Hustle (dir. Robert Aldrich, 1975)
Phil Gaines (Burt Reynolds) is an LAPD detective, who along with his partner Louis Belgrave (Paul Winnfield), is assigned to investigate the death of a young woman named Gloria Hollinger (Colleen Brennan), whose body washed up on the beach. She was a sex worker who had apparently overdosed on barbiturates, but the circumstances of her death do not add up. Her vengeful father Marty (Ben Johnson) is determined to find those responsible, while her mother Paula (Eileen Brennan) has more complicated feelings. Gaines is also dealing with uncertain feelings of his own as he finds himself falling for a sex worker, Nicole Britton (Catherine Deneuve).
Hustle is an interesting example of a neo-noir film because it was directed by one of the old guard directors of the genre, Robert Aldrich, who had previously worked on Kiss Me Deadly and The Big Knife before turning to thrillers like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and war stories like The Dirty Dozen in the 1960s. As can be expected, Hustle’s treatment of themes involving policing and prostitution are more explicit than they could have been in the forties or fifties, while still being somewhat conservative. Nicole’s high class gig contrasts sharply with that of Gloria, and the relationship between Nicole and Phil is more distressingly violent than romantic. It also has an incredibly grim and pessimistic ending that I was surprised by.
I will admit that it has taken most of my life for me to truly appreciate Burt Reynolds. Until a few years ago I knew him solely for his great turn in Boogie Nights and for Norm Macdonald’s parody of him on Saturday Night Live. He was just someone that used to be famous, that’s what I thought. Then I finally sat down and watched Deliverance and realized that, oh, Boogie Nights wasn’t just a fluke. I saw Smokey and the Bandit and learned that he was once the most charming man alive. I still haven’t seen enough of his work to call myself an enormous fan of Burt Reynolds, but I definitely appreciate him as an actor. He’s good in Hustle as he shifts between amiable and violent, comedic and serious. It’s not exactly outside of his range, but he works well within it.
oliveresque 