Hustle (1975) Poster

(1975)

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7/10
A few more roles like this and Burt could have been a contender.
tvnutt20 July 2017
Burt Reynolds really channels a young Marlon Brando in this film. He plays Lt. Phil Gains and is a cool character who doesn't like to get too close to people(he has a penchant for 30's style music and vernacular). He lives with his girlfriend, played by Catherine Deneuve, who happens to be a Call Girl but neither of them are willing to give up the dangers(mental and physical) of their careers. However, they dream about running off to Europe. It's as if they are afraid of what will happen if they do.

To sum it up, Gains is called in to investigate the body of a young girl found dead on a beach. It is ruled a suicide but the girl's parents, mainly her father, refuse to believe it. The father, played by actor Ben Johnson, is seeking revenge and Gains wants to be one step ahead of him.

To me, the standout in this film is actor Eddie Albert, who I've always had a crush on. This is probably the creepiest role he ever played. He's a lawyer with mob connections and won't let anyone stand in his way. He is also a client of Deneuve's character and grins ear-to-ear when talking about the dead girl and the pleasure he and friends got from her. We're talking HUGE creep factor here. In one scene he refers to the girl by saying "She could get milk out of a crowbar." Don't think I need to explain THAT line.

This film is the typical 1970's cop film with lounge jazz music playing over a car scene. Pretty tame by today's standards but did earn an R-rating. There is reference to a porno film that is supposed to feature Albert's character Leo Sellers(again pushing that creep factor up!). "Hustle" is probably one of Burt's more forgettable films but it is fun to see him take to a role so seriously after seeing him in Smokey and his other action films.
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7/10
Switzerland also has that Nazi gold, don't forget.
lee_eisenberg4 June 2008
Having collaborated on "The Longest Yard", director Robert Aldrich cast Burt Reynolds and Eddie Albert again in the enigmatic "Hustle". Reynolds plays LA cop Phil Gaines. He and his wife have basically no relationship, so Phil lives with call girl Nicole Britton (Catherine Deneuve). When a young woman gets found dead on the beach one day, Phil and his colleague Louis Belgrave (Paul Winfield) get hired to investigate. They conclude that she died of a self-induced drug overdose. But they don't tell her parents (Ben Johnson and Eileen Brennan) that there were massive amounts of semen in all three orifices of the woman's body, and that the woman was a stripper in a nightclub. The father is convinced that this was not a suicide, and is determined to investigate on his own if necessary.

I have to say that the movie has a rather convoluted plot: the number of characters - and the question of each character's relationship to each other - makes the whole thing hard to follow at times. As it is, following the revelation of the body at the beginning, the movie sort of throws Phil into the story from right out of the blue. It seems that mostly, the movie functions as a look at the underbelly of 1970s LA, including a hostage situation in one scene. And, if all else fails, there's always something sexy for Catherine Deneuve to do (namely the part about what Switzerland has). A surprise appearance - although they do credit him - is Ernest Borgnine as Phil and Louis's superior; he's the only character who seems as if he's about to have a seizure or something.

Overall, I think that the movie is seeing, if only once. While it is true that the movie progresses pretty slowly, I actually would assert that that adds some realism: not every detective/action story has to be a series of explosions and mayhem.

All in all, a worthwhile movie. BTW, did you notice who the hold up man at the end is? It's Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. And I wonder if David Spielberg is related to Steven Spielberg.

Sammy Davis Jr. hugging Nixon...
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7/10
Burt Noir
cultfilmfreaksdotcom19 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
One of those "stick with it" kind of movies. After the success of the universally entertaining THE LONGEST YARD, director Robert Aldrich reteams with Burt Reynolds in a steamy/gritty cop melodrama that takes a little while to get going.

Reynolds is Phil Gaines, a bitter, worldweary detective who, living with a high priced prostitute, doesn't live the typical law and order existence. After the dead body of a drugged young girl turns up on the beach, Gaines and his partner, Paul Winfield's Belgrave, write it off as suicide. But a stubborn, unglued war veteran father, played with a frantic energy by Ben Johnson as Marty, can't let go.

Overlong scenes where Burt and hooker girlfriend Nicole – played by Catherine Deneuve – involved in tedious bouts of pillow talk (especially during the first ten minutes) distract from the real stuff: Gaines and Belgrave forced to take the investigation seriously as Marty (the father) sneaks around a local mob-run strip club for answers, stalking a seedy high profile lawyer played by YARD villain Eddie Albert.

Essential action scenes are thrown in whenever necessary, and yet beneath the surface is character-study of a cop discovering the truth of a victim who, having been involved in stripping and hardcore porn, wasn't very innocent to begin with. Conversations where Reynolds and Winfield discuss the validity of the case and the futility of life, while delving into pop culture movies and music, are the highlight.

A clean-shaven Reynolds, a few years shy of the signature mustache and mainstream stardom, is fitfully forlorn as a man lost in the Film Noir haze, and director Robert Aldrich makes even the slower parts interesting except those conversations with Deneuve: As a love interest, she's just not interesting.

And despite a tacked-on tragic finale, this cop/melodrama feels more like reading than watching – a good thing provided you won't be able to put this down once it picks up.
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Thoughtfully moody modern noir
LewisJForce15 July 2005
'Hustle' is an overlooked film, though it is easy to see why.

Stylistically it is very low-key with no notable flourishes or tricksiness. It boasts little in the way of 'action'. A hostage situation sequence seems to have been added purely to provide something in that line for fidgety Burt fans. It is profoundly cynical and resolutely (almost excessively) downbeat. But it is also very thoughtful, atmospheric, well acted and absorbing. A kind of modern dress companion piece to 'Chinatown'. And whilst not quite achieving the force and subtlety of that film, it remains highly creditable.

Reynolds is effective as the world weary cop in love with a French prostitute, a cipher whom Deneuve turns into a real person. Her character represents some sort of unattainable, glamorous continental dream to the policeman. This idea is explored and reinforced by numerous references and allusions to European cinema, culture and locale.

Burt looks uncannily like a youthful Brando and brings great restraint to a role which could have been horribly over-played. Ben Johnson, Eileen Brennan and Paul Winfield also all give good performances as beaten, screwed-up people. The outstanding turn, though, comes from Edward Albert as Leo Sellers, a wealthy and powerful businessman with dubious tastes and connections. This character is key to Steve Shagan's screenplay in the same way that John Huston's Noah Cross was to Robert Towne's 'Chinatown'. A persona symbolic of corruption and degeneracy, but also integral to the prosperity of the society he is such a part of. Sellers is a refined, intelligent man with a keen eye for people's weak spots and fingers deft enough to push all of their buttons at once. Mr. Albert brings him to life with a palpable evil.

'Hustle' is a film that I like to reacquaint myself with from time to time. Whilst Shagan's script is occasionally a tad overblown and too fruity for its own good, there are some great lines and moments. For me, it's noirish exploration of thwarted romanticism is pretty much irresistible.

A minor classic.
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7/10
sex and drugs
RanchoTuVu19 October 2006
The discovery of the nude body of a young woman on the beach gets dismissed as "just another suicide", though the story behind it is a sleazy one of pornography and leads to one satisfying conclusion and then another one that's merely tacked on. Burt Reynolds and Paul Winfield play two detectives who involve themselves in getting to the bottom of what actually happened to this girl, whose distraught parents are believably played by Eileen Brennan and Ben Johnson. Johnson won't accept suicide as an answer and discovers that his daughter was a nude dancer in a club and was in a pornographic film as well. Reynolds is living with Catherine Deneuve, a call girl who makes a lot of money with phone sex. There's a divergence as the plot tries to encompass Johnson's side of the story as well as Reynolds and Deneuve. The whole thing is bathed in a sleazy transparent red light and is only half bad, because Johnson's and Brennan's side of the story is nearly good enough to support Reynolds and Deneuve.
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7/10
Watched out of boredom
bjjames-1597215 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this movie as I was working and just needed some sound. However, I became hooked on the story line. Although it's about a prostitute that was found dead and how the father was dealing with it, I found I was also caught up in the relationship between Burt Reynolds character Phil and Catherine Deneuve's character Nicole. It took awhile for me to figure out that she wasn't his wife and was in fact his mistress. Although there was some cheesy acting and lines, I found I wanted to find out what happened. I was in tears when it looked like it was going to have a happy ending. Phil and Nicole were going to take a spur-of-the moment trip to San Francisco. Nicole was to meet Phil at the airport. On the way to the airport, Phil stops to get something at a convenience store. It get's robbed while he's there by a crook with a gun. He backed down and I thought perhaps he'd make it through, but he ended up chasing the guy and getting shot, dying. When Nicole saw his partner Louis coming towards her in the airport, she knew. I started bawling like a baby. I wanted that happy ending so much!
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6/10
Gritty and dark thriller with a big name cast giving acceptable interpretations
ma-cortes29 April 2022
This macho/action yarn with Burt Reynolds as Phil Gaines , as he's the center of the story as a wry police lieutenant , helped by his colleague Sgt. Louis Belgrave (Paul Winfield) . At the instigation of a unsettling father (Ben Johnson), our peculiar Los Angeles cop Gaines investigates the suspicious circumstances of a woman's apparent suicide . Then , the dead girl's daddy launches his own investigation . Little by little Phil is finding out clues , but things go wrong . She's the call girl . He's the cop. They both take their jobs seriously. She's the call girl. If the body's hot...call her. He's the cop. If the body's cold...call him.

¨Hustle¨ reteams filmmaker Robert Aldrich and actor Burt Reynolds after their box-office big hit with ¨The Longest Yard¨. Interesting and provoking script , but with several foul-moothed lines and disagreeable events . Burt Reynolds delivers a nice acting in his usual style as a bitter, cynical cop who investigates the case of a dead stripper/porno actress found on the beach . While the always cold Catherine Deneuve is fine as a hooker who has a troubled relationship with Reynolds . Both of whom play outlandish roles who dream of escaping from their gritty life but never make it . Decent character interpretations provide the real show from Eddie Albert , Ernest Borgnine , Jack Carter , Catherine Bach and Eileen Brennan, all of them help very much , elevating the spectacle , but it is Oscar winner Ben Johnson as a grieving dad who steals the spectacle. At the foot of the support cast , a young Robert Englund , after Freddy Krueger in the Elm Street movies , here doing one of his earlier appearances as a hold-up young man .

Filmmaker Robert Aldrich gives a tense and brilliant direction in this modern Film-Noir , though slow-moving and downbeat , at times . As Aldrich never misses a chance to emphasise the sordid , depressing scenes and the unnecessary . Aldrich began writing and directing for TV series in the early 1950s , and directed his first feature in 1953 (Big Leaguer ,1953). Soon thereafter he established his own production company and produced most of his own films , collaborating in the writing of many of them . Directed in a considerable plethora of genres but almost all of his films contained a subversive undertone . He was an expert on warlike genre (Dirty Dozen , The Angry Hills , Attack , Ten seconds to hell) and Western (The Frisko kid , Ulzana's raid, Apache , Veracruz , The last sunset) . Hustle(1975) rating : 6/10 , it's a must see in its genre.
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2/10
A horrid puzzle of sleaze and shallowness
scrapmetal729 July 2017
The elements of this film do not work. It is one of those movies like The Counselor or Righteous Kill that has a fine cast of talented actors and hands them an unworkable script. For Catherine Deneuve, the solution is simple. She should not be in this movie at all. She makes no sense as an upscale LA prostitute. Faye Dunaway or Catherine Bach (who is in the movie) could have played this part far more convincingly. It doesn't matter though because Deneuve's character shouldn't be in the movie anyway. Her scenes as a cop's love interest are so boring and pointless... they make the movie very hard to get through. Burt Reynolds is fine as a depressed alcoholic cop. His character pretty much does acts believably, drinking, hanging around bars, solving crimes when he can. It's not believable that he also runs around with Catherine Deneuve and goes to see French films with her, or that the filmmakers could have thought that we wanted to watch several long conversations between the two. Storywise, the characters talk about a young dead woman in vile ways, and it makes for very sleazy viewing, as does her father's roaming strip clubs trying to prove that she was murdered. The sleazy parts about the young dead girl jar badly with the pseudo-intellectual nonsense of the boring Reynolds-Deneuve scenes. The movie tries to have heart for it's absurd romantic plot line and has none for the portrayal of the victim and her parents, where it would actually make more sense. I'd always been told that George C. Scot's HARDCORE was a really sleazy movie. I saw it though, and I thought it had a lot of heart and an intelligent script. HUSTLE, by contrast, fails at showing heart and almost collapses under its own sleaziness. Almost, because what really collapses this film is dull romance between a realistic alcoholic burnout and a magical fairy lady from Narnia.
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9/10
Every man's in search of a white whale. And when you find him he usually kills you.
hitchcockthelegend18 January 2012
Hustle is directed by Robert Aldrich and written by Steve Shagan. It stars Burt Reynolds, Catherine Deneuve, Ben Johnson, Paul Winfield, Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert and Eileen Brennan. Music is by Frank De Vol and cinematography by Joseph Biroc.

A dead girl on the beach, that creates heat.

When the body of a young hooker and drug user is found on the beach, the weary LAPD detectives wrap it all up quickly as a suicide. But the father is having none of it and sets about doing his own investigation. All parties involved with the woman, known or presently unknown, are heading for a collision course.

You are doing it for a nobody.

It's a bleak and seamy L.A. that forms the setting for Aldrich's sadly undervalued neo-noir. A place where the police are often corrupt, turning a blind eye to illegal activities perpetrated by high profile suits, where pimps, pushers and prostitutes thrive. Unfaithful wives, a shoe fetish and rebuilt asses also mark the land! Our central cop is Lt. Gaines (Reynolds), a cynical classic movie buff yearning for the European world of harmony depicted in the movies he so enjoys. He's in a relationship with a French call girl (Deneuve), it's a strained relationship, but there is love there if the two of them could just unshackle their hang-ups and vulnerabilities. And then there's the tortured father of the dead girl (Johnson), an ex-serviceman of the Korean War, he's highly strung, volatile, he carries deep emotional baggage that will become heavier the more he learns about his baby girl's existence.

I'm starting to draw dirty pictures of what you do.

The case of the dead girl is merely a backdrop to the unravelling of the primary characters' make ups. This is very much a character driven piece, a slow burn, complex and cynical picture. All characters mean something, adding much to the near depressing tone that Aldrich, Shagan and Biroc have (rightly) favoured. These characters give the film many layers, rendering all dialogue to be of interest, while ensuring the narrative is not linear. It failed at the box office on release, it's perhaps not hard to see why. On the surface, via plot summary and marketing, the film lovers of 75 thought they were getting a murder mystery-cops and villains-crime story, with Reynolds leading the machismo fight for justice. But this is far better than your run of the mill crime picture, it's dark, brooding, and even allows itself some moments of humour to nestle in nicely with the uneasy nature of the beast. While the finale is pitch perfect noir, it's not apologia, it brings the film to a cruelly ironic close.

Patiently crafted by the brilliant Aldrich, and performed with considerable skill and emotion by the cast, Hustle is top line neo-noir and deserves a more appreciative audience. 9/10
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7/10
Almost
runamokprods26 July 2016
A good movie that could have been a great movie if Burt Reynolds was a better, deeper actor. Reynolds is a great screen presence, and can be amazing in the right role. But - at least for me - probing a damaged and psychologically complex character just falls a bit outside his wheelhouse.

This is a dark, bitter noir, abut cop in love with high priced call girl, who is sucked – against his will – into case of murdered sexually wild-child run away teen. There are some amazing scenes, a terrific supporting performance by Ben Johnson as the runaway's hurt and angry dad, and a powerful (if arguably obvious) last twist, but Reynolds just couldn't sell me on the pain and depth of the man.
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5/10
Ugly Movie About Ugly Quests
boblipton19 October 2019
Burt Reynolds is an LA police lieutenant. Paul Winfield is his partner. Catherine Deneuve is his call girl girlfriend. Ben Johnson is a little guy whose daughter just killed herself and he won't accept it. Robert Aldrich directed this portrait of the ugly life of a cop in an ugly city shot in ugly browns by Joseph Biroc. Surely beautiful people like Reynolds and Deneuve deserve better!

Aldrich had a propensity for directing movies about skirting the seamy side of life, but given the DIRTY HARRY movies' success, as well as the sort of 'private justice' modern-dress cop films John Wayne was making in the 1970s, this is a relatively restrained story, of people who skirt the borders between resignation and defiance. It's all very well done, but unappealing.
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8/10
Great Film-Noir
claudio_carvalho11 September 2005
When the body of a woman is found on an isolated beach, Homicide Lieutenant Phil Gaines (Burt Reynolds) and his partner, Sergeant Louis Belgrave (Paul Winfield), are assigned for the investigation. They conclude, with the support of the report of the coroner, that the victim, the hooker and strip-dancer Gloria Hollinger (Sharon Kelly), committed suicide using pills. They omit to the family the existence of excessive semen in Gloria's orifices, but her father Marty Hollinger (Ben Johnson), a veteran of the Korea war, does not accept the police findings and try to locate the possible criminal following a personal investigation. The leads point to the last person to be with Gloria, the dirty and powerful attorney Leo Sellers (Eddie Albert), and also a regular costumer of Phil's girlfriend, the prostitute Nicole Britton(Catherine Deneuve).

"Hustle" is a great film-noir. The story is politically incorrect and all the characters are sordid. Burt Reynolds is great in the role of a tormented, but correct and efficient cop, capable of simulate evidences,living with the dilemma that his girl-friend is a whore, and expecting one day to move to Rome with her. Catherine Deneuve is in the splendor of her beauty in the role of a prostitute. Paul Winfield plays a correct detective, but brutal and racist. Eddie Albert is in the role of a powerful man, capable of killing to reach his objectives. Gloria's mother is an unfaithful wife and Marty is a paranoid and obsessed man. The appearance of the precinct is very real and authentic. Robert "Freddy Kruger" Englund, in the beginning of his career, has a short but important participation in the end of the story as the holdup man in a store. In my opinion, this film is very underrated in IMDb User Rating. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Crime e Paixão" ("Crime and Passion")
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7/10
Burt wants out
hsimon-531 January 2006
Does anyone know the name of the opera piece that Burt plays while sitting in his car ? I haven't seen the movie in a long time but I remember thinking Burt did a good job and Eddie Albert was great . It was such an unusual part for Mr. Albert to play . Catherine Deneuve was nice to look at but she was cold . I have to get a copy and watch this again . The scene in Burts car really sticks in my mind . I can hear the music and I think Burt mentions the title but I have forgotten it . I thought Burt was believable in this role . Guess you can tell I'm treading water just trying to fill up the required ten lines . I really am only interested in the name of that song .
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4/10
A Slowwww Hustle
JasparLamarCrabb25 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
While not a complete failure, Robert Aldrich's neo-noir thriller is still not very good. Burt Reynolds plays a hard-bitten LA cop shacking up with call-girl Catherine Deneuve. He starts to question his home life while investigating the murder of another hooker. Surprisingly, there's little chemistry between Reynolds and Deneuve, and although they get into a couple of tussles --- physical and otherwise --- they're really not all that convincing as a couple. Would she REALLY stay away from Paris so long for HIM? Does he, a COP, REALLY find her aloofness so appealing that he would overlook her profession? HUSTLE is very slow going and the script by Steve Shagan is simply not compelling.

Although Reynolds and Deneuve seldom rise above their respective movie personas --- he's the bad cop to partner Paul Winfield's good cop and Deneuve, in a VERY rare Hollywood film, is pure ice --- the supporting cast is terrific. In addition to Winfield, the film features Eddie Albert, Norm Crosby, Eileen Brennan, and, in a throwaway cameo, Ernest Borgnine. Ben Johnson is misused and grossly overacts as the dead girl's distraught father. Aldrich lets him run amok!

Aldrich, who directed a lot of stylish movies in the 50s and 60s, lost his way by the 70s with movies like THE GRISSOM GANG and THE CHOIRBOYS. His direction here is flat, almost TV crime show level. At one point Reynolds and Winfield resemble Starsky and Hutch when they leap into action, jump into their car and screech away!
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"Yesterday When I Was Young"
Lechuguilla22 January 2008
Burt Reynolds plays Phil Gaines, a middle-aged California cop plagued by a midlife crisis. His wife is seeing someone else, and he's in love with Nicole (lovely Catherine Deneuve), a prostitute. His job as cop entails endless frustrations not only with criminals but also with victim relatives, two of whom are Marty Hollinger (Ben Johnson) and Marty's wife Paula (Eileen Brennan), whose daughter was found dead on the beach. And the case is Phil's to investigate.

Some viewers will object to the film's admittedly slow pace. And the film does have a problem, but I don't think it's the pace. I think the problem here is that the script doesn't give us enough reason to care about Phil Gaines and his life as a cop. That he dates a prostitute does not help. There's also insufficient back-story about him. Except for his love life, we really don't get to know him very well, certainly not well enough to foreshadow the film's implausible double climax.

Perhaps the script's biggest flaw, however, is its lack of focus. Too much screen time is given to the Marty Hollinger character and his silly efforts to solve the case of his daughter's death, on his own. Whose story is this: Phil Gaines' or Marty Hollinger's?

But "Hustle" is not a bad movie, really it isn't. The casting and acting are fine. I thought Eileen Brennan especially gave a memorable performance. The film's production design is good. And color cinematography is terrific. I really liked those outdoor scenes on the deck where Phil and Nicole chat about life and love, with "Yesterday When I Was Young" playing in the background. Such scenes convey a melancholy, nostalgic mood, consistent with Phil's midlife crisis.

Although the screenplay is flawed, "Hustle" is still worth watching at least once, for the underlying character study of a cop in midlife crisis, for the fine acting, and for the film's excellent cinematography and production values.
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6/10
Has some good aspects, but it's kind of boring
zetes17 December 2014
A somewhat typical and halfway decent neo-noir in the vein of Chinatown and Night Moves, though perhaps some wouldn't include it since the protagonist (played by Burt Reynolds) is a police detective. Still, it plays out very much like those kinds of mysteries. Reynolds is investigating the death of a teenage girl. It seems a pretty open-and-shut suicide case, but the girl's father (a really nasty Ben Johnson) insists that he's going to find out more. Reynolds and his partner (Paul Winfield) try to keep him out of trouble. Meanwhile, Reynolds is dealing with his complicated girlfriend situation. Catherine Deneuve plays his high-class whore girlfriend. The film also stars Eileen Brennan, Eddie Albert, Ernest Borgnine and Catherine Bach (Daisy Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard!). Robert Englund (Freddy Kreuger) also shows up as a liquor store robber late in the film. The story's okay, but kind of slow moving.
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6/10
pretty bad
KyleFurr25 November 2005
This is a pretty bad attempt at film noir and it also tries to be like Dirty Harry and fails. This was directed by Robert Aldrich and it's a shame since he directed a lot of great movies like Vera Cruz, Attack and The Dirty Dozen. Burt Reynolds plays a lieutenant who's girlfriend is a prostitute, played by Catherine Deneuve, and his partner like to beat up suspects. A young prostitute is found dead on the beach and they think it's a suicide but the girl's father, played by Ben Johnson, thinks otherwise and tries to investigate himself. Ernest Borgnine plays Reynolds boss who wants the case closed and Eddie Albert plays a lawyer who might have something to do the case. It's a pretty crappy movie and the ending just does not work whatsoever.
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3/10
train wreck noir
amosduncan_200018 March 2015
Coming off their career high hit "The Longest Yard" Reynolds and Aldrich tried a highly stylized LA thriller. That was all She wrote for Roburt" productions.

Even at a very young age I took a look at the reviews this film got and was

surprised how easy the critics went on it. Mostly it was ignored and allowed to die.

Aldrich has done good work ("Flight of The Phenix" is among my favorite movies)

but he is so out of his element trying to be stylish here. His efforts come off as

a tasteless slob trying to be classy.

Steve Shagen was slightly hot at the time, with his turgid "Save The Tiger" being

taken seriously in some quarters. But Aldrich should have known this script needed

some serious work or better yet, should have been thrown out all together.

The Dirty Harry/Death Wish element ( A double murderer somehow is let out

out of jail for good behavior, you know, just like real life) is perhaps the worst

bit of audience pandering. Then there is a consenting adults rape that

probably wouldn't go over today.

Visually ugly, terribly edited ( a sign of desperation and bad audience

testing, the film still has a train wreck sort of quality, we all become

bad cinema lookie lous. A great partnership of Burt and Bob was not

to be. Also, when something this cynical is this unconvincing, the result

is oddly upbeat.
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8/10
classic aldrich
obonas10 April 2011
Great, underrated film noir, expertly written, master class of the genre. Begs to be rediscovered. If you are a purist of noir, then this is a gift to you, courtesy of Aldrich. There is so much more to Burt Reynolds than people give him credit, and he proves it here. I may be alone in this, but i got the impression the film was lit for black and white and comes off badly in colour - the contrast is too extreme, and ultimately works against the film. Curiously, when i tuned it to b/w it looked incredible - as moody and mean as Aldrich would would have intended. And Deneuve isn't as bad as the critics made out. if you love noir and have a problem with this film, i can't begin to understand why.
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2/10
Flat thriller
michelerealini15 October 2005
I watched "Hustle" only because there is Catherine Deneuve -in fact this is one of the very few movies she made in Hollywood. The pair she forms with Burt Reynolds also interested me.

A LA detective has to discover why a young girl was found dead on a beach. He deals with the father, who obviously doesn't accept her loss and doesn't believe the police explanation -she has committed suicide. At the same time the detective has a relationship with a French prostitute, he dreams of taking her away from the job.

It's a flat unexciting thriller, with quite empty dialogs and useless characters (can anyone explain me what does Ernest Borgnine do in the story?).

Also the elements of the script are quite disconnected to each other -the murder of the girl and the relationship between Reynolds and Deneuve. Nothing is in-depth.

Catherine Deneuve, at the end, is only a decorative presence.

A big disappointment from Robert Aldrich -the director of "The Dirty Dozen".
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9/10
Wrong Movie, but Hustle still hustles way cool...
BOLTZ2U1 July 2005
Hustle is a terrific film with a a really nice performance by the always under used (the late great) Paul Winfield, he and Burt Reynolds work well together and Eddie Albert is scary as the low life "leo sellers". the stunt the one reviewer is talking about re: albino actor falling from high rise while blasting his pistol into camera is the late great, Dar Robinson from Reynolds' other film, "stick" in the early eighties. i'm glad this is on DVD now and finally a Reinold's' film that is letter boxed. i hope they can re-do the other films IE: "white lightning", "gator" and "shamus" in letterbox form especially "gator" cause it was shot in Todd A-O scope.
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5/10
Waste of talent
adrianovasconcelos31 January 2021
Director Robert Aldrich could and should have done a much better flick with the resources in hand: Reynolds in better form than usual, the unsurpassingly beautiful Deneuve, and great supporting actors like Ben Johnson, Eileen Brennan and Edward Albert, among others.

Instead, he comes up with a tame script with often inane dialogue; image editing is poor; sound editing mixes Aznavour with A MAN AND A WOMAN soundtrack bits; and Johnson beating Brennan and Reynolds beating up Deneuve really date this flick to the prehistoric era in mental and behavioral terms.

Ben Johnson's talent is wasted big time: he just disappears from the movie about two thirds into it. And he ain't dead, but wife Brennan is apparently thinking of seducing the much younger Reynolds, who also picks it up in the wind that Johnson is not the bio dad of the couple's deceased daughter.

A clumsy mess of a flick: the single worst waste of talent is the decision to make stunningly beautiful Deneuve a sex caller. What an insult!
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Good hard-edged cop movie, with a jaundiced view of America
Billius448 January 2001
Nope, the movie with that amazing stunt mentioned above is "Stick", not "Hustle". "Hustle" is a nice little film, though - a fairly predictable TV cop movie plot, lifted well above the ordinary by some intelligent well-written dialogue and a nice, world-weary performance by Burt Reynolds (honest!).

Around the same time, the director also made "Ulzana's Raid" and "Twilight's Last Gleaming", both of which are deeply critical of the Establishment. True to form, in "Hustle", Reynolds' cynical detective takes some savage swipes at American society. Best line - "Can't you smell the bananas? We're living in f*cking Guatemala. With colour televisions." (The screenwriter also wrote "Save The Tiger" - with a very similar moral).

Well worth watching on late-night telly - NOT worth watching for Catherine Deneuve, who's remarkably wooden in English.
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3/10
Gabfest!
MikeMagi16 July 2015
This is a really lousy movie. Somewhere buried in endless blather about life, love and hopping the next plane for Rome, there's a murder mystery involving a young girl whose body turns up on a strip of beach. The case is handled by Burt Reynolds, a Los Angeles detective whose amorata is French prostitute Catherine Deneuve. Most of his time is spent yakking with the victim's father, compulsive redneck Ben Johnson. Involved somehow is Eddie Albert as a Los Angeles politico who has arranged for a union headquarters in Ohio to be blown up for no discernible reason. By the time the talkathon ends, much of the cast has been rubbed out, largely to satisfy the production code of 1975. Yes, Deneuve is gorgeous and Reynolds wanders through the gabfest as if it actually made sense. But the real mystery here is how Steve Shagan's script went before the cameras without a slew of rewrites.
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8/10
Stunningly Filmed Pulp Crime Drama
Falconeer27 August 2019
I'm not usually a fan of cop movies, but this one is just so gorgeously lensed, and with more twists and turns than a roller coaster. Burt Reynolds, oozing that famous sex appeal, turns in a gritty, world-weary performance as a jaded cop, investigating the apparent suicide of a prostitute. This was 1975 and Reynolds was in his absolute prime here. He spends much time trading classic wisecracks with his cop partner, played to perfection by Paul Winfield, as he romances his own prostitute girlfriend, the stunning Catherine Deneuve. Yes, there are a lot of prostitutes in this very pulpy cop drama. At first there is so much going on that it is hard to follow all the various story lines, but soon the stories and assorted characters begin to intertwine in a fascinating way, taking the viewer on a wild ride through a seedy underbelly of smoke filled bars, strip joints and private sex parties. But the real draw here is the cinematography. "Hustle" is filmed in glorious 1970's style, very nostalgic and many scenes are so gorgeous that you want to freeze the frame and just study the shots. Deneuve & Reynolds are one of the most beautiful onscreen couples of all time, and they live in an A-frame house that seems to float in mid air. Reynolds drives a red Mustang convertible and plays sexy lounge music on his car 8 track tape deck. Complete with a shock ending that you won't see coming, it is a wonder that "Hustle" has not become a cult classic. Recommended for fans of cop movies, and classic style film making, "Hustle" is a winner.
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