Night Moves (US, 1975)

Another from the golden age of gritty and sometimes gloomily conspirational mid-1970's American cinema (of which there are a few reviewed elsewhere on this blog - Chinatown, Point Blank (1967), The Parallax View).

A one-off in QFT's mini-season of "My Noir", organised in conjunction with Manchester's Cornerhouse cinema. On entering, the usher explained that there was some 'jumping' in places on the print and that a refund could be arranged if desired, but whatever defects there were weren't all that intrusive.

Seems it was a flop on initial release, but interest in the film was rekindled with its release on home video and DVD. There are two explicit parallels with The Maltese Falcon; there is also some slightly thick plotting; hence perhaps its tagging as a neo-noir.

Starring Gene Hackman. Pessimistic, quite original, interesting, with good understated flourishes in the score.