Trailer—Hustle

Hustle

Alternate and original title (all comments from 28 year old memory) City of Angels. I saw this movie while on 3-4 hour break from college classes in lower Manhattan. Burt plays Burt. His character is a little too worldly to be believable, yet I love this picture. Deneuve is hot and Burt daydreams about retiring to Italy with her where they can open a liquor store. Burt keeps saying "Bingo" every few minutes. He had to be cheating. Seriously, the film is serious product placement for Bushmill's Irish Whiskey. After watching the flick I went out and got bombed on the stuff. Wound up Millstoned for 28 years. Recently got released. Has Burt made a good movie since I was in?

I have to agree with the reviewer who gave it an 8. I give it a 10. I caught this movie randomly channel surfing; on The Retro Movie channel. The listing gave it two stars; and I have to say it deserves a 4 stars out of 4 stars. I also, can't believe Comcast; or whoever rated the movie gave it two stars. It is Just a very intelligent movie; that works on many levels. It is a sophisticated movie; and that might have something to do with it getting such a low rating from a general American audience? I can see that in Europe it would have been appreciated more; for obvious reasons. There is a scene where the protagonist and girlfriend are in a cinema; watching "A Man an A Woman"; which is a French Film by the esteemed; French New Wave Director; Francois Truffaut; this right there is a good example of why an American audience would not appreciate this film; for what it is? A great film.

Great cast at the mercy of a pitiful script involving an unhappy Los Angeles cop, living with a call-girl, dreaming of a life far away from the city noise and squalor; sub-plot about a young woman's murder/suicide is just fatuous padding, and Burt Reynolds spends most of his time staring off into space (perhaps dreaming of another existence himself) or smirking into the camera. A real bummer, wasting the talents of lovely Catherine Deneuve, miscast as the prostitute. One thing you can say, it's aptly titled: the screenplay itself is pure hustle, parlaying 1940s clichés and characters into a "modern-day" scenario which bears no resemblance to reality. Supporting players Ben Johnson, Eddie Albert, Eileen Brennan, Paul Winfield and Ernest Borgnine struggle with thankless parts. * from ****

Burt Reynolds is an LA police lieutenant. Paul Winfield is his partner. Catherine Deneuve is his call girl girlfriend. Ben Johnson is a little guy whose daughter just killed herself and he won't accept it. Robert Aldrich directed this portrait of the ugly life of a cop in an ugly city shot in ugly browns by Joseph Biroc. Surely beautiful people like Reynolds and Deneuve deserve better! Aldrich had a propensity for directing movies about skirting the seamy side of life, but given the DIRTY HARRY movies' success, as well as the sort of 'private justice' modern-dress cop films John Wayne was making in the 1970s, this is a relatively restrained story, of people who skirt the borders between resignation and defiance. It's all very well done, but unappealing.

Hustle is a terrific film with a a really nice performance by the always under used (the late great) Paul Winfield, he and Burt Reynolds work well together and Eddie Albert is scary as the low life "leo sellers". the stunt the one reviewer is talking about re: albino actor falling from high rise while blasting his pistol into camera is the late great, Dar Robinson from Reynolds' other film, "stick" in the early eighties. i'm glad this is on DVD now and finally a Reinold's' film that is letter boxed. i hope they can re-do the other films IE: "white lightning", "gator" and "shamus" in letterbox form especially "gator" cause it was shot in Todd A-O scope.

Nope, the movie with that amazing stunt mentioned above is "Stick", not "Hustle". "Hustle" is a nice little film, though - a fairly predictable TV cop movie plot, lifted well above the ordinary by some intelligent well-written dialogue and a nice, world-weary performance by Burt Reynolds (honest!). Around the same time, the director also made "Ulzana's Raid" and "Twilight's Last Gleaming", both of which are deeply critical of the Establishment. True to form, in "Hustle", Reynolds' cynical detective takes some savage swipes at American society. Best line - "Can't you smell the bananas? We're living in f*cking Guatemala. With colour televisions." (The screenwriter also wrote "Save The Tiger" - with a very similar moral). Well worth watching on late-night telly - NOT worth watching for Catherine Deneuve, who's remarkably wooden in English.

Great, underrated film noir, expertly written, master class of the genre. Begs to be rediscovered. If you are a purist of noir, then this is a gift to you, courtesy of Aldrich. There is so much more to Burt Reynolds than people give him credit, and he proves it here. I may be alone in this, but i got the impression the film was lit for black and white and comes off badly in colour - the contrast is too extreme, and ultimately works against the film. Curiously, when i tuned it to b/w it looked incredible - as moody and mean as Aldrich would would have intended. And Deneuve isn't as bad as the critics made out. if you love noir and have a problem with this film, i can't begin to understand why.