The Drowning Pool (1975)

Better Late Then Never

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is follow up to "Harper" and Paul Newman reprises his role as a private detective loosely based on Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer. The plot is based around Harper being a few years older but basically the same style PI you came to like in Harper. He is smart and has a drive to finish a case; even if he ends up in trouble. You get a mix of Joanne Woodward, Melanie Griffith (as a teen), Tony Franciosa (doing a very good job acting) and a stellar supporting cast. There are a lot of twists and turns, a lot of dialog, one shootout - it's Newman as Harper! Set in pre-Katrina New Orleans, "The Drowning Pool" is a rich stew of intrigue, great cast performances and classic MacDonald twists and turns within a dangerously dysfunctional family. Paul Newman completely inhabits Lew Harper's character, the settings are alternately grand and deliciously seedy, and the cinematography is excellent. A very young Melany Griffith place the infant terrible' in this film, not bad for a kid breaking into the movie game. But the chief action focuses on Newman and he does not disappoint. There's also some interesting plot points involving oil off the coast, and the resulting corruption of the police as money was shovelled around to secure drilling rights.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Paul Newman is the same private detective he played in "Harper" but about the only connection between the two films is his mostly offhand attitude towards events. "The Drowning Pool" is set in New Orleans and doesn't have a dozen recognizable character actors in supporting roles. It's more focused, less ambiguous, and doesn't end with a great big question mark. Newman digs up all the answers and leaves the resolution in the hands of the locals. Of course he gets slugged a few times and almost drowned but he does some slugging of his own.It's a complex mystery story and rather routine. The director was Stuart Rosenberg, who gave us a genuine handful in "Cool Hand Luke" but here is saddled with a pedestrian script. A lot of sentiment is lavished on the apparent suicide of Joanne Woodward, a local belle whom we've hardly gotten to know. The ultimate killer is a flighty young girl who hardly seems capable of such intrigue.Yet the film has its moments. There is, for instance, Paul Newman's first abduction by the local oil baron, Murray Hamilton. In a scene we're all familiar with, three or four over-sized goons approach Newman and order him into their car. Newman backs away with a determined expression and says, "Look, I think it's only fair to warn you fellas that my hands are registered in California as lethal weapons." One of the fellas opens his jacket to reveal an automatic tucked into his belt. Newman laughs it off with a joke about only being a brown belt. But the switch from defiance to compliance is done with a panache that only Newman could deliver. Burt Reynolds would have tried but not succeeded. Neither Sylvester Stallone nor Clint Eastwood would have bothered trying.Then, later, there is a short exchange between Newman and Murray Hamilton, who is sitting on a couch complaining that his bad stomach won't let him eat the shrimp étouffé that he himself has prepared. Hamilton, who was a great snooker player against Newman in "The Hustler," asks with a vast phony smile just what it is that Newman wants. "I want a big chunk of those oil fields," Newman replies. A moment passes while Hamilton continues to smile off into empty space, before replying, "You know, in addition to this bad stomach of mine, I think Nature has left me a little hard of hearing." I know it's not funny in print but it is on screen.Final moment: Newman and the nicely assembled Gail Strickland are in their underwear gasping for the bit of air remaining in a space at the top of a hydrotherapy room in an abandoned mental hospital. (Don't ask.) Gail Strickland has always reminded me of Gayle Hunnicut, another Southern beauty, so much so that I've come to believe they're one and the same person. No? Then let me ask: Has anyone ever seen them in the same room at the same time? I thought not. Q.E.D.

Somewhat formulaic 'tec thriller from the mid 70's with getting-on-a-bit Paul Newman reprising his Harper PI role to investigate the rich, Southern, dysfunctional family into which an old flame of his has married and recently been subject to blackmail letters.Harper's investigations uncover, as you might expect, all manner of intrigues as skeletons start falling out of closets with increasing regularity and naturally individuals keep getting bumped off at periodic intervals. Don't try too hard to keep up with the convoluted plot which probably reads better in a chunky paperback than it plays on the wide screen and enjoy instead Gordon Willis' excellent cinematography and Newman strolling through a part he could obviously play in his sleep.At times, it seems no better than those adult detective tales Frank Sinatra took on in the late 60's or even an above average episode of say, "The Rockford Files" or "Harry O" from its TV contemporaries, but it does save itself for a big finish, where Newman and the big bad murderous oil baron's disaffected wife reduce themselves to their underwear to effect an 11th hour escape from the drowning pool of the title.Other minor points of note include obviously a young Melanie Griffith playing the slatternly teenage daughter just a bit too gauchely and just count the number of times the classic "Killing Me Softly With His Song" appears on the soundtrack, well and truly done to death, to continue the metaphor (I didn't care for the odd Dixie-themed music which backdropped the rest of the film either).

This is one of the best films Newman made in a very distinguished career. It's his second performance as Lew Harper and this time he is away from his usual California stamping grounds. There are some very fine performances including a knock-out appearance from a very young Melanie Griffith. Ross MacDonald was one of the most thoughtful detective writers, with great plots and strong characterisations. If I had to choose one performance to highlight it would be Tony Franciosa as a tough but decent police chief. But there are no bad performances at all. And in this story, as with many others MacDonald wrote, the motive driving the villainous Kilbourne (brilliantly played by Murray Hamilton,) is big enough to justify the story. But something even darker is at work as we discover. A great and underrated film.