AlsExGal

There is a "cop confronts a crazy guy holding a hostage" scene in the middle of "Hustle," but the film makes clear that this is peripheral to the real problems of the city and the film's protagonist. Burt Reynolds plays an L. A. cop who is rather complacent and pays scant attention to the death of Ben Johnson's 20-something daughter until he is compelled to, largely to prevent Johnson from creating too much damage with his own one-man investigation.

The movie meandered along until its 2 hour running time was up. I couldn't detect any narrative urgency here, but maybe my problem was that I couldn't buy Reynolds as a cop with a moral crisis. I found Ben Johnson far more interesting and found myself wishing that "Hustle" had been about his efforts to find out where his daughter had gone wrong. (Wasn't that what Paul Schrader's "Hardcore" tried to do several years after this film?) Also, Ernest Borgnine dominated the too-few scenes he had as Reynold's unlikeable boss. Still, the supporting characters couldn't push the film over the top for me.

Speaking of supporting players, I thought the guy in the liquor store robbery looked familiar. He turned out to be Robert Englund, ten years before he took up residence on Elm Street as Freddie Kruger. That reminded me of Sylvester Stallone's and Jeff Goldblum's brief turns as robbers in "Bananas" and "Death Wish".

... but I have to say it really impressed me. It isn't first rate Fritz Lang, but it comes very close.

It is a hard to categorize movie, both in terms of genre and in terms of era. On the one hand, it is very erotic. The protagonist's thoughts about his housekeeper are very erotic, and Lang gets his thoughts across (and films the gorgeousness of the housekeeper) in a way that I found surprisingly frank for a 1950 Hollywood film. At the same time, there is a supernatural element of sorts to this film that made me think of the horror films of Val Lewton, which were long over by 1950. (The protagonist's obsession with the river made me think of the zoo in "Cat People," and the protagonist's death scene suggests the climax of "The Body Snatcher," although the death scene here is rushed.)

The biggest bone I have to pick with "House by the River" (apart from the utterly lackluster title. It isn't a title; it's a direction.) is that it is actually two films battling for dominance during a 90 minute running time. You have the story of the protagonist, who commits murder and becomes obsessed with the river, and you have the story of his brother, who becomes the victim of community gossip when everyone assumes that he committed the murder. To me, the two did not quite work together, possibly because the film's ending seemed a bit rushed/badly thought out.

Ruth Etting (Doris Day) is working in a dance hall when she gets fired for strongly rebuffing (as in stomping on his feet) someone who is paying to dance with her and feeling her up instead. Former gangster Martin Snyder (James Cagney) sees the altercation and is attracted to the girl. This starts him on the road of managing Ruth's career and Ruth herself.

I was impressed by Cagney's intensity in such an unsympathetic role, and that's primarily because Ruth is using him to get what and where she wants professionally and realizes that is exactly what she's doing. Day's performance came as something of a shock as her Ruth Etting is unlike anything else she ever did. She and Cagney have an unexpected rapport, dramatically speaking, and they really do strike sparks off each other, painting a vivid picture of an ugly, mutually dependent, dysfunctional relationship.

Forget about period detail, of course. Most period films made in the '50s look like the '50s, no matter what period they're supposed to be set in, and this one is no different. The actors look like people going to a "Roaring Twenties" costume party who had only a day or two to prepare for it.

I think Doris Day did some of her best singing in this movie with her doing mainly emotional ballads. There are no cheery orange juice and breakfast songs like "Que Sera Sera" or "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" or "Teacher's Pet". Why Doris Day wasn't at least nominated for a best actress Oscar is something I can't understand. Ironically, both Susan Hayward and Eleanor Parker were nominated that year for best actress Oscars for playing singers in which their singing was dubbed! James Cagney did get his final Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role as Martin Snyder, a man trying to desperately hold on to something - Ruth - that he never had in the first place.