The Grifters ***** (1990, Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening) – Classic Movie Review 1354

Director Stephen Frears’s hardboiled 1990 thriller takes no prisoners and does 100 per cent justice to its rightly revered source author Jim Thompson. It finds Anjelica Huston on scalding form as Lilly Dillon, a small-time crook who lives dangerously and cheats the Mob.

There’s tremendous work too from John Cusack as Lilly’s estranged son Roy, Annette Bening (his moll, Myra Langtry) and Pat Hingle (as the sinister Mob boss, Bobo Justus).

Lily is a veteran con artist who works for Bobo Justus, a bookie. She places bets to change the odds at the track, handling playback at horse racing tracks, that is making large cash bets to lower the odds of longshots.

Lilly begins to rethink her life when Roy, a small-time grifter, suffers an almost-fatal injury after he’s hit by a baseball bat after a failed scam. When he is hospitalised, she discovers unexpected feelings for him, causing her own job to go wrong as well.

Co-produced by Martin Scorsese, this superb neo film noir boasts a brilliant screenplay by author Donald E Westlake, based on Thompson’s classic 1963 pulp-fiction novel. It is made in America in the same year as another Thompson adaptation, After Dark My Sweet, by inspired British director Frears, in a triumph of an unexpected choice. Scorsese originated the project and brought Frears in to direct while he produced.

The Grifters’s pace, cheek and style are breathtaking. It is full of things that may offend some and entrance others, but will amaze everybody, for its an amazing movie.

Oliver Stapleton’s cinematography, Dennis Gassner’s production designs and Elmer Bernstein’s score are all the classiest of contributions, and all essential to the movie’s success. There were four Oscar nominations, though no wins. Despite all the great work, it was not a box office success however, taking only $13.5million in America.

Jim Thompson was born on September 27, 1906 in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He was also known for Paths of Glory (1957), The Killing (1956) and The Getaway (1972), The Killer Inside Me (1976, 2010), Coup de torchon [novel Pop. 1280] (1981) and The Kill-Off(1989). He was a member of the American communist party for a time and was blacklisted during the McCarthy communist witch-hunt era. But eventually broke with the party. After a series of strokes, he starved himself to death on 7 April 1977 in Hollywood.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1354

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/