December Films Update 2

10 more films from earlier this year.

****

1. The Godfather Part II

The Corleone family celebrate Anthony Corleone’s first communion at their compound in Lake Tahoe. In a similar set of scenes to those opening The Godfather, Michael Corleone (Anthony's father), now head of the family, has meetings with people. These include Johnny Ola, who is the lieutenant of Jewish gangster and casino investor, Hyman Roth. They come to an agreement about casinos.

Also there to talk about casinos is senator Frank Geary, officially present to accept a large cheque for a charity. He agrees to give the go-ahead to a gambling license in return for a huge bribe and he insults Michael and his family. Meanwhile there’s trouble in New York. Frank Pentangeli, the man left in charge there when the Corleones went legitimate is being pressed by the Rosato brothers who are under Roth’s protection. Michael doesn’t want trouble, suggests peace talks. We also meet a lot of family members and minor characters who will come and go, giving the texture of the film an expansive and lived in feel.

That night assassins come for Michael. He suspects a traitor. He tells Roth he suspects Pentangeli, and Pentangeli that he suspects Roth. Arranging a meeting between Pentangeli and the Rosatos, they attempt to kill Pentangeli but are interrupted, leading to a gang war. Not all is going badly though; Tom Hagen, Michael’s adopted brother, lawyer and consigliere blackmails Senator Geary to support them.

This is intercut with the early life of Vito Corleone, Michael’s father. In brief; the Andolini family of Corleone get into a feud with mafia boss Don Ciccio. He declares he will kill 9 year old Vito Andolini to prevent him seeking revenge when he grows up; Vito is smuggled to America where he’s processed as Vito Corleone. He grows up in New York’s Little Italy, works hard, gets married and has children. When he loses his job thanks to Don Fanucci the local Black Hand (organised crime) boss, he turns to theft. Don Fanucci demands a cut and Vito negotiates a smaller payment, then kills him. With this reputation everyone wants to do favours for him; he is ruthless to those with money and power, while helping widows, orphans etc. He sets up an olive oil import company, returns to Sicily to seal the deal and takes the opportunity to take revenge on the elderly Don Ciccio. Though his rise to power does not directly reflect on Michael’s actions, the contrast does illuminate some themes.

Back in the 1950s Hyman Roth offers Michael a partnership with investments in Cuba. Michael is dubious though he travels to Cuba; he is concerned that the revolution may succeed. Roth is insulted when Michael asks him who gave the Rosatos permission to attack Pentangeli. At a party Michael’s surviving brother Fredo pretends he does not know Roth’s lieutenant Johnny Ola but gives himself away.

The Cuban revolution succeeds and Michael returns home to be told his wife Kay has miscarried. Worse news, a Senate committee on organised crime is investigating the Corleone family. What with Michael not backing him and apparently not taking revenge, Pentangeli agrees to testify. Fredo admits to Michael that he was talking to Roth, but never expected an assassination; he complains that he is always left out of family business. Michael lets him go, saying that nothing is to happen to him while their mother is alive.

Michael has Pentangeli’s brother come from Sicily for the hearing and Pentangeli retracts his testimony. Kay tells Michael that it wasn’t a miscarriage, it was an abortion, because she can’t stand the world they’re in, Michaels hits her and she leaves with the children. His slow squeeze on Hyman Roth is paying off as he loses money and influence.

Michael and Fredo’s mother dies and Fredo awkwardly embraces him at the funeral. Fredo teaches Anthony to fish on Lake Tahoe. Roth is refused entry to Israel, returns to the United States where he is arrested and assassinated; Pentangeli kills himself; Michael has Anthony taken away, then Fredo killed out on the lake after awkwardly running into Kay. The final scene is from 1941, when Michael decided to join the US Marines at the outbreak of war, with most of his siblings thinking this a bad idea, only Fredo supporting him.

This is a brilliant crime film, showing how Michael’s efforts to balance being a good father and family man while doing right by those who work for him runs into the necessary ruthlessness of being a crime boss. He can’t keep them separate no matter how much he wants to. This is contrasted with Vito, who isn’t brought up in a criminal enterprise; his efforts are to provide for his family, and in turn protect his neighbours. He keeps some of the old-school paternalism that Michael isn’t able to, in part because of the changing nature of crime and business, and in part because he isn’t able to open up – which might cause disaster.

The Corleone crime family is the key part to it, keeping both crime and family in balance in the film. If the film meanders a bit – using the parts of the novel not used in the already 3 hour epic The Godfather, the early life of Vito, the later of Michael – then each sidepath is interesting visually, story wise and character wise in it’s own way.

Watch This: Classic crime family drama
Don’t Watch This: Michael finds himself caught up in betrayal, has to betray in turn

2. The Executioner (1970)

John Shay (George Peppard), a British Intelligence agent who was brought up in the US, narrowly escapes an ambush in Vienna when an operation collapses. He returns to the UK where he is picked up from the airport by his girlfriend Polly (Judy Geeson) who works as a secretary in the Intelligence offices. They go to the country house of Adam (Keith Mitchell) and Sarah Booth (Joan Collins); Adam is also an intelligence agent while Sarah is an ex of Shay. She picked Adam, in part because he has a country house. There he is interviewed by his superiors, including Vaughn Jones (Charles Gray) who dismiss his idea that there is a mole who betrayed him.

Convinced there is a mole he begins his own investigations, getting Polly to bring him files he shouldn’t read. After some chasing of leads he comes to the conclusion that Adam is the mole. He accuses him, laying out the evidence but the tribunal dismisses it, fires Polly, puts him on leave.

Getting a call from the CIA Shay heads out to Turkey where he interviews a Russian defector. He claims that there is indeed a double agent in British intelligence, and the clues all point to Adam. Then he’s killed along with the CIA contact. Shay is dismissed the service for his part in the fiasco.

Soon after he gets a late night call from Phillip Crawford (George Baker) who has caught Booth breaking into his desk. Crawford is a rocket scientist, who is also enamoured of Sarah Booth. Shay takes Booth away, tries to get him to confess, fails and kills him. Finding a ticket to Athens in his pocket Shay takes his place, discovering Adam was taking Sarah. She assumes that he was delayed at the spy office and so is happy to be squired around by Shay until he’s contacted to be taken off to meet the Russian spies who explain what’s been going on and lead to a bloody massacre whose aftermath opened the film.

As a spy film it tries to be grim and gritty and dark, the grinding bureaucracy of paperwork to find the evidence and the hiding in dark corners waiting for people to kill you. And also to be exotic and exciting, with a contrasting pair of glamorous women, travel to bright Mediterranean destinations and clever twist and turns. Do they manage both? Not easily!

Watch This: Dark spy thriller with some clever bits and some good bits
Don’t Watch This: Very grim, can’t quite decide if we’re having fun jet-setting or if we’re sitting in dark London flats reading files and neglecting our girlfriend

3. The Magnificent Seven (2016)

The town of Rose Creek is dominated by mine owner Bartholemew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) who wants the whole valley for his operations. When the townsfolk hold a meeting in the church to discuss this he interrupts with his hired goons, and when challenged burns the church down and kills several people including Mathew Cullen. The Sherrif has been bought and paid for so he then just rides off. Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) Mathew’s widow, and Teddy Q (Luke Grimes) rally the townsfolk, collect money and decide to try and hire bounty hunters to drive Bogue off.

They track down Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington), who is dubious but becomes interested at the mention of Bogue. He picks up gambler Joshua Faraday (Chris Pratt), who briefly intervened when Chisholm was collecting a bounty, by buying his horse. They then go on to pick up some others; Mexican outlaw Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo); washed-up Cajun sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) and his knife-wielding Chinese companion Billy Rocks (Byung Hun-Lee); and overtly religious mountain man Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio). On their way they are tracked and joined by Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeir).

They head to Rose Creek where they defeat twenty two of Bogues goons (“private detectives”) and send the sheriff away. Chisholm announces they have seven days – three for the sheriff to get to Sacramento where Bogue is, one day to gather men* and three for them to come back. Some townsfolk leave in fear but most rally around. They liberate the mine, releasing forced miners and getting the equipment and explosives. They then spend the week training the townsfolk and turning Rose Creek into a trap.

Robicheaux, haunted by his involvement in the Civil War, believes he will die if he kills again, so he leaves. Emma takes his place as sharpshooter on the (wrecked) church tower. Chisholm offers Faraday his horse if he wants to leave, but Faraday decides to stay. So does everyone else, and the scene is set for a final, very long, and bloody battle.

Although some characters are based on those in the 1960 film** they’ve been re-imagined for the 21^st century. Maybe a bit too much, the multi-cultural team is demographically appropriate for the real Old West, but the snappy dialogue, the insistence on a personal motive and everyone’s backstory influencing their present choice to fight in defence of a town makes it a modern action film that happens to be a Western as much as anything else. Sarsgaard as Bogue gives a very fine deranged performance, which is matched by his completely off the wall speech in defence of the prerogatives of capital in the church meeting.

Watch This: Fun action western
Don’t Watch This: The old west with many rough edges sanded off, the need to have every one of the seven have their own thing going on makes them caricatures when the thing turns out to be trivial and an overlong (if true to the inspirations) final fight sequence.

* This seems short, I can believe you can hire the hundred or so guns Bogue gets, either directly or from Pinkertons or whatever in Sacramento in 1879. But gathering them, outfitting them, getting supplies (including a heavy weapon), the timing seems a bit tight. This has been the logistics interlude, we now return you to the regular review.

** Itself very strongly based on 1954’s The Seven Samurai 

4. Alita: Battle Angel

Do I have anything new to say about this film after five years? I enjoyed it a lot, by using ideas from the (enormous) manga it lifts the world, making it feel more coherent, less grab-bag cyberpunk science fiction. Or rather the grab-bag science fiction is a plausible the result of a fallen world, the ruined wreckage of centuries.

It feels almost like an open-world game, as though Alita could have headed off in a different direction. Chosen to go down the cyber-jackers route, or further down the bounty hunter route, instead finding the motorball quests. I don’t know! Still looks good, feels good, has thoughtfulness and intention (the streets are full during the day, empty at night which is something I hadn’t picked up on before). Which is an odd thing to say about an over-the-top violent stylised film about a cyborg warrior reincarnated as a naïve robot girl. Apparently they’ve been trying to make a sequel?  I hope they do, let’s see what more they’ve got.

Watch This: Violently cute cyberpunk thriller that’s just one touch smarter and more interesting than it needs to be
Don’t Watch This: It’s only a touch smarter and doesn’t use it’s best ideas well

5. An Inspector Calls (1954)

It’s 1912, the Birling family are at dinner. Mr Birling, owner of a factory, is hopeful of receiving a knighthood if everything goes well. His daughter Sheila is engaged to Gerald Croft, also present. Mrs Birling complains that Eric, her son, drinks too much.

They are interrupted by Inspector Poole (Alistair Sim). He’s investigating the suicide of a young woman. At first the family think this has nothing to do with them. However when he mentioned events from her diary it becomes clear they have all crossed paths with her.

Eva Smith, as she was known, worked in the Birling factory and was part of a delegation of women who asked for an increase in pay from 22/6 to 25/- a week. Birling refused and when Eva argued with him he had her fired to discourage any such talk.

She went on to work at Milwards department store. There Sheila, annoyed with her mother who keeps choosing things for her, deliberately tries an unsuitable hat. Seeing Eva smiling and jealous of her looks she takes out her anger on her, complains, and gets her fired.

Inspector Poole then tells them that she changed her name to Daisy Renton. Gerald suddenly realises that he also knew her; he admits to having picked her up in the bar at the theatre, and discovering she’s homeless lets her stay in his town flat. They have an affair, but eventually, with his engagement, she realises he’s going to break it off and does so first.

Then Inspector Poole tackles Mrs Birling. He asks her about a woman who came to her charity committee for help. She takes against her because she claims her name is Birling, which the woman (Daisy Birling) claims is because she used to work there. She explains she’s pregnant and the father can’t help her. Mrs Birling turns her down, in part because she will not name the man. Mrs Birling declares the man should be punished, shamed etc.

The young man is of course Eric who met her on the tram. He tried to get money for her, first by asking his father for a raise, then by collecting small debts for the company. When Eva discovers the money is stolen she turns it down. Eric, of course, turns even more to drink.

Gerald, having broken off his engagement, decides to walk home and meets a policeman. Asking him about Inspector Poole he discovers there’s no such officer in the local force. Returning to the house they realise that the Inspector only showed them photographs one at a time; this with the name-changing suggests it could be a hoax. With no evidence they can turn the situation around and avoid scandal. They call the infirmary to learn no young woman has been brought in, attempt to confront the Inspector only to discover that he has vanished from a room with no exit. Then the phone rings again to say that a young woman has died and they are sending an inspector around.

Based on a play, this is something of a critique of people who think themselves moral, it also shows how small cruelties and faults can add up to something terrible. And of course, a bit of class commentary and a weird mystery inspector – is there some divine judgement?

Watch This: Short, clever, twisty mystery
Don’t Watch This: Rather silly, requires coincidence, unwed mothers are not that shocking any more

6. The Mummy Returns

In 3076 BC the Scorpion King attempted to conquer the world; failing and exiled to the desert he called on Anubis for assistance offering his soul in exchange. Anubis granted his wish, creating the oasis of Ahm Shere, a golden pyramid and an unstoppable force of jackal-headed soldiers to conquer Egypt. Bargain completed, Anubis took the Scorpion King’s soul, and took him and his army to the underworld.

Five thousand years later (and seven years after the end of The Mummy) Rick and Evelyn O’Connell, with their young son Alex explore old tombs. Alex has inherited his father’s audacity, and his mother’s clumsiness; they escape the tomb with some treasures. Back in London events swiftly get out of control. Alex puts on the bracelet of Anubis, which gives him visions of how to find Ahm Shere. A cult who want to conquer the world kidnap Evelyn, intending to resurrect Imhotep (the titular mummy from The Mummy), then find Ahm Shere, bring the Scorpion King back to life, have Imhotep defeat him and then have control of his invincible jackal-headed army. In their house is Evelyn’s brother Jonathan who was using it as a love nest; he gets hold of a golden sceptre. Arriving in the house to belatedly to warn them of the cult is Ardeth Bey, leader of the Medjal. (See The Mummy for more about these characters.)

Evelyn is rescued but they lose Alex when the cult realise he has the bracelet. They have seven days to get him to Ahm Shere before the Scorpion King takes his soul. Imhotep, resurrected, restores the soul of his lover Anck-Su-Namun to the cult member who is her physical reincarnation. For inexplicable reasons this unlocks Evelyn’s memories of a past life when as Princess Neferit she had control of the bracelet. Both teams head for Egypt, Alex leaving clues to allow them to follow.

In an effort to catch up Alex contacts Izzy, an old friend, who takes them in his airship. Imhotep uses magic to try and knock them from the air with a flood in a canyon; they escape down the secret side route that leads to Ahm Shere. There in the jungle they make their way to the golden pyramid for the complex three-sided final confrontation.

A fun exciting incident-filled adventure film. Not without flaws – if you try to follow the plot or lore from scene to scene it’s quite confusing, the young boy is not a great character and the CGI, groundbreaking and ambitious for the time, isn’t good.

Watch This: Solid enjoyable supernatural adventure sequel
Don’t Watch This: The Scorpion King stuff makes somehow even less sense than the Mummy stuff

7. The Drum (1938)

On the Northwest Frontier of British India there’s unrest. The British Governor signs a treaty with the ruler of Tokot, a princedom that controls a major route into the region; he wants peace and for the British to guarantee the succession of his son Prince Azim (Sabu). Azim befriends Captain Carruthers of the diplomatic party, and also the drummer boy Bill of the escorting Highland troops. (There’s a good ongoing bit where the sergeant tells the troops to behave, and asks one particular soldier by name to agree).

Captain Carruthers returns to Peshawar where he gets married to Mrs Carruthers (Valerie Hobson). Unfortunately peace on the frontier has not been guaranteed; Prince Ghul (Raymond Massey, one of several actors who black up in this film) is plotting not only to take the throne from his brother, but also to overthrow the British. He murders the king, takes command. However Prince Azim escapes to Peshawar, where he encounters Mrs Carruthers while looking for her husband, but then goes back into hiding.

Ghul claims he wants to continue with the treaty and Carruthers is appointed to negotiate and be the British resident, taking a company of the troops with him. This is a trap, and the British are suspicious, but resolve to go anyway, Mrs Carruthers joining him. Ghul holds a great festival and intends to massacre the British on the last day of it. Azim learns about this, warns the Peshawar authorities who don’t believe him, but later get confirmation and send a relief column. Azim returns to Tokot to warn the Carruthers, using the enormous sacred drum of Tokot and the drum calls Bill taught him. There’s a lot of fighting, the British manage to get control of the arsenal of smuggled guns and defeat Ghul, putting Azim on the throne.

This is unreconstructed British Imperial fiction, the British acting in good faith to keep the peace, the Indians (Afghans?) a mixed bunch. Without the propaganda there’s some good action scenes with lots of extras, that unfortunately don’t well match the indoor, studio shot bits. We might, of course, attempt to dismiss the opinions of the film by noting they were of their time; on the other hand when it opened in India there were complaints and demonstrations.

Watch This: Old-fashioned adventure film with some good action, a couple of fun scenes
Don’t Watch This: They only managed to find one Indian actor which reflects the breadth of vision of the film

8. Play Dirty (1969)

In Egypt in World War 2, Colonel Masters has a special raiding unit made up of convicted criminals. Despite several failures his connections with the desert tribes has located a fuel depot. Brigadier Blore insists a regular officer lead an attack, preferably one who knows about fuel, so they locate Captain Douglas (Michael Caine) on secondment from British Petroleum to oversee fuel supplies and send him over. Thinking the attack likely to fail, Blore sends a larger raiding party from a more regular unit* a day behind, intending that Masters force trip over any traps or problems.

The raiding party, led by Captain Leech (Nigel Davenport) disguise themselves as an Italian Army Patrol (they change the music they listen to when they change disguises, a neat way of telling us what’s going on while conceivably being diegetic to remind them). The party mostly ignore Douglas’s orders. One of them is injured trying to rob corpses; when they capture a female German nurse** and make her care for him, some of the men try to rape her until they’re stopped.

Discovering an ambush they go around only to see the following raiding party fall into it. The desert is also a problem, and when they try to go up a slope they lose a vehicle due to the men ignoring Douglas’s orders. Eventually they get to the fuel depot to discover it’s a decoy.

Meanwhile back at headquarters the British have turned things around and are on the offensive. They want to capture the fuel depot intact. Blore forces Masters to leak information about the raiding party (out of contact with HQ) to the Germans. Leech and his men decide to give up and head for the coast to find a boat to escape; however when they arrive at the port they find the fuel depot – only for that to be a trap, and also under attack by the British.

A dark, gritty, lurid film about the horrors of war, that also makes it all seem pretty cool. The efforts of the party – villains all, plucked from prison – to survive in the desert and even fight their enemies when they have to, that’s all good stuff. It piles betrayal on betrayal, and in the end farcical tragedy.

Watch This: Gritty desert war film
Don’t Watch This: Horrid people do a lot of horrid things while hanging out in the desert

* They’re smart, well equipped, their vehicles in good condition and uniform (two sorts, big trucks and smaller jeeps)

** This scene made me think that this is in conversation with Ice Cold in Alex, as a German officer in that film says his army doesn’t bring women onto the battlefield

9. The Room Next Door

Ingrid (Julianne Moore) is at the signing for her latest book, about death and her fear of it, when she meets an old friend. Reminiscing, she learns that a mutual friend, Martha (Tilda Swinton), who she worked with at a magazine, is in hospital with cancer. She goes to see her. Martha, aware of her mortality, tells Ingrid about her life, fleshing out the parts that previously she had left unsaid.

In college in the 1970s she met Fred and became pregnant. Fred went to fight in the Vietnam War, came back with PTSD. He left Martha and her daughter Michelle, for reasons that seemed inadequate to Martha, and so inexplicable to Michelle. Reaching out to Fred’s second wife she discovers Fred is dead, having heard voices in a burning house and going in to save them, though it turns out no one was in there. Michelle and Martha have become estranged.

Suffering a relapse and slowly having to up the pain medication, Martha confesses to Ingrid that she has bought an (illegal) euthanasia pill. With no family or other friends she can trust she asks Ingrid to join her, so that when the time comes she won’t be totally alone, as there will be a friend in the room next door.

Martha eventually agrees and Ingrid rents a house upstate. Martha in fact takes a room downstairs rather than next door. They agree a signal which will be that Ingrid will leave her door open (she’s quite sick so Martha helps her with things) unless she has taken the pill, in which case she will close the door.

Ingrid meets Damien, a writer, former colleague and former lover of both Ingrid and Martha who is lecturing nearby. She confesses Martha’s plan and he contacts a lawyer, knowing that things could get tricky. One day Ingrid wakes up to discover the door is shut, but it turns out Martha is still alive and a draught closed it.

Finally Ingrid comes home from a meeting with Damien to find the door shut and Martha outside on a lounger. She has left a final note, thanking Ingrid and asking her to contact Michelle (also played by Tilda Swinton). The police interrogate Ingrid, clearly suspicious that Ingrid was involved. However Damien and the lawyer extricate her, various suspicious events (Martha left the pill behind so they had to return, a mutual friend who had refused Martha tells the police she had been approached etc) coming to nothing. Ingrid invites Michelle to come to the house for an enigmatic ending.

The film gestures at external drama, at consequences for Ingrid, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about Martha coming to terms with her life, and Ingrid with her death. Martha was a war correspondent, a serious writer, yet as she loses her concentration it’s her regrets as wife, mother and friend she grasps for. But even this isn’t quite the heart of it. I think it’s not so much about saying goodbye and exploring what dying feels like. Martha starts fairly resigned, thinks herself hard-headed and pragmatic. Yet when she goes into remission she allows herself to hope, only to have that dashed. She’s an extraordinary woman in her life and career, and she finds it frustrating that she’s reacting just like everyone else, grasping at hope, depressed by failure. And even now when she’s taking control of her own death, she finds she can’t do it alone, she needs someone else’s support.

Watch This: Gently compelling film about facing up to death and regrets
Don’t Watch This: Two women spend a lot of time reminiscing and coming to terms with the inevitable

10. The Long Goodbye (1973)

Legendary Private Eye Phillip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) leaves his hilltop apartment in the middle of the night to buy cat food; returning he meets his friend Terry Lennox. Terry has been scratched, asks for a favour. Marlowe takes him down to the Mexican border and leaves him there.

Marlowe is arrested by the police who tell him Terry killed his wife and charge him with being an accessory. After three days they release him, and he learns that the Mexican authorities have found Terry dead, of suicide, with a note admitting to murder. Marlowe doesn’t find any of this convincing but can’t do anything about it.

Marlowe’s contacted by Eileen Wade who hires him to find her husband Roger Wade, who has gone missing. He discovers they were neighbours of the Lennoxes in Malibu, a curious coincidence that helps convince him to take the case. Roger, a loud, macho, self-destructive alcoholic novelist who has lost his ability to write, is tracked down to a rehab clinic where Dr Verringer is trying to get him to pay a large fee. Marlowe extracts Roger and takes him home.

Marty Augustine, a crime boss, forces his way into Marlowe’s apartment with his henchmen and demands the $355,000 Lennox was supposed to be taking to Mexico City before dying. Marlowe protests he knows nothing, following which Augustine stabs his own mistress in the face with a broken bottle to prove how serious (and unhinged) he is. Marlowe follows Augustine, and he goes to the Wade house and has an argument with Eileen. Marlowe starts to think the two cases are connected.

Marlowe goes back to the Wades where Roger claims Augustine owes him a lot of money; Eileen says it’s the other way round. Marlowe goes to Mexico and talks to the authorities who repeat the story he’s heard. He goes back to confront the Wades to find a party is going on; it is interrupted by Dr Verringer who demands his money. Humiliated, Roger pays up, and ends the party. Eileen asks Marlowe to stay, in case something bad happens. While they’re talking Roger walks into the sea and, Marlowe unable to find him in the dark, he drowns.

Marlowe confronts Eileen with his theory; Roger was having an affair with Terry’s wife, killed her to cover it up, paid Dr Verringer for an alibi. Terry is actually alive, with Augstine’s money, in Mexico, and wants Marlowe to uncover the truth. Marlowe gets a letter from Terry saying thank you and goodbye with a $5,000 bill in it Marlowe is picked up Augustine and threatened when they find the $5,000. At the last minute the money is returned and Augustine lets him keep the $5,000. Marlowe returns to Mexico, bribes the authorities with the $5,000 bill and confronts Terry.

Based on the Raymond Chandler novel, this film maintains the noir heart of chaos and mystery and violence emerging from the characters trying to get ahead or taking advantage of a situation they’re in. It also highlights the absurdity; Marlowe’s neighbours are scantily clad young women who are always partying or posing or meditating. The final confrontation with Augustine has Augustine stripping off and having all his henchmen joining in because he’s going to strip Marlowe, possibly prior to cutting off his genitals. Marlowe tells the henchman who’s been set to tail him where he’s going. The gate guard at the community the Wades and Lennoxes live at does impressions. When Marlowe is arrested they don’t let him wash his hands from fingerprinting before hauling him to the interrogation room, where he starts using his blackened fingers first to put on stripes, then to black his face; he and the policeman exchange homosexual slurs. The whole things is off-kilter and Marlowe accepts it willingly or unwillingly.

Watch This: Grimy, stylish 70s mystery
Don’t Watch This: Complex, confusing, violent with a frankly unpleasant ending