[5] Alfred Hitchcock’s first sound film is emblematic of his usual content, if not his his trademark style and suspense. Murder! centers around an actress (Diana Baring) found in a fugue state next to a bloody fire poker and a murdered acquaintance. After she’s convicted of the crime and sentenced to death, a skeptical juror (Herbert Marshall) — a fellow actor in a local troup …
[5] Paul Newman stars in this L.A. detective story from director Robert Benton (Kramer vs Kramer), about a down-on-his-luck P.I. who lives with two movie stars (Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman) who are married to each other. Newman starts to get suspicious, though, when Hackman sends him to deliver money to someone, only to discover a murder has taken place. The murder leads to clues …
[7] Four struggling women successfully rob a bank, but push their luck with additional robberies while the L.A. police is on their tail. Director F. Gary Gray (Friday, Straight Outta Compton) doesn’t glorify the crime in Set It Off. Instead, he and screenwriters Takashi Bufford and Kate Lanier show us what leads these women to such desperate measures. The script gives actors Jada Pinkett, Vivica …
[4] Debra Winger plays a federal investigator on the trail of a ‘black widow,’ a woman (Theresa Russell) who marries and murders one rich man after another, collecting inheritances as she goes. It’s great to see Debra Winger in anything, even if she’s under-utilized. Under-utilization is actually a recurring theme in the making of Black Widow. Russell’s mysterious character is also under-written. Supporting players the …
[8] Chameleon master craftsman Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend) staked a name for himself and elevated low-budget film noir to new levels of respectability with his Hitchcockian suspense yarn Double Indemnity. The film, co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler, stars Fred MacMurray as an L.A. insurance salesman who conspires with an unhappy housewife, played by Barbara Stanwyck, to collect a massive insurance payout …
[4] Ten years before he picked up Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Richard Gere played a ho himself in American Gigolo. As a male ‘chauffeur’, Gere’s plenty pretty to look at, aided by an array of Armani suits and moody cinematography by John Bailey. He even gives us a sustained full-frontal shot. But the fantasy fulfillment element of American Gigolo quickly dissolves into a tedious, …
[7] A young man falsely accused of murder (Derrick De Marney) escapes his hearing and sets out to prove his innocence, dodging the police and falling in love with a blonde young woman (Nova Pilbeam) who helps him against her better judgment. The key to his salvation is finding a stolen raincoat, which kicks off a serendipitous adventure to find a man with an uncontrollably …
[7] After a confrontation with bullies leads to attempted rape and gunfire, Helen Slater (Supergirl) hits the road with her brother (Christian Slater) and a pair of friends (Yeardley Smith and Martha Gehman). They dodge the police and profess their innocence to the press while Slater tries to find a way to resolve the escalating conflict before someone gets hurt. In the meantime, word-of-mouth and …
[6] Humphrey Bogart plays a Hollywood screenwriter suspected of murder until his next door neighbor, played by Gloria Grahame, vouches for him. Grahame starts a romance with Bogey as the investigation continues. It’s not long before Bogey reveals a hidden rage and a violent streak that make her reconsider his culpability. In a Lonely Place is reminiscent of Sunset Boulevard, released the same year. Both …
[7] Seemingly unrelated stories and dubious characters end up converging around one man, Arvin Russell (Spider-Man‘s Tom Holland), an orphan struggling to find his moral compass in 1960s rural West Virginia. Arvin is haunted by the memory of his father (It‘s Bill Skarsgård), a man who’d make blood sacrifices at his own makeshift altar in the woods when praying for God’s divine intervention. Other storylines …
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