She recognizes “one of those intent-on-the-truth types” within moments of meeting, while Delly is comparably swift in diagnosing a man “who likes things to stay the way they are.” Arlene flirtatiously enquires if he is “the kind of detective who, once you get on a case, nothing can get you off it?” Paula (Jennifer Warren), Tom’s enigmatically unhappy younger girlfriend and Harry’s possible love interest, is more coolly and cynically matter-of-fact. The first involves the repeated professional-cum-psychological feminine provocation Harry endures throughout. That fact is consistently amplified by three closely interrelated aspects of Alan Sharp’s script. Night Moves shares Ellen’s sympathetic skepticism regarding Harry’s preferred way of working, not to mention those aspects of the classic noir worldview which that modus operandi reflects. Such a professional set-up risks material and emotional poverty alike: it struggles to pay the bills while containing within it a very different kind of eventual price to pay. She suspects that his career choices represent a precarious attempt at psychic self-protection: obsessive lone investigation of the actions and motives of strangers leaves no space for self-investigation of one’s lonely own. Ellen works in an antiques gallery: dealing in outmoded objects and ideas for a living leaves her with little emotional energy to deal with such things in her home life with Harry. Femme fatalistic rather than fatale, Ellen’s marital dissatisfaction (“your lifestyle…a private eye…it’s a joke”) is rooted largely in her husband’s inability to move on and accept a position at the computerized investigative agency that throws him Arlene’s case as a patronizing bone. The film, however, wastes no time in emphasizing the extent to which times have changed: Harry’s first on-screen act is to consult an automated office answerphone. Harry clings stubbornly to the noir ideal of the independent, integrity-driven lone operative. Like the other classic New Hollywood movies listed above, Night Moves revisits an historical film genre to determinedly revisionist ends. Child retrieved and spouse reconciled, Harry appears to restore both his home life and that of his wealthy client-but is the truth of either matter quite so simple? At the same time, Harry also struggles to understand and respond to an unforeseen body blow to his marriage: the discovery that his wife Ellen (Susan Clark) has been conducting an affair. Both locations are presided over by potential surrogate father figures for Delly: kindly stunt supervisor Joey Ziegler (Edward Binns) in the former, predatory stepfather Tom Iverson (John Crawford) in the latter. Hired by retired Hollywood actress Arlene Iverson (Janet Ward) to track down her missing teenage daughter Delly (Melanie Griffith), Harry struggles to piece together the possible links between the New Mexico film set where the girl was last seen and the ramshackle Florida Keys pleasure cruise outfit where she later turns up. overwhelmed by mysteries on both professional and personal fronts. Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) is a forty-year-old ball player-turned-P.I. The happy confluence of both men’s artistic interests and abilities on Night Moves marked a joint creative highlight before their respective careers took more uncertain turns. Director Arthur Penn ( Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man ) and screenwriter Alan Sharp ( The Hired Hand, Ulzana’s Raid )-had each spent part of the previous decade scrutinizing archetypal figures and genres from the American cinematic past. Although close contemporaries The Long Goodbye (1973) and Chinatown (1974) are lauded more regularly today as exemplary New Hollywood re-imaginings of film noir, Night Moves sits comfortably in such exalted company. Like the titular chess piece that seems to advance head-on before ultimately attacking its prey from the side, Night Moves ends with a pointedly literal image of what the movie has already put right under our noses: the sad sight of a decent man all at sea. Rotter music by Michael Small production direction by George Jenkins starring Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark, Edward Binns, John Crawford, Janet Ward, and Melanie Griffith. Sherman directed by Arthur Penn screenplay by Alan Sharp cinematography by Bruce Surtees edited by Dede Allen and Stephen A.
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