Thoughts on Hustle(1975)

Until a found a copy of this flick at the bottom of the budget DVD shelf at a local used video store, I had never heard of Hustle. I bought because just due the DVD cover alone. It had mid 70's Burt and the french beauty Deneuve, so how could i go wrong.Hustle luckly turned out to be really good and well worth the 3 bucks i spended on it.

Hustle is film about a complex web of guilt,vice, and hidden lies. Everyone in the movie is guilty or hiding something in classic film noir mold. The story centers around the death of a teenage girl found at a local beach. Her father(Ben Johnson) wants answers and attack against anyone who drugged her up or murdered her,even thou the cops keep saying it was a suicide. Burt Reynolds plays the cop on the case,who quickly pins her death to a local business man,played by Eddie Albert. But the case isn't that simple, he soon finds out about a underbelly of vice and corpison all around him.


Hustle is another great neo noir,or new wave film noir. It takes the basic structure of a classic film noir and updates it. Burt plays very much one of those old cop/private eye type you see in all those movie, even to the point where he hides a bottle of bozse in his fileing cabinet. With it also being new wave ish theres many in jokes about older movies. Near the middle of the movie Burt's character says one of his heroes was Bogie. He also brings up Moby Dick many times,and is even watching at one point. Theres even a scene with Burt and his hooker girlfriend(played by Catherine Deneuve) where they go to see a french movie.



For a unknown movie, it sure does have a great cast. Burt is in his star prime still,this was before his downfall in the late 80's. Catherine Deneuve is pitch perfect as the cold yet loving hooker Burt falls for. Ben Johnson is kinda bored thurout,only getting into character during the last 3rd of the movie. Paul Windfield does very well as Burt as by the book partner.Ernest Borgnine has a small role as a sleazy boss of Burt and Paul. The Carrot juice scene is priceless. Eddie Albert has a smaller part as the business man/ xxx movie producer,his good tho he doesn't show up much. At the end of the movie theres a bit part of a robber played by Robert Englund.



Hustle was surpisely good for a cheap 70's Burt Reynolds crime flick. It had alot more to it then i thought it would. Really it's a movie about guilt or finding out how dirty everyone is. By the end everything is fix in this odd cookie cutter plot with everyone needs to get it in the end does. A very good watch.



NOTE: DVD cover very misleading