Night Moves ***½ (1975, Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Edward Binns) – Classic Movie Review 6020

Director Arthur Penn’s dark-toned and unusually complex 1975 psychological thriller stars Gene Hackman as Los Angeles private detective Harry Moseby, who tracks a former Hollywood actress’s runaway teenage daughter (played by a very young Melanie Griffith) and tries to uncover a baffling mystery.

Director Penn does not keep a tight enough grip on his material and lets the film ramble and the tension slacken at times. But the classy, on-form actors, Alan Sharp’s taut screenplay with its suspenseful climax and Bruce Surtees’s Technicolor cinematography combine to produce a fascinating piece of murky Seventies modern LA film noir.

Also in the cast are James Woods, Denis Dugan, Susan Clark, Jennifer Warren, Edward Binns, Harris Yulin and Kenneth Mars.

Hackman starred in Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6020

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