inside houses are so dark at times it is almost impossible to tell what is going.  Even when the film goes outdoors filming on some arid Kansas prairie, Willis smothers the film in sepia filters and you still can't see anything.  Bad Company is a pretty ugly looking film.

Bad Company is one of those revisionist westerns.  The film wants to show what the west was really like.  While that is all very good it doesn't actually make for a lot of fun when you have to sit down and watch it.

Bad Company does have a rather amusing in-joke.  The character actor David Huddleston plays an outlaw called "Big Joe."  Big Joe is based on film director Joseph L Mankiewicz who Benton and Newman had worked with on There Was A Crooked Man, another revisionist western.

93 minutes.

1977 - THE LATE SHOW, good offbeat little film mystery

A riff on what would have happened to Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe character if he was a senior citizen.

The writer/director Robert Benton filmed a private eye mystery with about eight characters.  The chief characters being Art Carney as the aging private eye and Lily Tomlin as a goofy southern California sort of actress who hires Carney to find her missing pet.  

The Late Show, has the authentic Los Angeles atmosphere.  The characters are all small time hustlers or grifters.  As in any Raymond Chandler novel, the plot is less important than the character interaction and individually entertaining scenes. 

The Late Show was a favorite of the critics when it came out in 1977.  However, audiences did not make it a success.  It's easy to see why.  The film is clever and well acted, but it's just a little too laid back and offbeat to appeal to mainstream audiences.  This is a minor but well made, entertaining and well acted film.

93 minutes.