Blood Simple ***** (1984, John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M Emmet Walsh) – Classic Movie Review 289

The Coen Brothers make their film debut in 1984 with the astonishing, thrillingly realised neo-noir thriller Blood Simple. Frances McDormand also makes her film debut and M Emmet Walsh stars as the double-crossing private detective.

The Coen brothers Joel and Ethan make their film debut in 1984 with the astonishing, thrillingly realised neo-film-noir thriller Blood Simple. Packed with quirky atmosphere, jet-black humour and edge-of-seat tension, it’s a real eye-opener. It is also the feature film debut of Frances McDormand, and the first major film of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld, while M Emmet Walsh gives his most acclaimed performance as the double-crossing private detective.

Dan Hedaya stars as Julian Marty, a rich and jealous Texas bar-owning husband, who hires a repellent private investigator (M Emmet Walsh in a deliciously sweaty and odious turn) to spy on then kill his faithless wife Abby (Frances McDormand) and her boyfriend Ray (John Getz), one of his bartenders.

Marty gets out of town to provide himself with an alibi. Everything seems simple. But the duplicitous detective has another plan in mind…

The young film-makers could already show they are masters at providing memorable characters, delivering striking images, building tension, peppering a serious story with wild black comedy and developing an atmosphere of evil. It keeps the faith with the old-style B-movie thriller while being a new-style A-movie artwork. Stylised though it is, it’s still nail-bitingly involving. Blood-curdling and dazzling to look at, it never loosens its terrifying grip.

Barry Sonnenfeld’s cinematography and Carter Burwell’s score are both brilliant adornments to the Coens’ work here. All the acting is spot on, with Walsh outstanding in a total tour-de-force, the young McDormand striking and impressive, Getz strong and Hedaya giving a ferociously good turn.

Blood Simple is inspired, heartless, dark, dark stuff, anticipating the Coens’ Fargo (1996).

Also in the cast are Samm-Art Williams, Peter Lind Hayes, Deborah Neumann, Raquel Gavia and Van Brooks.

It is written, edited, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.

The Coens showed potential investors a two-minute trailer of the film they planned to make, raising $750,000 in a little over a year, enough to begin production of the low-budget ($1.5 million) film. On completion, they brought it to LA and showed it to the major studios, who all turned it down. It was shown at the 1984 New York Film Festival, then at the Toronto Film Festival, where a deal was made with Circle Films to distribute in the US.

The 1998 restored Director’s Cut runs three minutes shorter than the original, at 96 minutes, with new sound plus scene and dialogue trims.

On initial release, there were two quotes before the opening credits. One was from Dashiell Hammett explaining what the film’s title Blood Simple meant. This comes from his 1929 novel Red Harvest, in which the term describes the addled, fearful mindset people are in after a prolonged immersion in violent situations. The second was from Alfred Hitchcock about how difficult it really would be to kill a man.

Walsh’s character, written for him, is named Loren Visser in the screenplay but never named in the film (his cigarette lighter has Loren written on it). He’s listed as Private Investigator in the credits. Walsh won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead in Blood Simple.

Joel married McDormand that year, 1984.

It’s that Simple.

Michael Emmet Walsh (March 22, 1935 – March 19, 2024) died of cardiac arrest in St Albans, Vermont, on March 19, 2024, aged 88.

He appeared in more 200 films and TV series, including Alice’s Restaurant (1969), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Little Big Man (1970), What’s Up, Doc? (1972), Serpico (1973), The Gambler (1974), Bound for Glory (1976), Slap Shot (1977), Airport ’77 (1977), Straight Time (1978), The Jerk (1979), Blade Runner (1982), Blood Simple (1984), Critters (1986), Christmas with the Kranks (2004),  Ordinary People (1980), Reds (1981), Silkwood (1983), Fletch (1985), Back to School (1986), Raising Arizona (1987), Romeo + Juliet (1996), My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), The Iron Giant (1999), Calvary (2014), and Knives Out (2019).

He appeared in the London stage production of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child  in 2004.

Walsh recalled: ‘My job is to come in and move the story along. The stars don’t do the exposition. I’m driving the movie forward. I just try to sublimate myself and get in there and do it.’

He was inducted into the Character Actor Hall of Fame by his Blade Runner co-star Harrison Ford In 2018. 

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 289

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