Night Moves (DVD)

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I've said this before but it bears repeating: Gene Hackman is one of only a handful of actors who always transcends the material he's in. Michael Caine is another. No matter how good or how bad the movie, Hackman and Caine can be depended upon to put in a first-class performance.

So it is with the 1975 release, "Night Moves." The plot is murky and not a little pretentious, but Hackman is superb throughout, almost, if not quite, salvaging the picture. It's probably a film worth seeing, if only for Hackman.

I love detective mysteries, so right there the film got my attention. Hackman as private eye Harry Moseby is almost irresistible in and of itself. Team him with director Arthur Penn, fresh from his triumphs in "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Little Big Man," and you get a formidable combination. Unfortunately, they have a script by Alan Sharp that lets them down, a story that takes almost half the movie to get started and too often meanders arbitrarily in dark subterranean soul searching.

The movie's strong suit is its colorful, often sharply etched characters, which is, in fact, what Penn specializes in. As Moseby, Hackman is ideal as a retired football player (Raiders) turned to investigative work in L.A. He doesn't make much money at his little office, but he's too independent (and too proud) to take a job with a big detective firm run by a friend of his, Nick (Kenneth Mars).

Shortly into the story, one of his own private investigations turns up evidence that his wife, Ellen (Susan Clark), is cheating on him with an intellectual type named Marty (Harris Yulin), who drives a Mercedes convertible and lives in a beach house. Moseby is away a lot; he and his wife don't communicate much or very well; and they both long for something indefinable in their lives. Moseby accepts a missing-persons case that takes him all the way to the Florida Keys, perhaps as an antidote to help him forget his marital problems; perhaps as proof to himself that he hasn't lost his touch in detecting; or perhaps to put a little adventure in his life.

As Moseby, Hackman is tough, often lost, but resigned to his fate. His character is also more than a tad naive, and the eye-opening circumstances he encounters seem to shock him as much as they may shock the audience. Hackman is never less than convincing in his portrayal, though, and without him we wouldn't have much of a movie.

His supporting cast is good, and you'll find some familiar names among them. Mainly, they are a diverse crew, each of whom has a dark side. There's Arlene Iverson (Janet Ward), a former movie actress, now big on the bottle, who hires Moseby to find her missing daughter. There's Delly Grastner (a young Melanie Griffith), the promiscuous teenage daughter who's disappeared. There's Tom Iverson (John Crawford), Delly's step-dad and Arlene's ex-husband, now living in Florida. There's Paula (Jennifer Warren), Tom's girlfriend. There's Quentin (a young James Woods), a shady mechanic. And there's Joey (Edward Binns), a second-rate movie director. They've all got secrets, and if they're women they all want to jump into Harry's bed.