What’s New in Old Movies: March 2025
The Gene Hackman Edition
by Don Stradley
The recent death of Gene Hackman occurred under such confounding circumstances that it partly overshadowed his amazing movie career. Collectors might be glad to know that some of Hackman’s best films have recently been made available in physical media form. There’s no better way to appreciate this two-time Oscar winner than by enjoying these new Blu-rays.
The final image of Arthur Penn’s Night Moves (1975) certainly gets the movie pundits in a lather. Hackman is private eye Harry Moseby, shot to pieces but trying to steer his motorboat to shore. From above, we see Harry’s boat circling aimlessly in the Gulf Stream. It’s the sort of ending that leaves a viewer slightly confused and leaves critics tripping over their tongues trying to explain it. It’s a bummer, that’s for sure.
But don’t let your aversion to despair prevent you from watching Night Moves. I think it trumps the flashy but self-conscious Chinatown as an example of neo-noir, mostly because it doesn’t dress itself up in period garb; instead, it settles into its own timeframe, with Moseby being as much a man of the ‘70s as he is of the old gumshoe tradition. Moseby, like Sam Spade, doesn’t mind roughhousing a guy for some information, and he certainly handles his share of alluring women, but he’s a man of his day, dealing with a cheating wife, an estranged father, and his own shattered dreams. Poor Harry is not only a failed football player, but he’s even failing in his second career, that of a private investigator. Raw-boned but intelligent and slightly melancholy, Hackman was born to play Moseby. He’s in his prime here, on the heels of those great performances in The French Connection and Scarecrow. As Moseby, he’s too noble for the work he’s in, but not too noble to mingle with the people he’s investigating.
The screenplay, by Brit novelist turned Hollywood writer Alan Sharp, borrows all the right elements from the private eye playbook: A faded actress hires Moseby to locate her missing daughter, Delly. The search brings Moseby to Florida where he finds Delly with her stepfather Tom, a charter pilot who seems to be part of a smuggling operation. It’s all a bit vague but beautifully played by Hackman and company. The supporting cast includes a young James Woods as a slippery mechanic who knows more than he lets on, and a 17-year-old Melanie Griffith as the sinfully attractive Delly (short for Delilah). John Crawford plays Tom as a dopey, middle-aged doofus, but his climactic showdown with Hackman is one of the unsung fight scenes of the ‘70s.
Filming took place during the second half of 1973 in Los Angeles as well as Sanibel and Captiva Islands, Florida. It was a troubled production. Hackman was enduring some personal problems, Penn struggled with the darkness of the material, and Sharp complained about Penn’s “indecisiveness.” The director cut scenes that slowed the action, which gives the film its quick pace but added to the sense that we’re missing something. Penn admitted that halfway through the shoot he stopped caring about creating a detective story and became more interested in Harry Moseby’s inner-self. “We didn’t pay that much attention to plot,” Penn said at the time of the movie’s premiere in 1975.
In the years since Night Moves first hit theaters, its supporters have praised it as an under-appreciated gem, and I agree. There are some great lines here, like when Moseby’s wife walks in as he’s watching a football game. She asks, “Who’s winning?”“Nobody,” he says. “One team is just losing more slowly.”
Criterion’s new 4K Ultra HD of Night Moves is available March 25. There are tons of special features, most concerning Arthur Penn.
The Conversation (1974) saw Hackman as Harry Caul, a private surveillance expert hired to record an encounter between a young couple. When he realizes their lives might be at stake, he dissolves into an almost debilitating paranoia. Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, The Conversation shows a different sort of Hackman. Harry Caul is pious, sullen, secretive, as if spending so many years spying on people has left him with a damaged nervous system.
The film earned three Oscar nominations and is a cult favorite among film buffs. Not only is The Conversation an intriguing look at a man being consumed by his work, but it features a staggering cast of familiar faces. Frederic Forest and Cindy Williams play the couple Caul is hired to follow, while other cast members include John Cazale, Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, and the always lovable Teri Garr, who is onscreen for only a few minutes but is quite moving as Caul’s neglected girlfriend.
Lionsgate Films recently issued a limited edition 50th anniversary SteelBook of The Conversation. Special features include interviews with Hackman and Coppola, screentests of Cindy Williams and Harrison Ford, and a slew of other items, including an old Coppola short called No Cigar, from 1958. It is available now.
Speaking of impressive casts, there are no complaints about the players in Narrow Margin (1990). Hackman headed an ensemble that included Anne Archer, James Sikking, Nigel Bennett, and two of the great screen heavies of the period, J.T. Walsh and M. Emmet Walsh. Directed by Peter Hyams — he was most noted for action movies starring Sean Connery and Jean-Claude Van Damme – Narrow Margin is from a time when Hollywood still made good little thrillers, perfect for a blustery winter night. It’s a typical suspense tale of a woman (Archer) who witnesses a Mob hit and goes on the run. Hackman plays the Los Angeles District Attorney assigned to bring her back safely to trial. They end up confined aboard a transcontinental luxury train, trying to outwit a pair of hired killers.
Narrow Margin was a remake of a 1950s thriller of the same name, but as far as reboots go it is very fine. Hackman was 60, nearing the end of his prime, but still believable as a guy who could take on professional hitmen with a big grin on his face. Citing health concerns, Hackman would pursue less physically demanding roles in the future, but this was a solid goodbye to a certain kind of character he’d always played so well. Kino Lorber issued Narrow Margin as a two-disc 4K Blu-ray set at the end of last year. It is available now.
Hackman specialized in characters who were slightly broken down, or as syndicated columnist Ryan Murphy once put it, “His hallmark is making the ordinary man seem extraordinary.” Many forget that Hackman also starred in some romantic comedies, including Full Moon in Blue Water (1988), which reunited him with Teri Garr. In director Peter Masterson’s forgotten follow-up to his excellent The Trip to Bountiful, Hackman plays the embittered owner of a Texas Gulf Coast bar and grill. His wife has left him, and his new girlfriend (Garr) gallantly endures his sour personality.
The film, written by playwright Bill Bozzone, received mixed reviews, though the LA Times praised it as a quirky, if slightly cornball look at regular folks in a messy situation. Burgess Meredith, in particular, was hailed for his turn as Hackman’s wheelchair-bound father-in-law, “raging like a Gulf Coast Lear,” while cinematographer Fred Murphy was dubbed a “poet of light.” Syndicated critic Marshall Fine called it “one of the most engaging love stories of the year.”
It’s bittersweet to see Hackman and Garr here, two great ones who have recently passed away. Thanks to their many great performances, and the timeless films in which they appeared, Hackman and Garr were the reason many of us became movie fans. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave Full Moon in Blue Water a Blu-ray release in January 2025.
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