Goodnight, My Love (1972)

Very Cool!!!

Brilliant and touching

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It's Los Angeles 1946, and a money courier for a shady nightclub owner is killed en route to his destination; meanwhile, a blonde "tomato" has hired beaten-down gumshoe Francis Hogan (and his "small fellow" sidekick) to find her boyfriend, who's been missing for four days. TV-made noir, an early effort from talented writer-director Peter Hyams, has everything a slim budget can afford: period costumes and cars, faux-Art Deco decor, seedy racetrack types and bookie joints. Unfortunately, Richard Boone, while amiable, isn't exactly Humphrey Bogart; looking out-of-place in tatty suits and hats, it's rather disconcerting to see Boone playing the good guy (with his molten lava complexion and steely eyes, he looks more like one of the gorillas hired on by the heavy). Victor Buono's performance as the piggy-eyed villain (who amusingly uses words like 'semi-literate') is the stand-out here, and Barbara Bain is also very good as the damsel-in-distress (she's likened to a Veronica Lake type, but she's much more from the Lauren Bacall school). Hyams' plot turns out to be a shaggy dog mystery--much of which takes place off-screen--and the character relationships suffer as a result. There's a little snooping, a little shooting, some scuffles, a few dead bodies, but nothing intrinsically exciting happening at the movie's core. Hyams obviously has a love for Bogie mysteries and Raymond Chandler stories (the title alone is pretty much a riff on "Farewell, My Lovely"), and his affection is translated here with aplomb. What he's missing is the sharp sting of a good story. Those '40s-era pulp-detective dramas worked on a much bigger scale than their visual accouterments and smart talk alone--they had cutting wit, a tangible mystery, and three-dimensional good guys and bad guys (you knew exactly where you stood with them). There's no time on the clock to expand on this reedy plot, and not enough money in the budget to expound on the virtues herein. "Goodnight, My Love" is agreeable and nostalgic, yet its edges are far too smooth.

L.A. 1946 Richard Boone and Michael Dunn play a pair of world-weary private detectives in this superb television movie. The two are down to their last nickel and wondering where their next meal is coming from. There is a knock at the door and in strolls Barbara Bain."Would it be possible to hire you?" It seems her husband to be, Gianni Russo, is missing and Bain wants to find out why. A quick cash advance and Boone and partner are on the job. They head for the missing groom's rooms where not two steps inside, Boone's head is on the receiving end of a pistol butt.Once Boone has recovered, they pay a return visit to Miss Bain. While a simple case of finding a man is OK, a pistol whipping is not what they signed up for. They quit! Bain doubles their fee and back on the job the two go. A little digging and they find that Gianni is mixed up with mobbed up club owner, Victor Buono.Buono pulls out all stops as he gives a great Sydney Greenstreet imitation. Someone has bumped off a mob courier and helped himself to a suitcase with $400,000. And it seems that Bain's missing beau is the prime suspect.The mob is not amused and has put out a contract on Gianni. Boone and Dunn find that double cross on top of double cross is the order of the day with this bunch. Buono is short of cash due to some large gambling losses. He hires Gianni to bump off the courier with the suitcase and then return it to him. Gianni instead takes the suitcase and goes into hiding.Every time Boone gets close to finding Gianni, he finds himself on the wrong end of various fists, boots and gun barrels. Boone is not amused. When the boys do find Gianni, it is after he has taken a six story fall off a roof. Witnesses describe a woman who sounds a lot like Bain leaving the area just after her now ex's failed flight.Now it all comes clear to Boone. Bain was in on the scam with Gianni. Buono crosses the mob, Gianni crosses Buono, then Bain crosses Gianni. The only problem for Bain is that the suitcase was empty. Buono, assuming that he was going to get the suitcase back had given the mob courier an empty suitcase. When Gianni returned, Buono had intended to dispose of him, then use the cash he had kept to pay down his gambling debts. Buono's perfect plan goes all to hell because of a dame.Needless to say the mob soon figures this out as well. Soon Bain is added to the body count and the mob comes looking for Buono. He is next on the list for the long sleep. Boone and Dunne return to their office to wait for the next fool to walk in.This is one great film! The dialogue is superb with the back and forth between Boone and Dunn being utterly priceless.Directed by Peter Hyams whose work includes, Outland, Time Cop, Sudden Death, Narrow Margin, (the remake) and the strange P.I. film Peeper.

We watch people boarding a bus, circa 1944/45/46. A man is seated in the back quietly, when a soldier sits down next to him. For what must represent at least an hour or two of traveling the soldier is just jabbering away, while the man next to him is...well trapped, hoping this clown will just move away, leave the bus, or shut up. Finally they are the last two on the bus when they reach a stop. The soldier says it's his stop, picks up his duffel bag, says good bye to the man, pulls out a gun with a silencer, and shoots him. He then pulls a large package out of the dead man's pocket, puts it into his duffel bag, and leaves the bus. And our movie of the week begins.GOODNIGHT, MY LOVE was a valentine to the film noir of the 1940s and 1950s. Barbara Bain is the woman who goes to the private eye offices of Richard Boone. She is looking for her brother, who is missing. Soon it turns out this missing man is the "soldier" in the opening of the film. But the identity of the dead man is learned too - it is a courier carrying papers concerning the nightclub run by Vicor Buono. Boone's job is to find the missing man, but also to find out why the courier was hit. And there some people who appear not to want Boone to find any of this out. But from the start the film is goofy. Boone's partner - one hesitates to call him his "Miles Archer" - is diminutive, but great actor Michael Dunn. Their firm is not doing so hot, which may explain Bain's hiring them. But soon Dunn's height shows it's usefulness. Somebody knocks at the firm's door, and Dunn goes to answer - and six bullets are pumped through the door's center (which would have killed a regular sized man answering, but happens to pass over a surprised Dunn's head). Unlike Bogart in MALTESE FALCON, Bain is no Mary Astor. In fact she remains consistently business-like regarding why she hired Boone (much to his dismay). The obvious villain, of course, is Victor Buono as "Julius Limeway", a definite part in homage to the great Sidney Greenstreet. Buono is always seen at his nightclub, usually dining. He wears white tuxedos all the time. Dunn, getting fed up with Buono's sinister airs, lectures him before leaving that if he is going to wear white, he should not eat dishes with tomato sauce. Dunn and Boone leave the scene to Buono, last seen dipping his napkin into a water glass and rubbing his suit's lapel very heavily.It was a different and welcome television movie, and one hopes it will show up again some time.

Made during the `Glory Days' of the ABC Movie of the Week, when they were putting out some real quality TV-Movies (The Night Stalker; Dr. Cook's Garden; A Brand New Life; Congratulations, It's a Boy; Five Desperate Women), this one ranks with the best of them.Chandler-esque detective yarn, great atmosphere, clever dialogue, and perfectly cast (particularly Michael Dunn, probably the greatest Little Person actor in Hollywood history). Catch it if you can. A true gem.