Hustle (1975)

This is a really lousy movie. Somewhere buried in endless blather about life, love and hopping the next plane for Rome, there's a murder mystery involving a young girl whose body turns up on a strip of beach. The case is handled by Burt Reynolds, a Los Angeles detective whose amorata is French prostitute Catherine Deneuve. Most of his time is spent yakking with the victim's father, compulsive redneck Ben Johnson. Involved somehow is Eddie Albert as a Los Angeles politico who has arranged for a union headquarters in Ohio to be blown up for no discernible reason. By the time the talkathon ends, much of the cast has been rubbed out, largely to satisfy the production code of 1975. Yes, Deneuve is gorgeous and Reynolds wanders through the gabfest as if it actually made sense. But the real mystery here is how Steve Shagan's script went before the cameras without a slew of rewrites.

Coming off their career high hit "The Longest Yard" Reynolds and Aldrich tried a highly stylized LA thriller. That was all She wrote for Roburt" productions. Even at a very young age I took a look at the reviews this film got and wassurprised how easy the critics went on it. Mostly it was ignored and allowed to die. Aldrich has done good work ("Flight of The Phenix" is among my favorite movies) but he is so out of his element trying to be stylish here. His efforts come off asa tasteless slob trying to be classy. Steve Shagen was slightly hot at the time, with his turgid "Save The Tiger" beingtaken seriously in some quarters. But Aldrich should have known this script neededsome serious work or better yet, should have been thrown out all together. The Dirty Harry/Death Wish element ( A double murderer somehow is let outout of jail for good behavior, you know, just like real life) is perhaps the worstbit of audience pandering. Then there is a consenting adults rape that probably wouldn't go over today. Visually ugly, terribly edited ( a sign of desperation and bad audience testing, the film still has a train wreck sort of quality, we all becomebad cinema lookie lous. A great partnership of Burt and Bob was notto be. Also, when something this cynical is this unconvincing, the resultis oddly upbeat.

Having collaborated on "The Longest Yard", director Robert Aldrich cast Burt Reynolds and Eddie Albert again in the enigmatic "Hustle". Reynolds plays LA cop Phil Gaines. He and his wife have basically no relationship, so Phil lives with call girl Nicole Britton (Catherine Deneuve). When a young woman gets found dead on the beach one day, Phil and his colleague Louis Belgrave (Paul Winfield) get hired to investigate. They conclude that she died of a self-induced drug overdose. But they don't tell her parents (Ben Johnson and Eileen Brennan) that there were massive amounts of semen in all three orifices of the woman's body, and that the woman was a stripper in a nightclub. The father is convinced that this was not a suicide, and is determined to investigate on his own if necessary.I have to say that the movie has a rather convoluted plot: the number of characters - and the question of each character's relationship to each other - makes the whole thing hard to follow at times. As it is, following the revelation of the body at the beginning, the movie sort of throws Phil into the story from right out of the blue. It seems that mostly, the movie functions as a look at the underbelly of 1970s LA, including a hostage situation in one scene. And, if all else fails, there's always something sexy for Catherine Deneuve to do (namely the part about what Switzerland has). A surprise appearance - although they do credit him - is Ernest Borgnine as Phil and Louis's superior; he's the only character who seems as if he's about to have a seizure or something.Overall, I think that the movie is seeing, if only once. While it is true that the movie progresses pretty slowly, I actually would assert that that adds some realism: not every detective/action story has to be a series of explosions and mayhem.All in all, a worthwhile movie. BTW, did you notice who the hold up man at the end is? It's Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. And I wonder if David Spielberg is related to Steven Spielberg.Sammy Davis Jr. hugging Nixon...

Does anyone know the name of the opera piece that Burt plays while sitting in his car ? I haven't seen the movie in a long time but I remember thinking Burt did a good job and Eddie Albert was great . It was such an unusual part for Mr. Albert to play . Catherine Deneuve was nice to look at but she was cold . I have to get a copy and watch this again . The scene in Burts car really sticks in my mind . I can hear the music and I think Burt mentions the title but I have forgotten it . I thought Burt was believable in this role . Guess you can tell I'm treading water just trying to fill up the required ten lines . I really am only interested in the name of that song .