The Drowning Pool (film)

The Drowning Pool

original movie poster
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Produced by David Foster
Lawrence Turman
Written by Tracy Keenan Wynn
Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Walter Hill
Starring Paul Newman
Joanne Woodward
Anthony Franciosa
Murray Hamilton
Gail Strickland
Melanie Griffith
Music by Michael Small
Cinematography Gordon Willis
Edited by John C. Howard
Production
company
First Artists
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates
  • 1975 (1975)
Running time
109 min.
Country United States
Language English, French

The Drowning Pool is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and based upon Ross Macdonald's novel of the same name. The film stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Anthony Franciosa, and is a sequel to Harper. The setting is shifted from California to Louisiana.

Synopsis

Private detective Lew Harper (Paul Newman) investigates a blackmail plot in Louisiana bayou country involving the daughter (Melanie Griffith) of an old flame of his, Iris Devereaux (Joanne Woodward).

Harper is caught up in a power struggle between Iris and oil tycoon Jay Hue Kilbourne (Murray Hamilton), while local police authority Broussard (Anthony Franciosa) has a personal interest in the family and wants the private eye gone.

At one point, the complicated plot has Harper and Kilbourne's wife Mavis (Gail Strickland) locked in a hydrotherapy room, with the water rising to the ceiling, hence the film's title.

One scene features a corrupt cop, Franks (Richard Jaeckel), who eventually meets his end when Jay Hue spurs two male attack dogs on to kill him; the dogs leap onto Franks, killing him offscreen.

Cast

Production

Producers David Foster and Lawrence Turman optioned the rights to MacDonald's novel The Drowning Pool (1950) for director Robert Mulligan. Hill was hired to adapt it.[1] Hill later estimated that only two minor scenes in the film were true to his adaptation.[2]

Reception

The movie was nominated as best picture of the year by the Edgar Allan Poe Awards.

A.H. Weiler of The New York Times said in the review: "Under Stuart Rosenberg's muscular but pedestrian direction, the script, adapted from (Ross Macdonald's) 1950 novel, transports our hero from his native California to present-day New Orleans and its bayou environs. ... Of course, Mr. Newman's Harper survives beatings, traps and a variety of enticing offers with quips, charm and inherent decency projected in underplayed, workmanlike style. If his performance is not outstanding, it is a shade more convincing than the characterizations of the other principals, who emerge as odd types and not as fully fleshed, persuasive individuals. ... Unfortunately, the performances and such authentic facets as Cajun talk, bayous, New Orleans and an imposing, white-pillared, antebellum mansion set amid wide lawns and ancient live oaks, serve only to make The Drowning Pool a mildly interesting diversion." [3]

Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed 2-stars out of a possible 4 rating. He wrote that the basic premise of The Drowning Pool was "straightforward thriller material, and could have made a decent B movie. But since "The Drowning Pool" is a Paul Newman vehicle, it goes first class, and that turns out to be fatal. So much attention is given to making the movie look good visually that the story gets mislaid..."[4]

DVD

The Drowning Pool was released on November 14, 2006, as part of the Paul Newman Collection DVD box set.

See also

References

  1. Barbra Nightingale: SELECTED SHORTS DETECTIVE WHO? TOUCHDOWN! Nurse Barbra By A. H. WEILER. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 29 Apr 1973: 135.
  2. "Hard Riding", Greco, Mike, Film Comment 16.3 (May/Jun 1980): 13-19,80.
  3. A.H. Weiler, "Newman as Harper: Detective Resurfaces in 'Drowning Pool'" N.Y. Times Review, June 26, 1975
  4. http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-drowning-pool-1975

External links

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