Latest / The Cinematic Flashback Podcast / Night Moves (1975): Gene Hackman Can’t See the Whole Board in Arthur Penn’s Neo-Noir

Transcript

Night Moves (1975): Gene Hackman Can’t See the Whole Board in Arthur Penn’s Neo-Noir · The Cinematic Flashback Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You beating yourself?
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: That's a position from a game played in 1922. Can
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: you play?
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: I know the moves.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Black had a mate. He didn't see it. Queen sacrifice.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: And three little knight moves. Check. Check. Check.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's nice.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: But he didn't see it.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: He played something else and he lost. Must have regretted
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: it every day of his life. I know I would have.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Matter of fact, I do regret it. I wasn't even
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: born yet.
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: Welcome to the Cinematic Flashback Podcast. Get ready to hop
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: into the Wayback Machine as we journey through the wild, bold,
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: and unforgettable films of the 1970s. Each episode, we break
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: down a classic movie or forgotten gem, seeing how it
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: performed then and now, and wrapping things up by asking,
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: did it groove through the decades or did it lose
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: its beat? I am your host, Chuck Bryan, and today...
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: We are reviewing Arthur Penn's 1975 film Night Moves, starring
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warner, and Melanie Griffith. Joining me as
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: always is my pal and co-conspirator, Matt Sargent. Matt, how
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: are you doing?
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: Chuck, I am well. Just getting done with a very
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: large party at our house for my daughter's birthday. I
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: cooked some pork barbecue and a couple of briskets.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: Where was my invite?
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: You should have been. It seemed like everybody came. We
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: had about 60 people in the backyard.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: Rented a tent. I mean, it was a big day.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: Nice.
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: It all came out pretty good, the food. I cooked
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: the proteins, but we bought our sides and stuff from
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: a place near us called Pungo Boys Barbecue.
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: Oh, Pungo Boys is amazing. excellent. Yeah, they're very good.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: If you are in the Hampton Roads area, you need
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: to go to Pungo Boys.
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, if you're staying in Sandbridge or something like that,
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: definitely go out and grab some stuff from Pungo Boys.
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: I can't say enough. They're only open Wednesday through Sunday.
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: So be aware if it's Monday or Tuesday, you're out
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: of luck. We got some really excellent coleslaws. And then
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: we also got this mac and cheese, which was amazing.
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: So anyway, we had a lot of fun with that.
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: Everybody had a really good time. It was It was hot,
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: but not too hot.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: So it was fun. So I also want to report
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: that I have been invited to a book club.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Uh-oh.
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: Have they heard this show yet? I was like, OK,
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: I'll be in the book club. But they invited me
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: to the book club. It's from the party. It actually
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: happened at the party. They decided they're going to do this.
• 2:42
  Speaker 5: And I was going to say it's my first book club.
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: It's really not. My wife and I belong to like
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: a couple's book club before.
• 2:49
  Speaker 6: OK.
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: We got out of that because these people in this
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: book club really started to focus on self-help books.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, OK.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: And I'm not saying I don't need self-help, but I'm
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: not really a fan of detailing how the book impacted
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: me to a group of strangers. To me, it was
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: too much like some sort of Kmart brand group therapy.
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: So we were out.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: Dude, I would be there with popcorn to hear you
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: give some of your opinions on those books.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: But the one we're reading now is Lonesome Dove, and
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: that's quite a book. That's a thick book.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: That is a thick book. Anyway. Well, hey, look. This month,
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: we're talking about two neo-noir films. These are just a
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: classic detective stories that have been given a distinctly 70s twist.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: We talked about neo-noir in season one with Chinatown. Right.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: I have to admit that Chinatown was one of my
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: two favorite movies that we covered. The other one being
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: McCabe and Mrs. Miller by Robert Altman, who is famous
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: for taking a genre that is traditional and reimagining it
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: for the 70s. So if you remember in McCabe and Mrs. Miller,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: he moved the Western from the dusty Southwest to the
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: rainy Pacific Northwest. Yeah. What the two films that we're
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: going to look at this month is going to ask is,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: what happens when you take someone like a Sam Spade
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: or Philip Marlowe and drop them into the 1970s? In
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: most of these types of film noir, they always have
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: a detective who has been hired to solve a case,
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: but really there's always a bigger question, which is, What's
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: really going on here? And if you remember in Chinatown,
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: Jake was originally hired to find a missing man, but
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: it turned out to be about power and corruption.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: One of the hallmarks of new Hollywood cinema, especially in
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: the early 70s, sometimes these movies would not give you answers.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: They wouldn't resolve it, say, like a film from the
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: 50s or the 40s. They would just tell you, forget it, Jake,
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: it's Chinatown, and then roll the credits and pull out.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown.
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: This month, we are exploring Harry Mosby in Night Moves,
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: and then we're going to get Robert Altman's take on
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: on Philip Marlowe himself, played by Elliot Gould, in The
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: Long Goodbye. I was excited for these films because, believe
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: it or not, I had never seen either one of them.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: I guess I was right there along with the other
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: people who missed Night Moves, and I'm not sure what
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: happened to me about The Long Goodbye, why I missed it.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: After watching Night Moves, obviously, you know, Gene Hackman, just
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: off the hook. We're going to get into him real fast.
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: This is the Gene Hackman fan club. Every other movie
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: is a Gene Hackman film. Well, I mean, when you
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: talk about the 70s, you can't leave him out of
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: the conversation. I only knew Gene Hackman really from Superman
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: as Lex Luthor.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: When I was six years old, my father said to me,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Get out. Before that. He said, son, stocks may rise
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: and fall. Utilities and transportation systems may collapse. People are
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: no damn good. But they will always need land, and
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: they'll pay through the nose to get it.
• 6:16
  Speaker 7: Remember, my father said, land.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: I'm really surprised that he was Lex Luthor. I think
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: there's a little bit of pay in the bills on
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: a couple of those, although bring somebody into that kind
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: of film, whether they mean to or not, they're going
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: to make it different. I think the issue with Gene
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: Hackman is he can't stop being Gene Hackman, and he's
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: going to bring that depth and that gravitas, I guess
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: is a great word. But I really have gained a
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: new respect for him in seeing these films.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: Matt, who is talking to us this week?
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: We have a comment that was left on our Facebook
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: page by James Buckley. He was responding to our White
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: Line Fever episode, and I quote, I don't think I
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: have ever intentionally seen this one. That said, I do
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: remember the CB my dad had in his Jeep and
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: how he and my uncle would use it to coordinate
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: family trips. The next year, however, I do remember going
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: to the drive-in with my parents to see the horror
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: film Shadow of the Hawk. which starred Jan Michael Vincent
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: and creeped out six-year-old me to a high degree. Another
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: fun episode, guys. I love the Dick Miller shout-out. His
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: quirky shop owner roles will always be favorite scenes from
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: The Howling and The Terminator. Well, that was really nice, James.
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: And just for you, I'm going to give you a
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: flashback thank you. Are you ready? Breaker19Breaker19, you got your
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: ears on Jim James? Come on back for the flashback.
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: I got a message for you. We hear you five
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: by five and five miles wide. Good luck, good buddy,
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: and thanks for giving us a holler. Flashback signing off.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: Matt, I never know what you're going to say. I
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: think I underestimated the nostalgia factor that listeners had with
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: CB culture. So I'm glad we had a whole month
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: to explore that. Yeah, I agree.
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: There must be a deep seated need for humans to communicate.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: I agree with that.
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: We're trying to scratch that itch with the cinematic flashback podcast.
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: All right, Chuck, you've been doing the homework. What did
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: you find out? How did night moves happen?
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: So, Matt, it all starts with Scottish writer Alan Sharp.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: Instead of adapting one of the great literary detectives, Harry
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: Mosby was completely Alan Sharp's creation.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Where were you when Kennedy got shot?
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Which Kennedy?
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Annie Kennedy.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Why do you ask?
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: It's one of those questions everybody always knows the answer to.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: Penn described the characters of Night Moves as the mourners
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: of the Kennedy generation. This is an America that is
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: dealing with the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, his brother Bobby,
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: and MLK. And I think that's what he saw in
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: Sharp's screenplay. It wasn't simply another detective story. It was
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: an opportunity to tell about the people living in 1970s America.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: Warner Brothers paired Penn with Gene Hackman. Hackman had already
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: established himself through films like The French Connection, Scarecrow, and
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: The Conversation. Bruce Surtees handled the cinematography, Dee Dee Allen
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: edited the film, and Michael Small composed the score. Production
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: took place in California and the Florida Keys, giving Night
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: Moves a visual identity that distinguished it from the detective
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: films audiences had grown up watching. When Night Moves was
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: released in the summer of 1975, critics generally admired it,
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: although audiences were slower to embrace it. its reputation grew
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: steadily over the years, and today it's widely considered one
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: of the greatest neo-noirs of the 1970s. And Matt, that
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: is how... Night Moves happened. It was a remarkable screenplay,
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: a visionary director, a phenomenal cast and crew, and most importantly,
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: the right moment in American history for a film like
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: this to be made.
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: Yeah, when you watch it, you certainly see that convergence
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: of that amazing talent. And it's cool to hear about
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: the behind-the-camera people, which I find very interesting.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
• 10:25
  Speaker 7: It's a cinematic flashback. Let the show begin. It's a
• 10:32
  Speaker 7: cinematic flashback. Let the show begin.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: I think Harry would like me to leave.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: I don't think that's necessary.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I think Harry thinks it is.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Harry thinks if you call him Harry one more time,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: he's going to make you eat that cat. Gene Hackman
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: is Harry Mosby.
• 11:02
  Speaker 8: Hello, Harry.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: In Night Moves.
• 11:04
  Speaker 7: Oh, come on, take a swing at me, Harry, the
• 11:06
  Speaker 7: way Sam Spade would.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: He's a private investigator.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: My daughter, Deli. Would you believe Delilah? Well, she's gone.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: How long gone? Two weeks. Go find her. Making a living. Well,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: let's say 125 a day in legitimate expenses. From other
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: people's lives.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: You can get cheaper.
• 11:25
  Speaker 8: Can I get better?
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: You're hired.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Making a mess of his own. God, you're really prime, Ellen,
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: you know that?
• 11:33
  Speaker 7: I catch you screwing another guy and you attack my lifestyle!
• 11:35
  Speaker 7: Your lifestyle has nothing to do with it!
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: Night moves. It's a mystery. I'm looking for Deli Grasner.
• 11:42
  Speaker 8: Deli isn't around here anymore.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Where the suspects are also the victims. I want to
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: know what I walked into.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Ask your wife. Well, are we going to talk about it?
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Well, it's your ball.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Run with it.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Where the questions. All right, what's it all about, Mosby?
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Is there still much smuggling going on around here?
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: The dogs have fleas.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Where were you when Kennedy got shot?
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Have too many answers. Where every clue is a lie.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: I've been listening to your ping pong talk long enough.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: What was in Marv Ellman's plane? Drugs?
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: Was it drugs?
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Night Moves.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Check. Check.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: Ah, it's a beauty.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: It's a game where every player is a pawn.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Harry moves me, isn't it?
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Every move is a wrong one. And the winner loses everything.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I want to know what it's all about.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I told you what it's all about.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: You, what the hell are you all about?
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: You're asking the wrong question.
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: Gene Hackman in Night Moves.
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: And welcome back. Night Moves.com. It opened up on June 11,
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: 1975 in New York and was followed July 2, 1975
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: in Los Angeles. Right between those dates, something happened. On
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: June 20, 1975, another movie opened on 464 screens across
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: North America. Within weeks, even that had expanded dramatically. And
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: that movie changed the business. It became the highest grossing
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: film of all times. A record it held until Star
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: Wars came along. Matt, you know what we're talking about. Jaws,
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: of course. And I have to give my younger self
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: a pass on missing night moves.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: Because clearly I was watching Jaws. What's in the theater
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: next door watching Jaws?
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: We had almost the same story with William Friedkin's movie Sorcerer,
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: which opened up like a couple of weeks right after
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: Star Wars. And nobody went to see Sorcerer. Everybody went
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: to see Star Wars. Yeah, yeah. Two really good films
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: by two incredible directors. Both overshadowed by the new directors
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: in the mid-70s. That guy named George Lucas and, oh,
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: what's his name? Steven Spielberg.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: Well, I think the other part about it is, I
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: think this is indicative of that transition between old film
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: system and new Hollywood. No one realized how huge.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: Otherwise, they would have strategically released their films not today.
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: At those times.
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: The strategic releasing dates of films was a huge deal.
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: And it happened after this. Two great films were 100%
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: overshadowed by these blockbusters. One last production note. Night Moves
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: was shot in 1973, but wasn't released until 1975. We
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: might give our hypothesis for that later in segment three.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: We've already talked about Arthur Penn and Alan Sharp. Night
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: Moves was produced by Robert M.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: Sherman. Cinematography was by Bruce Sertes. We saw his work
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: in Dirty Harry. He was a frequent collaborator with both
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel, so if you watch Any
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: movies by either of those two directors in the 70s?
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: It is probably being shot by Bruce Sirtis. Editor was
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: Dee Dee Allen. She was a frequent collaborator with Arthur Penn.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: An interesting later credit, she edited The Breakfast Club.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: Don't mess with the bull, young man.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: You'll get the horns.
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: Now, that's amazing.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Music was by Michael Small. To my ears, he
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: sounds a lot like Lalo Schifrin, and it sounded to
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: me a lot like the soundtrack from Dirty Harry. I
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: made that same mistake when we reviewed Clute, and the
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: music from Clute was also written by Michael Small, and
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: we're going to get to hear him one more time
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: this year when we review The Parallax View in November.
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: Production Companies is Leighton Productions. They only made two films
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: in the 1970s. One was, of course, Night Moves, and
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: the other was a little film, I'm not sure if
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: it did very well, called Rocky. Have you heard of
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: that one? Yeah, just a little bit. Nightmoves was distributed
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: by Warner Brothers, and sharp-eyed viewers may notice that this
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: isn't the traditional WB Shield logo. It is their stylized
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: Warner Brothers logo that was used during this era. This
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: was designed by Saul Bass. Now, he was famous for
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: his title sequences like Vertigo and Psycho, but his bread
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: and butter was made in designing corporate logos. And if
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: you can remember the Geffen Records logo from the 80s
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: with the orb and the cut in G.
• 16:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Saul Bass did a lot of logos for a lot
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: of your favorite brands. Matt, who is.
• 16:56
  Speaker 5: Starring in this film? Well, of course, the 10-mile-tall Gene
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: Hackman playing Harry Mosby.
• 17:04
  Speaker 7: What's it about?
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Just wanted to ask him a couple questions.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: You sound like you might be the police.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: My name is Harry Mosby. I'm a private investigator. Tom's stepdaughter, Deli,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: is missing. Ran away from home. I'm looking for her.
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: Critics rank Harry Mosby alongside Popeye Doyle, Harry Call and
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: Little Bill Daggett. One of my very favorite films. He
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: played such a great, terrible character. I distinctly remember coming
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: back from seeing that film and going into the office
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: I worked in and somebody else went to see the
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: movie the same. And I said, oh, they're going to
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: win the Oscar for that film. She's like, I walked out.
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: It was terrible. I'm like, you are insane. That is
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: the best Western film that's probably ever been filmed. And
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: it won the Oscar, so.
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: It did indeed. Our next actress, Jennifer Warner, who played Paula.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: What'd you do before this?
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: This and that. I taught school. I kept house. I
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: waited tables. I did a little stripping.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: A little hooking.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: And I tried a lot of water.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Sounds kind of bleak. Or is it just the way
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: you tell it?
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Do you ask these questions because you want to know
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the answer or is it just something you think a
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: detective should do?
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: I'll be honest with you. She looked exactly like a
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: girl I went to high school with. It was striking.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: And she was from Florida as well, the girl that
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: I went to high school with. You know, maybe it
• 18:35
  Speaker 5: was the sun tan and the sun kissed hair or
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: whatever it was. But yeah.
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: Night Moves was her breakout film role. She came from
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: a respected stage background, including work on Broadway. She went
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: on to become a successful writer as well as a
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: director and taught future filmmakers at USC's School of the
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: Cinematic Arts.
• 18:57
  Speaker 5: Amazing. So we get to see one of the very
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: first roles from an actress who we have seen over
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: and over again in many, many roles, Melanie Griffith. She
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: plays Deli.
• 19:07
  Speaker 7: Did you come to get your shirt back?
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: No, no.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: No, I came to tell you that I'm a private detective.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: I heard about your mother. Take you back to L.A.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Are you kidding?
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: No, I'm not.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: Well, you can forget it.
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: Mellie Griffith is the daughter of Tippi Hedren from The
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: Birds and Peter Griffith.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: No relation to Peter Griffin from Family Guy.
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: Melanie was born August 9th, 1957. This movie was released
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: in June of 75. So she would have been.
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: Almost 18 years old. 9th 1957 this movie was released
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: in june of 75 so she would have been almost
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: 18 years old but if you remember earlier i said
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: this movie was filmed in 73 so when this movie
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: was being made in the fall of 73 she had
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: just turned 16 this movie could not have been made
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: nowadays yeah finally i We wanted to talk about John
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Crawford because even though his screen time is not that much,
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: he has a lot of impact inside this film. He
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: is no relationship to Joan Crawford, but they did appear
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: in the 1965 film, I Saw What You Did. And
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: the other reason that I wanted to point him out
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: here is that he had a very small role as
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: the chief engineer in the Poseidon Adventure. He was the
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: mayor in the next Dirty Harry film that we will
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: cover called The Enforcer. And you saw him probably in
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: just about every classic TV series of the era. That
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: was John Crawford.
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: Well, I got to confess something.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: I'm actually related to Joan Crawford.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: To Joan or John? Joan. Oh.
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: And that's not a great thing to be related to
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: because she was a pretty horrible person. But we didn't
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: know it at the time. But my middle name is Crawford.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Really?
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: And it's because my mother's mom's maiden name was Crawford
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: and her cousin is Joan Crawford. So I was named
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: after my grandmother Crawford. But we we emphasize the John
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: Singer Sargent relationship. We do not emphasize the Joan Crawford relationship. Still,
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: that's that's cool, man.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: She wasn't a peach. I will respect your family for
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: bearing the lead. I think I can understand why that
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: is page 12 news.
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: Exactly. It's in very small print. I do want to
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: talk about the honorable mentions.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: Because we see James Woods.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, my word.
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah, he was great in this. He played Deli's sometime
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: boyfriend who got beat up by Marvin. Yeah, by this stuntman.
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: He played that really well, and it was great to
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: see him in a young role.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: It was neat.
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: We also saw Susan Clark as Ellen Mosby.
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: Harry's wife.
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: And Edward Binns as Joey Ziegler. He's that stunt coordinator.
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: And then Janet Ward as Arlene Iverson. That's Deli's mother.
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: And when you watch the film, look out for her.
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: She's a horrible character as well.
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: Oh, but she was played so well.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, yeah. No, the actress did a great job.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: There's a scene at the end that I thought she
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: was really great in.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: So.
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: Anthony Costello as Marv Ellman. Marv Ellman.
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: His character has a very distinctive laugh and the guy
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: is a complete jerk in this. Yeah.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: So.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Well, Matt.
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: This was an obscure movie to get because we would
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: have to wait until 1992 before we could actually walk
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: into our local mom and pop video store to find
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: a copy on the shelf. And when it finally did arrive,
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: it was released on VHS and also on Laserdisc. And
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: I happen to still own a Laserdisc player. So maybe
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: if you could reach up there, grab what I'm sure
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: is the only copy they have, flip it over and
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: tell us what it says on the back.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: OK, so this is what it might say on the
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: back of the box. We're taking some license here to
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: make it maybe better than it was. So here we go.
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: Washed-up pro football player who is now a Los Angeles
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: private investigator, Harry Mosby, played by Gene Hackman, takes what
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: seems like a routine missing person case of tracking a
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: rebellious teenage girl to the Florida Keys. As he digs deeper,
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: the draw draws him into a web of deception, infidelity,
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: and buried secrets where every answer only leads to more questions.
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: Directed by Arthur Penn, Night Moves is a haunting, neo-noir
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: that trades easy solutions for moral ambiguity featuring one of
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: gene hackman's finest performances.
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: You know on the surface this feels like it should
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: be a straightforward detective story but arthur penn has something
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: much more ambitious in mind night moves isn't quite the
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: movie you think it's going to be and when we
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: get back we'll tell you why right after this quick break.
• 24:08
  Speaker 7: Flashback let the show begin.
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: This is abc.
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: Sunday the hardy boys in a race with death then
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: a visitor from beyond all galaxies who are you a
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: demonic messiah with the power of life and death this
• 24:26
  Speaker 6: man is some kind of a god is this the
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: end or a new beginning for battlestar galactica then a
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: world premiere movie.
• 24:33
  Speaker 8: Those girls are the hottest thing around every guy's secret
• 24:35
  Speaker 8: fantasy Wants to get the inside story.
• 24:38
  Speaker 6: The movie that tells what it really takes to be
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. Watch tomorrow starting at 7 on ABC.
• 24:48
  Speaker 7: It's a cinematic flashback. Let the show begin. If I
• 24:56
  Speaker 7: go up on the mainland now, I get nervous.
• 24:58
  Speaker 8: I gotta come back down here, put my tank on,
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: go out and sit on the bottom for a half
• 25:02
  Speaker 8: an hour.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: Just to get my head straight.
• 25:04
  Speaker 7: Is there still much smuggling going on around here?
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: The dogs have fleas.
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: Cuba's only 90 miles away and it's getting closer.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Hell, there's always a buck to be made.
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: How are you?
• 25:17
  Speaker 8: You figured on getting her to go back with you?
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's simple enough. It's just one complication. What's that?
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: You.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Me?
• 25:27
  Speaker 6: Why?
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: You're her stepfather. You back her with the cops tonight.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: Oh, hell, you're not going to.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: The cops, are you? Well, that would be my next move, yeah. Oh, hell,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: you don't have to go that far. But I've come
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: to take her back to Arlene. She's not going to
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: like that. Oh, yeah, but the cops.
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: My God, she's just a kid.
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: I wouldn't want you to.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: She been giving you any trouble?
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: What kind of trouble?
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, uh, trouble you wouldn't want the cops
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: to know about.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Well, she, uh.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Open the door.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 25:57
  Speaker 8: Harry, you're a pretty straight guy. And I'm gonna tell you,
• 26:03
  Speaker 8: I want that kid the hell out of here. You see,
• 26:09
  Speaker 8: I got pretty foolish with her and I... Well, you've
• 26:13
  Speaker 8: seen her.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: God, there ought to be a law. There is.
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: Welcome back. From here on out, we're going to be
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: talking about our thoughts on Night Moves. So if you
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: haven't seen it yet, consider this your spoiler warning. We
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: may mention things that would ruin the story for you.
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: Night Moves is available to rent or purchase through the
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: usual digital services. If you are a collector of physical media,
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: we recommend the Criterion 4K release of the film. Not
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: only do you get the 4k restoration but you also
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: get a commentary track as well as other extras you.
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: Know i i bought the criterion edition i have it
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: right here nice when they released it last year i
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: i had never seen it but i bought it purely
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: because number one it starred gene hackman number two It
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: was set in the 70s. And that was all I
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: had to hear about the film. And I bought it
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: last year. I watched it. And I've been trying to
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: get it in our schedule ever since. Where did you
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: buy it, if you don't mind my asking? Criterion has
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: their online store. You can go there. They have an
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: excellent product. subscription-based service if you want to subscribe and
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: watch classic movies directly from them. Or you can purchase
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: their films. Best to wait for sales near Christmas. The
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: movies with the 4K tend to be a little bit
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: more on the expensive side. Sometimes if you're just trying
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: to collect a film that you really, really like and
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: they have the edition of it, I think it's worth
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: investing in to have that.
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and it's not like it's going to, like when
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: you bought VHS tapes, it's like after a few years,
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: it's going to start to degrade. If it's a DVD
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: or whatever, it's basically there for eternity.
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: As long as you can find a player.
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: It took me some doing to replace my Blu-ray player.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: So you said that this was your first time seeing
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: the film.
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it definitely was. I really did enjoy it.
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: There were some parts that were, you know, a lot
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: of low talking. And I've noticed as I've gotten older
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: that I can't hear it when people talk low. And
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: I don't want to crank up the sound because, you know,
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: my wife might be upstairs sleeping when I'm watching the
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: movie or something. So other than that, it was really
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: cool because it was much more than what it appeared.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: So that was cool. It wasn't just a straight detective.
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: What's going to happen? And then you start to really
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: put things together with the name of the film.
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: I had no idea what I was in for. I
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: wasn't sure by the end exactly what I had seen
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: because I thought that this movie was about Gene Hackman's character,
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: Harry Mosby, getting hired to find a girl who had
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: run off and to bring her back to her mother.
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: But there was ostensibly this whole other thing that was
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: going on that you don't find out about until the
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: last few minutes of the film. And I kind of
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: ended with that feeling that I had at Chinatown of like,
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: what did I just watch here? I 100% agree. It
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: was definitely much more there than there. what is portrayed
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: but i'm reminded of something i saw on the big
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: bang theory where one of the characters declares that in
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: raiders of the lars the hark you're not doing this
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: one again are you i know but it's but i
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: i now hold every movie up to the fact that
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: if the main character wasn't in the movie would the
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: movie work out the same way and here's the difference
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: if harry bosby did find the girl, everybody would still
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: be alive.
• 29:44
  Speaker 7: It's funny because it's true.
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: Well, there's a lot of neat little references in this film.
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: If you are a film nerd, Harry's wife invites him
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: to go see an Eric Romer film.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: The Romer film that they.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Went to see was My Night with Maude, which really
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: is a film about a man and a woman staying
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: up all night and talking. So it really has not
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: a lot of actions.
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: There's a scene in the movie later on where Gene
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: Hackman and his wife are literally sitting up at night talking.
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: I found it kind of funny that they had this
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: one comment and then later on in the film, they
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: were basically doing what the movie was about. Right. He
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: didn't think it was like watching paint dry.
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: I think when you pull the thread on what was
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: going on with him playing the chess games and the
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: name of the movie... You may not notice it. So
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: if you do listen to us before you watch the movie,
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: look for this. He pulls out the chessboard and he's asked,
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: what is he doing? Because clearly it's one person playing
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: a chess game, but he's not playing a chess game.
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: He's doing what a lot of people do. He's replaying
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: a match and watching chess. How it evolves. The interesting
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: part of the game he's talking about is a very
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: famous game where the one player was basically on a
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: whole nother level. Meanwhile, the other player was basically battling
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: this small battle, not realizing that the larger pieces were
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: being moved to ultimately crush him. So there was like
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: a game within a game and he totally missed it.
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: So the idea that he was playing this game in
• 31:29
  Speaker 5: chess and then this case and the larger conspiracy around
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: what was happening, he didn't understand it. It's paralleled. The
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: other last thing was night moves. I guess there was
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: night moves, just things happened at night a lot because
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: there was infidelity. There was, you know, some level of
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: sex and that sort of thing. But there was also
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: the kidnigget moves.
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: Kidnigget.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Kidnigget.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: And one thing I do want to point out about
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: Bruce Surtees, the cinematographer, Gordon Willis, when we reviewed Clute,
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: we said that the lighting was so well done that
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: it just really emphasized shadow and light. Well, Bruce Surtees
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: is definitely giving him a run for his money. If
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: you've seen a film where they have shot day for night,
• 32:13
  Speaker 4: you always recognize it. He was shooting night for night.
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: And so the blacks are really, really black where they're shooting.
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: The 4K restoration is gorgeous.
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: On this particular item. I will also point out in
• 32:25
  Speaker 5: that part of that cinematography, when they're in that area
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: of Florida, they're sort of at that ramshackle building where
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: they're sort of living, they're gaps and screens they really
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: use that to good effect because you can sort of
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: see beyond what's happening and into the room or out
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: of the room into what's going on it was very
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: effective very yeah very effective.
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: So i thought the set design was amazing in this
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: one it was really good i really felt like i
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: was down in florida and even even the way that
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: the light looks i mean some people have criticized the
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: film that it looks washed out welcome to florida To me,
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: it rang true. I didn't really ever have a problem
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: with how the film itself looked.
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no, I agree.
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: So one of the things, though, that you talked about
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: with this move where he was not seeing what was
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: happening on the chessboard, he executed what the player made.
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: It was three moves with a knight. He had the
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: guy in check, but he didn't see that he had
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: him in check. And he eventually went on to lose
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: that match. And he said he never saw it. And
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: he said, even to this day, he goes, I don't
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: even see it. And that is exactly what the whole
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: movie is about. The A plot is him finding Deli
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: and doing the investigation and following the clues. The B
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: plot is something that is much different. And we'll get
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: into that in just a little bit. We started talking
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: about Gene Hackman as Harry Mosby. Let's talk a little
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: bit more about the character of Harry Mosby.
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: Is he a good detective? I don't think so.
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: You don't think so?
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: I think he's passable because if you listen to the
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: critique of his wife, he's just taking pictures of people
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: that are being untrue to their spouses and basically what
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: the worst of our conception of private eyes are, is
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: following people to their trysts with their extramarital affair and
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: all that kind of dirty, nasty stuff.
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: This is exactly what the Raymond Chandler's characters would do.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but you asked if I thought he was a
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: good detective, and I'm answering, he was able to chase
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: down where this girl was, and that was sort of okay,
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: but he was so oblivious most of the time as
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: to what was going on.
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: And that's my point. There's two sides of Harry Mosby,
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: I think. He's good at following clues. In terms of
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: a detective, he gets enough clues from Arlene that leads
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: him to New Mexico, where he meets the stuntmen. He
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: meets Joey Ziegler. He meets Marv Elman. He meets Quentin.
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: That ultimately leads him to Florida to find Tom Iverson,
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: which is where he meets Paula and then eventually sees
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: that Deli is there. And then the trick, of course,
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: is then to get Deli to come back with him.
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: to Arlene's house and complete the job. But he completes
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: that rather, I don't want to say quickly, but I
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: still think there's about 30 minutes left in the film
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: by the time Deli gets back to California. And I
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: think what you're saying is what's beautiful about this film.
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: And it's what makes him.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: A flawed character.
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: He is great at following clues, but he is... terrible
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: at seeing the bigger picture of what's really happening right
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: in front of him. Yeah.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: I think we see that with his own relationship. He
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: literally makes his money following people around who are cheating
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: on their husbands. And ultimately, he's being cheated on and
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: only just happens to run into it. To come across that.
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: She accuses him of following her. the sad truth is
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: he didn't even think to follow her. He just happened
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: to see her with this other guy. This is why
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: I think he's a bad detective. Anytime somebody is standing
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: to inherit a ton of money, the idea of returning
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: that person to the person who would benefit from getting
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: all that money is probably a bad idea just on
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: the face of it, right?
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:11
  Speaker 5: Deli's going to inherit this huge fortune. Her ne'er-do-well mother,
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: who doesn't really treat her very well, doesn't seem to
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: really even like her, will get all the money if
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: Deli's out of the picture. So the idea of getting
• 36:23
  Speaker 5: Deli and bringing her back is ridiculous. Why did you
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: do that? And then you just walked away and drove
• 36:29
  Speaker 5: away while the girl was screaming.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, I.
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: That was the part where I'm like, you're just obtuse, dude.
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: I mean, well, they were they were definitely having a
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: large fight. I think that's where Quentin was was accusing him.
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: Why would you bring her back?
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: And he was the only one speaking sense. He's like,
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: why would you bring her back to this? These people
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: that that basically were using her and then, you know,
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: I mean. I think this is the beauty of Gene
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: Hackman is that he's playing a role that, you know, OK,
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: you can sort of walk in his footsteps to a
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: certain extent. You got to go, what are you thinking
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: of here? And your job. I will also point out,
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: when you talk about it, his job was to locate
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: the girl. It wasn't to bring her back. It was
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: to locate her. No, it was to locate and bring
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: her back. Well, I think he could have gone back
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: and said, she's with your ex-husband. Go get her yourself.
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: Let's talk about the film's femme fatale, which was Paula,
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: played by Jennifer Warner. You realize the entire time she
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: is not working with Harry Mosby.
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah, no, she's deep in this conspiracy business. You know,
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: you hope while you're watching the movie that she's sort
• 37:32
  Speaker 5: of not part of it. I think you hold out
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: hope that she's not part of it, but it becomes
• 37:38
  Speaker 5: very clear at the end that she's accomplice. She knows
• 37:41
  Speaker 5: it all.
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: So this conspiracy, the concept is first introduced when Harry
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: is getting the job to go to Arlene. And there's
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: this artifact from Mexico that are currently very valuable. There
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: is a smuggling operation that ultimately involves many of the
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: characters inside of this movie. And you don't really know
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: who's involved with it, to what extent. I'll be honest, Matt,
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: it's never really definitively said except for a couple of people.
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: Paula being one, Tom Iverson being the other, Marv Ellman
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: being the third. The final piece of the puzzle is
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: revealed in the closing scene of the film. And this
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: is what Mosby is not seeing in this whole film.
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: And Paula is doing her best to keep Mosby distracted.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: Who are you getting out of it?
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Me?
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: Oh, some change.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: A little more fuel for the flight. Bus ticket for
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: the next stop after Key West. I got into it
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: because I got involved with Tom. And I got involved
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: with Tom because.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: He was the only man around who got nicer as.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: He got drunk.
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: But in the very end, in the ending scene, she
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: gives up the ghost. She tells what's going on. She
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: takes him out to find, you know, basically discover what
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: they're doing. It has to do with pre-Columbian artifacts and
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: things like that. So, you know, everything starts to come
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: to a head. But I'll be honest, at the end
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: of the movie, it's a very exciting scene. I don't
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: think we should spoil it. And in the ending scenes,
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: you may do what I did, which is I had
• 39:16
  Speaker 5: to go Google it and say, what did I see?
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: What did I just watch?
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: What did I see? And it does help because it's
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: a little bit obscured because of that. We talked about
• 39:26
  Speaker 5: before the lighting and the underwater photography. and stuff like that.
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: So the closing shot of Gene Hackman looking down through
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: the glass bottom boat and the cameras looking up at him.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: That is one of my favorite shots ever. That is
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: such a wonderful, wonderful shot. And I could care less
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: with what he's looking at so much, although that that
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: revelation opens up a whole nother line of questions in
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: my mind as to what was being involved there.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: Well, let's move over and talk about the other actress
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: in this film, Melanie Griffith. She was 16 years old
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: when this film was made.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Tropical fish.
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: It's the Alaskan fingerfish. It's very rare.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: And that's the dorsal view of the Alaskan fingerfish.
• 40:16
  Speaker 6: What about all those sharks after swimming?
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: You're worried about sharks with Deli in the water?
• 40:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so I think in this film, the character of
• 40:24
  Speaker 5: Deli is a lost soul.
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: I think she was a very liberated 70s teenager.
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't think that disagrees with my statement of
• 40:34
  Speaker 5: being a lost soul. What I think is she didn't
• 40:36
  Speaker 5: have any grounding. She didn't have any basis for morals
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: and whatnot. And you can call it liberated, all that
• 40:42
  Speaker 5: stuff like that. But what I'm arguing is her real
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: dad is out of the picture. The stepdad's in and out.
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: She's clearly, like you said, liberated and having lots of
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: boyfriends and basically being a searcher, in my opinion. The
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: long and short of it is I think she's just
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: a pawn. Again, the night moves thing. She's a pawn
• 41:01
  Speaker 5: being moved around by the larger chess pieces on the board.
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: That's my personal opinion. She's definitely being used by the
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: men on the board and her mother, as well as
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: the girl who is down there with Gene Hackman.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: Paula.
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: She's manipulating her as well. I didn't think that she
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: was part of the smuggling ring. No, I don't think
• 41:21
  Speaker 5: she was at all.
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: I think she was around it to where... At one point, though,
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: there is something that happens right on her dive that
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: reveals something about one of the characters. And I think
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: at that point she has become a liability.
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: I think you're giving her more credit for being in control.
• 41:38
  Speaker 5: I think she was like I described. She was a
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: pawn being moved around the board and then ultimately sacrificed.
• 41:44
  Speaker 5: I actually don't think we're as far away as it
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: might seem.
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, no, no.
• 41:48
  Speaker 5: I will say this. I think Melanie Griffith did a
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: great job based on being a 16-year-old playing with Gene Hackman.
• 41:54
  Speaker 5: Just to hold your water with that guy on the
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: screen is pretty amazing.
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: I had no idea that she was the daughter of
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: Tippi Hedren. That blew me away. She didn't want to
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: be an actress. She wanted to be a model. And
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: then she thought she was auditioning for a modeling gig
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: and got hired for Night Moves. This was filmed in 73.
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: But when it came out in 75, she was in
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: three movies that year. I said, I think I had
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: a theory of why it was shot in 73 and
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: released in 75. I think it was to get her
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: closer to 18 when the film came out. I think
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: all the women in this movie were interesting characters, which
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: is pretty cool. Even Deli's mom and the actress who
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: played her did, I mean, I think an outstanding job
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: of playing this detestable older woman who ultimately is disturbed
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: at the end.
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: Get out of here, you son of a.
• 42:40
  Speaker 7: You get it all here, don't you, Arlene?
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: What?
• 42:42
  Speaker 7: You get it all.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: What's that supposed to mean?
• 42:47
  Speaker 7: That's supposed to mean that I don't like you, Mrs.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Iverson.
• 42:51
  Speaker 7: I think Adele never had a chance with you as
• 42:53
  Speaker 7: a mother. She was on a downhill slide right from
• 42:54
  Speaker 7: the start.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: What does that make me?
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: You know, Adele isn't the only kid who ever.
• 43:07
  Speaker 3: Had it rough.
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: Arlene Iverson.
• 43:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: She is a quintessential piece of work. Her final scene,
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: it shows she kind of maybe cares about Deli, but
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: at the same time, it's hard to understand or believe
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: that when you're half in the bag.
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: Well, speaking of being half in the bag, I think
• 43:26
  Speaker 5: it's time for us to take another break. We'll be
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: right back.
• 43:29
  Speaker 7: It's a cinematic flashback. Let the show begin. It's a
• 43:36
  Speaker 7: cinematic flashback.
• 43:40
  Speaker 4: I think we finally cracked the case on Night Moves,
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: which means it's time for the question we always ask.
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: Did Night Moves groove through the decades or did it
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: lose its beat?
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: I have to say once again that I have no
• 43:52
  Speaker 5: direct knowledge on how this film did back during its release.
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: And as you know, on many of these films, I
• 43:58
  Speaker 5: actually saw them when they were released or very, very
• 44:01
  Speaker 5: close to the release time. This is not one of them.
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: I was clearly in the other theater getting jump scared
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: by a mechanical fish and a mannequin head missing an eye.
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: But I can say this was a great film and
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: it was a crying shame they did not release it
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: earlier before Jaws was released. It would have been a
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: great after Christmas release with the interesting themes and the
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: filming in Florida. They really missed the boat on this one.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: Boo.
• 44:27
  Speaker 5: The pervasive dysphoria that settled over the country after Watergate
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: left Americans distrustful of institutions they'd once taken for granted.
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: And I think this is reflected in the film. From
• 44:39
  Speaker 5: the friends telling lies to marriage infidelity to murder, the
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: themes are bleak. But I have to say, I would
• 44:45
  Speaker 5: have probably loved it back in the 1970s, but I
• 44:48
  Speaker 5: may not have 100% gotten it. And I certainly really
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: enjoyed watching it now in 2026, so I think it
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: definitely grooves. But Maybe it's not for younger audiences based
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: on some of the nudity scenes and things like that.
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: Like I'm talking about young kids, obviously teenagers at this
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: today's don't really care. They'd think we were just being brutish.
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: What did you think, Chuck?
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: I think we have uncovered two really great Gene Hackman
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: performances this season. I absolutely loved Maxie and Scarecrow. But
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: I have to say, I think Harry Mosby might be
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: the more complex character. Both Penn and Sharp took the
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: classic detective story and they planted it squarely in the
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: early 70s. And I think there's an aspect of that
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: decade that I hadn't really seen. considered before. And this
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: is the impact that those assassinations of JFK and Robert
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: Kennedy had on America. When director Penn described the characters
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: in Night Moves as the mourners of the Kennedy generation,
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: this completely reframed Harry Mosby for me. He's a man
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: who remembers a time when the world made sense, or
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: at least it seemed to. Now he's living in a post-Vietnam,
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: post-Watergate America where institutions have failed and his marriage is
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: collapsing and every answer uncovers yet another layer of deception.
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: Harry is not Sam Spade. He's a detective who never
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: quite understands the whole board, and I think that's exactly
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: the point. I also just loved Jennifer Warren as Paula.
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: She is one of the most fascinating characters in the film.
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: She's mysterious, she's intelligent, and she's never quite what you expect.
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: She was a wonderful twist on the classic femme fatale.
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: I definitely didn't catch everything on my first watch. I
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: don't think you're supposed to, but both times, the final
• 46:40
  Speaker 4: sequence and the final reveal was absolutely haunting and left
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: me with a lot more questions. So for me, this
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: is no surprise. Nightmoves grooves to the decades. Matt, do
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: you have any final thoughts?
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: No, just that usual, you were able to describe sort
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: of the genuine sort of core greatness of the film
• 47:02
  Speaker 5: much better than I am. But yeah, I agree with
• 47:05
  Speaker 5: everything you said as well. And I do think there
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: was definitely a callback to kind of the general dysphoria
• 47:12
  Speaker 5: of the age at that time. And I actually remember
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: it because I remember Watergate. I remember my parents after Watergate.
• 47:18
  Speaker 5: I remember kind of the general, hey, this isn't supposed
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: to happen in America. We're America. And really, I think
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: this reflects it incredibly accurately.
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: It's definitely one that helps us to understand what was
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: impacting the filmmakers of that time. I think we see
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: it a lot in Arthur Penn. Arthur Penn actually did
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: work for JFK, so he was very close to that group,
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: and I think that it impacted him and the direction
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: of his work. If you haven't seen Bonnie and Clyde,
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: pull that one up again. That was a good film,
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: and considering everything you and I have been talking about
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: with regards to the ending of the Hays Code and
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: how much freer these movies started becoming. His work on
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: that was really good. He made a lot of good
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: films early on and then kind of trickled off into retirement,
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: I believe. But he was really good. And also Gene
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: Hackman is in Bonnie and Clyde as well. And I
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: think you enjoy- I think you would enjoy his performance
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: in that. I actually have seen Bonnie and Clyde, but
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: it's been some time. It's definitely up for a rewatch.
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: The one movie I haven't watched yet is I have
• 48:29
  Speaker 4: not watched Easy Rider.
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah.
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: I have that on my list of things to do
• 48:33
  Speaker 4: today if I can get the lawn cut.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 48:36
  Speaker 4: Okay. I think we're ready to wrap up this one.
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: Join us again in two weeks as we continue our
• 48:41
  Speaker 4: Shades of Noir month. We'll be returning to the films
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: of Robert Altman to look at his unique take on
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: Raymond Chandler's legendary detective, Philip Marlowe, played by Elliot Gould.
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: This version of Marlowe has often been described as a
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: Rip Van Marlowe, as though he fell asleep in the
• 49:03
  Speaker 4: 1940s and suddenly woke up in the 1970s. He might
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: not have changed, but the world around him certainly had.
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: Join us as we continue exploring the many shades of
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: noir with Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye.
• 49:16
  Speaker 5: We want to thank you for taking the time to
• 49:18
  Speaker 5: tune in. If you seen Night Moves, we'd love to
• 49:22
  Speaker 5: hear what you think. Reach out to us on Facebook
• 49:24
  Speaker 5: or leave us a message over at cinematicflashback.com. Don't forget
• 49:28
  Speaker 5: to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: you're enjoying the podcast, we'd really appreciate if you left
• 49:34
  Speaker 5: us a rating and a review. In fact, your review
• 49:36
  Speaker 5: just might get read on the air... And if you've
• 49:38
  Speaker 5: been enjoying the show, tell your friends and family about
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: what we still proudly believe is the best podcast dedicated
• 49:45
  Speaker 5: exclusively to 1970s cinema. Join us next time as we
• 49:49
  Speaker 5: climb back into the Wayback Machine and head once again
• 49:52
  Speaker 5: to the 1970s for another cinematic adventure. We'll see you
• 49:57
  Speaker 5: next time.
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: Where were you when Kennedy got shot?
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: Which Kennedy?