cult film freak: BURT REYNOLDS IN THE ROBERT ALDRICH NEO NOIR 'HUSTLE'

Burt Reynolds and Paul Winfield in HUSTLE Year: 1975 Rating: ***

One of those “stick with it” kind of movies, after the success of the universally entertaining THE LONGEST YARD, director Robert Aldrich reunites with Burt Reynolds in a noirish cop melodrama that takes some time to get going...

Reynolds is Phil Gaines, a bitter, world-weary detective (with a monotone seriousness reminiscent of his detective TV-series DAN AUGUST) who, living with a high priced prostitute, doesn’t represent the typical law and order existence. After the dead body of a drugged young girl turns up on the beach, Gaines and his partner, Paul Winfield’s Belgrave, write it off as suicide...

Burt Reynolds in HUSTLE

But a stubborn, unglued war vet father, played by a frantic Ben Johnson as Marty, can’t let go. Overlong scenes where Burt and hooker girlfriend Nicole... played by Catherine Deneuve... involved in tedious bouts of pillow talk (especially the first ten minutes) distract from the real stuff...

Gaines and Belgrave are forced to take the investigation seriously as Marty (the father) sneaks around a local mob-run strip club for answers (foreshadowing George C. Scott in HARDCORE), stalking a seedy high profile lawyer played by YARD villain Eddie Albert...

Burt Reynolds and Paul Winfield in HUSTLE

Action scenes are thrown in when necessary, but beneath the surface is the character-study of a cop discovering the truth of a victim who, having been involved in stripping and hardcore porn, wasn’t so innocent to begin with...

Conversations where Reynolds and Winfield discuss the validity of the case and the futility of life, while delving into pop culture movies and music, are the highlight...

Burt Reynolds in HUSTLE

A clean-shaven Reynolds, like in the previous decade, is fitfully forlorn as a man lost in the noirish haze, and director Robert Aldrich makes even the slower parts interesting except those conversations with Deneuve...

As a love interest, she’s just not interesting. And despite a tacked-on tragic finale, this cop/melodrama feels more like reading than watching – a good thing provided you won’t be able to put this down once it picks up.