With the neo-noir movement in full swing, “Night Moves” (1975) is a well-crafted example of the form, so on-point that a lot of the pleasure comes from the expected hardboiled one-liners. Many characters get in on it, but Gene Hackman gets the one I most chuckled at, responding to a promiscuous, past-her-prime starlet’s offer of a shared bath: “Maybe some other time, when I’m feeling really dirty.” A great line made greater by Hackman’s smirk.
From director Arthur Penn and writer Alan Sharp, “Night Moves” is grimy and dirty in all the best ways, one of those mysteries where everyone is a bad person; it’s just a matter of degree. And the detective doesn’t have his life together by any means, but he has a laser-sighted moral compass in the tradition of Sam Spade from Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon.” A rival in a love triangle (Harris Yulin, who like Hackman died this year) asks Hackman’s Harry Moseby if he’ll take a swing at him “like Sam Spade.” (Notably, Moseby doesn’t.)
Keys to the case
The Thirties-set “Chinatown” (1974) might’ve been on moviegoers’ minds at the time, and “Night Moves” is a sort of modern (at the time) answer to that, wherein the sawed-off one-liners are comfort food. Moseby’s first lead on the case, James Woods’ Quentin, explains away his bruises as coming from taking “second prize in a fight.”
“Night Moves” (1975)
Director: Arthur Penn
Writer: Alan Sharp
Stars: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Edward Binns
Moseby is having marital problems with Ellen (Susan Clark), an antiques dealer who hates that he’s a detective. But like Philip Marlowe in “The Long Goodbye,” he can’t change. He’s based out of Oakland, but this case takes him to the Florida Keys, where he meets another noir trope, the Lolita-esque Delly (Melanie Griffith in her first role), a teenager prone to changing clothes outdoors and deep-sea diving in the nude.
The case is initially about finding Delly, the daughter of the aforementioned middle-aged ex-star who still brags about her tits (Janet Ward’s Arlene), and bringing her back to the Bay Area. Then a second case emerges.
The ease with which people of interest allow Moseby into their lives is quite a contrast to Jake Gittes’ experience in “Chinatown.” Maybe they recognize Moseby isn’t as skilled of a detective, or think the whole idea of a private eye in the post-Watergate Seventies is absurd. “Free love” has led to “free crime” in this movie’s world.
When clues lead Moseby to a stunt shoot on a Hollywood film, the director (Edward Binns, given as many zingers as Hackman) invites him to stay in his trailer after a boozing session. And Moseby later spends several days with Delly, her stepdad Tom (John Crawford) and the stepdad’s girlfriend Paula (Jennifer Warren) at their shack in the Keys. Tom openly admits to being a smuggler.
In the heat of the ‘Night’
“Night Moves” is one of those films you don’t want cleaned up too much in a restoration. The grime is part of the appeal. Under the lens of Bruce Surtees, everyone is sweaty in the Bay Area, and sunburned and sticky in the Keys, where you’ll wash your face in ocean water if that’s what’s available.
We’re not talking about the shades and patterned shirts of “Miami Vice” here; at one point, Moseby draws up window blinds as sloppily as a bachelor who has never encountered blinds, and it’s not even commented upon. Despite these daylight places, there are plenty of night scenes, some of the type where only Moseby’s dashboard-lit face peeks out from the black.
And we’re not talking about a massive crooked political game involving big-city utility rights like in “Chinatown”; the villains’ scheme is comparatively mundane. But just as many people get hurt or killed in this out-in-the-open crime game, with Moseby seemingly the only one who cares about rules (something he’s criticized for by multiple people, even those who aren’t part of it).
Not necessarily a bad thing for this film, Moseby is not great at even playing the sorry detective role in this unwinnable game. At one point, he shuts off his answering machine in the middle of what could be an important message to answer a knock at his door. After the revelation that kicks off the second leg of the two-pronged mystery, I expected he’d go back to that message for answers, but he seemingly has forgotten about it.
Arguably, solving the case is a bonus, not the main point of “Night Moves,” which is more about people navigating murky morality. The narrator of the film’s trailer adds another bon mot: “It’s a game where every move is the wrong one.” By all rational accounts, Moseby shouldn’t be playing, but I’m glad he is — because of what Raymond Chandler said about his own Marlowe (the world is a better place with these people in it) but even more so for down-and-dirty entertainment value.