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 | beach | suicide | veteran | police | 

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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

Features Moby Dick (1956)

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Soundtracks

A Man and a Woman
by Francis Lai

User Reviews

Switzerland also has that Nazi gold, don't forget.

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...