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With: Burt Reynolds, Catherine Deneuve, Paul Winfield, Eddie Albert, Ben Johnson, Eileen Brennan, Ernest Borgnine, Catherine Bach, Robert Englund
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Written by: Steven Shagan
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Directed by: Robert Aldrich
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MPAA Rating: R
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Running Time: 119
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Date: 12/24/1975
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All the Wrong Angles
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
After pleasing audiences with The Longest Yard, director Robert Aldrich made one for himself. Considered an auteur in France, Aldrich used his clout to make this European-edged film, a grim, yet fascinatingly sleazy look at corruption in the justice system, and even cast Catherine Deneuve in the bargain. The gamble did not pay off; everyone hated Hustle and it failed. Thirty years on, however, its integrity and patience look positively masterful.
Burt Reynolds turns in another great performance as Lt. Phil Gaines, a hardened cop who sleeps regularly with a high-priced prostitute (Deneuve). When a dead girl washes up on the beach, the police treat the case with a cavalier disregard because the girl's father is a "nobody." But when the father, a Korean War veteran (Ben Johnson), begins taking things into his own hands, Gaines and his partner (Paul Winfield) begin to dig deeper. The film has an angry, nihilistic edge hidden among its static, darkened cinematography, and even Reynolds' relationship with Deneuve can seem strained... as if nothing beautiful could possibly exist in this world.
Eddie Albert, also in The Longest Yard, returns as a powerful, sleazy lawyer. Ernest Borgnine and Catherine Bach (Daisy Duke on TV's The Dukes of Hazzard) co-star. Robert Englund, several years before he became Freddy Krueger, appears briefly as a hold-up man. Paramount's 2005 DVD release comes in a clean, new, letterboxed transfer with optional English subtitles and no other extras. In 2023, Kino Lorber released a Blu-ray edition.
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