After Dark, My Sweet **** (1990, Jason Patric, Rachel Ward, Bruce Dern) – Classic Film Review 332

‘When a man stops caring what happens, all the strain is lifted from him. Suspicion and worry and fear, all things that twist his thinking out of focus are brushed aside, and he can see people exactly as they are at last.’ – Kevin ‘Kid’ Collins.

It’s 1990 and the young Jason Patric (aged 24) stars as a fatalistic ex-boxer who tangles at his peril with the provocative but weak and frightened widow Rachel Ward and the devious ‘uncle’ Bruce Dern in director James Foley’s top-notch retro-film noir tale of kidnapping and double-cross. It’s flawlessly adapted from Jim Thompson’s hardboiled novel.

Patric plays Kevin ‘Kid’ Collins, who is living the life of a drifter after being disqualified from the boxing for life due to an incident in the ring and escaping from the mental hospital. Ward plays the femme fatale Fay Anderson, who convinces him to help fix up the neglected estate her ex-husband left. Dern plays the grafter Garrett Stoker, Fay’s ‘Uncle Bud’, who sweet-talks them both into helping kidnap a rich boy for ransom money.

A twisty tale of lust, love and loyalties, this movie is particularly sweet, steamy and satisfying. It is played appropriately lustily and with great relish by exactly the right cast. Patric is stupendous, Ward gives a notable performance and Dern is on commanding form.

The screenplay’s a finely polished one, adapted very neatly indeed by Foley and Robert Redlin. And the movie is tautly and expertly directed by Foley, obviously in love with the material.

With its fine, atmospheric, retro-look cinematography on California locations by Mark Plummer and its posh, lush score by Maurice Jarre, this is an impeccably achieved, edge-of-seat thriller in the grand vintage-movie style.

George Dickerson, James Cotton, Rocky Giordani and Corey Carrier are also among the cast.

The first of two Jim Thompson adaptations released in 1990, the other being the better-known The Grifters. Thompson also wrote the screenplay for Paths of Glory. He died in April 1977, aged 70.

Foley also directed At Close Range, Glengarry Glen Ross, Fear and The Chamber, as well as TV’s House of Cards (2013).

(C) Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 332 derekwinnert.com