Physical Evidence (1989)

Physical Evidence is a 1989 mystery crime thriller, it’s a courtroom drama and it also has serious neo-noir vibes.

It was directed (but not written) by Michael Crichton. It might seem like an outlier in Crichton’s filmography but in his early career as a novelist he wrote relatively straightforward thrillers so it’s reasonable to assume that he had some affinity for the thriller genre.

It starts with a very impressive visual set-piece on a bridge. Which leads to the discovery of the body of Jake Farley, a sleazy nightclub owner with a spectacularly shady past.

Cop Joe Paris (Burt Reynolds) is arrested for Farley’s murder. Joe is already on suspension. He’s a good cop with a very short temper which has landed him in trouble many times.

Hotshot lady lawyer Jenny Hudson (Theresa Russell) works for the Public Defender’s Office and she begs for the case. It will be a very high-profile case, the kind of case that can make or break an ambitious lawyer’s career.

The audience has no idea whether or not Joe is guilty. The evidence against him is very strong but if he is being framed by someone powerful you would expect that, and Joe has plenty of powerful enemies.

Jenny Hudson also has no idea whether or not Joe is guilty. She’s a lawyer. Her job is to defend him either way.

And the uncertainty about Joe’s guilt is maintained quite skilfully, for a while at least. The evidence against him steadily accumulates but the possibility that someone might be framing him also increases. We still do not know. Nor does Jenny. It’s a good basis for a neo-noir suspense thriller and it works.

The main problem is that this is the most potentially interesting aspect of the plot and it gradually gets lost and the story thereafter becomes rather routine.

There’s also the problem that courtroom dramas are always dull because courtroom scenes are always dull. They’re stagey, rather than cinematic. They’re all about dialogue and dialogue scenes are inherently uncinematic. They’re at best a necessary evil. And it’s very difficult to get away from that staginess in courtroom scenes.

I have seen very few Burt Reynolds movies but he’s pretty good here, not making Joe too sympathetic but just sympathetic enough.

Theresa Russell’s specialty was playing offbeat roles in offbeat roles in offbeat movies for directors like Ken Russell and her husband Nicolas Roeg. This is a much more straightforward role but she handles it well. I like the way she does the full-on power-dressing girl boss thing on the job but throws off that persona as soon as she’s off-duty. She’s a pro. The girl boss routine is part of the job.

The sexual tension between Joe and Jenny works quite well because they’re so radically mismatched. Yes, that’s an established formula, but Reynolds and Russell carry it off well enough.

It bombed at the box office but there’s nothing really wrong with this movie. It’s a bit like an old-fashioned B-movie or a well-crafted TV-movie. It’s decent entertainment but it isn’t going to knock your socks off. And if, like me, you’re a bit of a Theresa Russell completist you’ll enjoy her performance.

This movie is paired with The Anderson Tapes on a double-header Blu-Ray from Mill Creek. There are no extras but it looks terrific. Physical Evidence isn’t particularly special but if you buy the set for The Anderson Tapes (and you should) it’s worth giving Physical Evidence a spin as well.

Five and Ten (1931)

Five and Ten (later retitled Daughter of Luxury) is a 1931 MGM pre-code romantic melodrama. It was a star vehicle for Marion Davies, with her co-star being Leslie Howard who was not yet a major name in the United States.

The Depression is an important factor in many pre-code movies but it’s ignored completely in this movie which may reflect the fact that it’s based on a novel (by Fannie Hurst) written prior to the Wall Street Crash.

Five and Ten is a story of love but this is also very much a movie about the class struggle. No, not that class struggle. This is is not the capitalists vs the workers, the upper class vs the working class. This is class struggle within the upper classes. This is the old money blue blood American aristocracy vs the rising power of the nouveau riche new upper class. This was a very real class struggle, not just a device invented for the movie.

John Rarick (Richard Bennett) and his family represent the upstart nouveau riche. Rarick owned a chain of five and dime stories in Kansas. Now he owns an immense nationwide chain and he’s fabulously rich. That made him decide to relocate, with his family, to New York City.

His wife Jenny (Irene Rich) and daughter Jennifer (Marion Davies) are at first very excited. They assume that they will be welcomed into high society in New York. But New York is not Kansas City. They are snubbed by New York high society. And for a woman there is no humiliation to compare with being snubbed by society women.

Jenny has consoled herself by taking a lover. He gives the impression of being a gigolo but Jenny doesn’t care.

John Rarick has no idea what is going on and he had no idea how lonely and socially isolated Jenny had started to feel. The truth is that John Rarick has ceased to understand anything other than money.

He is also unaware that daughter Jennifer has been snubbed as well.

Now Jennifer has met Berry Rhodes (Leslie Howard). He’s an architect, or claims to be although he’s really just a dilettante. He spends his time playing polo and going to parties. Berry is perpetually broke but that doesn’t matter. He is a blue blood. His family is Old Money. As far as society in New York is concerned he is very much an insider. He is engaged, in a desultory fashion, to Muriel Preston (Mary Duncan), also very much of Old Money stock.

Jennifer has decided that she’s going to marry Berry. It’s impossible of course. There is that yawning class gap between them. But Jennifer is a very determined girl.

Perhaps she is motivated partly by a desire to storm the walls of the fortress of society but she is genuinely besotted by Berry’s aristocratic sophistication and self-confidence and stylish elegance.

And Berry has fallen for Jennifer, although that doesn’t mean he will choose a nouveau riche girl in preference to blue blood Muriel. It’s going to be an epic battle between these two women.

Meanwhile Jennifer’s brother Avery has turned to the bottle.

I adore Marion Davies. She’s funny, she’s lively, she’s charming and she’s sexy. She’s gorgeous and she has those incredible eyes. It’s unfortunate that she is often dismissed due to the vicious hatchet job Orson Welles did on her in Citizen Kane.

Leslie Howard is pretty good here and you can see why he would soon start making an impact in Hollywood.

Is it pre-code? The answer is very definitely yes but to tell you why would involve spoilers.

Five and Ten is an excellent pre-code melodrama and Marion Davies is sensational. And directed by Robert Z. Leonard, maybe not an auteur or a visionary but just a guy who directed a lot of excellent movies. Very highly recommended.

The Warner Archive DVD looks very nice.