Verdict
Summary
A throwback to the old film noir detective movies of the ’40s, but with hard violence, tons of profanity, and sexual themes with nudity and sordid bits revolving around porn and prostitution, Hustle has a biting and cynical commentary on the modern state of the American justice system and offers a fantastic leading role for star Reynolds, who was on the cusp of superstardom.
Plot:
A 20 year-old woman is found dead on a beach, and nobody cares … except her enraged father, whose rage fuels two detectives to help him find out the truth behind her death, which is ruled a suicide.
Review:
A beautiful young woman is found dead and washed up on a beach, and the coroner declares her death an overdose by drugs. Her father (played by Ben Johnson, simmering with rage) is an unstable veteran of the Korean War, and he won’t accept the fact that the two detectives on the case – Phil Gaines (Burt Reynolds) and his partner (played by Paul Winfield) – shrug it off because of the coroner’s report that there was no homicide. When the girl’s father tries investigating on his own, he steps into an underworld where his daughter was dealing with some powerful people, and he gets himself physically and emotionally hurt in the process. Gaines, at the urging of his partner but at the warning of his boss (played by Ernest Borgnine), decides to help the dead girl’s father by getting some answers, and what he finds is disturbing: The girl was a hooker and a porn actress who was in deep in dangerous sex work, which might have gotten her killed, and one of her clients was a high-powered attorney to the mafia. That attorney is also a client to Gaines’ live-in girlfriend, a beautiful call girl (played by Catherine Deneuve), whom he has fixings on marrying, but when his investigation puts him in the crosshairs of figures much bigger and more powerful than even he can handle, fate may tip the balance towards a side that will reveal no heroes, only victims.
A throwback to the old film noir detective movies of the ’40s, but with hard violence, tons of profanity, and sexual themes with nudity and sordid bits revolving around porn and prostitution, Hustle has a biting and cynical commentary on the modern state of the American justice system and offers a fantastic leading role for star Reynolds, who was on the cusp of superstardom. The film is long at 120 minutes, but it takes its time with nicely written and organically developed side characters, offering each one of them nice moments to shine and be recognized. The plot is interesting, the romance is genuine, and the mystery, while ultimately depressing, is still relevant for today’s audiences. The movie has a hard edge, and a bleak denouement, but ultimately it’s a really solid modernized film noir for even the most jaded moviegoer. Watch for future horror icon Robert Englund in a crucial bit role at the end. Robert Aldrich directed.
Kino Lorber’s brand new Blu-ray release of Hustle comes in a nice new HD master from a 4K scan of the negative, and there’s a new audio commentary by two film critics who specialize in filmmaker Adrich’s work.
