Hustle (1975)

At the instigation of a grieving father, a Los Angeles cop investigates the suspicious circumstances of a girl's apparent suicide.

Director:

Robert Aldrich

Writer:

Steve Shagan

Stars:

Burt Reynolds, Catherine Deneuve, Ben Johnson

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Burt Reynolds	...	Lt. Phil Gaines
Catherine Deneuve	...	Nicole Britton
Ben Johnson	...	Marty Hollinger
Paul Winfield	...	Sgt. Louis Belgrave
Eileen Brennan	...	Paula Hollinger
Eddie Albert	...	Leo Sellers
Ernest Borgnine	...	Santoro
Catherine Bach	...	Peggy Summers
Jack Carter	...	Herbie Dalitz
James Hampton	...	Bus Driver
Colleen Brennan	...	Gloria Hollinger (as Sharon Kelly)
Chuck Hayward	...	Morgue Attendant
David Estridge	...	Albino
Peter Brandon	...	Minister
David Spielberg	...	Jerry Bellamy

Storyline

Phil Gaines is a bitter, cynical cop who investigates the case of a dead stripper/porno actress found on the beach. Gaines is experiencing a troubled relationship with a hooker, and things don't get any better when the dead girl's father launches his own investigation.

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Plot Keywords:

blowing out a candle | false evidence | beach | suicide | veteran | 

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Taglines:

She's the call girl. He's the cop. They both take their jobs seriously.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 December 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

All the Other Angels

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum - 3911 S. Figueroa Street, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,050,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures,Churchill Service Company,RoBurt

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono Mono (Glen Glenn Sound)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie that Burt Reynolds and Catherine Deneuve got to see, was the French film A Man and a Woman (1966). "Time Out" called this movie a "Remarkable contemporary film noir. Aldrich provides Reynolds and Deneuve with the ultimate tinsel role model of Lelouch's A Man and a Woman (1966)." Deneuve, at the time that this movie was made, had not worked with Claude Lelouch, the director of that French film. However, the two soon got to work together after this film on Si c'était à refaire (1976), and later again on À nous deux (1979).

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Quotes

Lt. Phil Gaines: Don't you know where you live, Marty? Can't you smell the bananas? You know what country you live in? You live in Guatamala with color television.

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Connections

Referenced in Starsky and Hutch: Omaha Tiger (1976)

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Soundtracks

So Rare
Lyric by Jack Sharpe
Music by Jerry Herst

User Reviews

"Yesterday When I Was Young"

Burt Reynolds plays Phil Gaines, a middle-aged California cop plagued by a midlife crisis. His wife is seeing someone else, and he's in love with Nicole (lovely Catherine Deneuve), a prostitute. His job as cop entails endless frustrations not only with criminals but also with victim relatives, two of whom are Marty Hollinger (Ben Johnson) and Marty's wife Paula (Eileen Brennan), whose daughter was found dead on the beach. And the case is Phil's to investigate.

Some viewers will object to the film's admittedly slow pace. And the film does have a problem, but I don't think it's the pace. I think the problem here is that the script doesn't give us enough reason to care about Phil Gaines and his life as a cop. That he dates a prostitute does not help. There's also insufficient back-story about him. Except for his love life, we really don't get to know him very well, certainly not well enough to foreshadow the film's implausible double climax.

Perhaps the script's biggest flaw, however, is its lack of focus. Too much screen time is given to the Marty Hollinger character and his silly efforts to solve the case of his daughter's death, on his own. Whose story is this: Phil Gaines' or Marty Hollinger's?

But "Hustle" is not a bad movie, really it isn't. The casting and acting are fine. I thought Eileen Brennan especially gave a memorable performance. The film's production design is good. And color cinematography is terrific. I really liked those outdoor scenes on the deck where Phil and Nicole chat about life and love, with "Yesterday When I Was Young" playing in the background. Such scenes convey a melancholy, nostalgic mood, consistent with Phil's midlife crisis.

Although the screenplay is flawed, "Hustle" is still worth watching at least once, for the underlying character study of a cop in midlife crisis, for the fine acting, and for the film's excellent cinematography and production values.