Twilight (1998)

Twilight (1998)

In co-writer/director Robert Benton's moody, low-key, somber neo-noirish, who-dunit detective drama - the over-wrought R-rated story told about an intriguing past unsolved Hollywood death case and cover-up, adultery, blackmail, betrayal, and long-buried secrets that would haunt retired ex-cop and alcoholic, aging private investigator Harry Ross (73 year-old Paul Newman). Tinseltown was depicted as a place of dreams, privilege, corruption, distrust and desperation, and by film's end, there were four deaths (three males and one female). There were also many serious and melancholy musings (plus jokes) in the dialogue about mortality, the "twilight" of life, and typical signs of aging amongst the elderly protagonists.

Co-scriptor Richard Russo co-adapted the script from his novel of the same name. Paul Newman's previous film Nobody's Fool (1994) was also written and directed by Benton, and based on a novel by Russo. The film was considered an unofficial 3rd film to complete a trilogy of private-eye Lew Harper films (similar to the Harry Ross character) that Newman starred in previously: Harper (1966) and The Drowning Pool (1975). [Note: The film version of Lew Harper was based upon the character of Lew Archer in Ross Macdonald's private eye novels.] Co-stars Gene Hackman had earlier portrayed a PI in Night Moves (1975) and James Garner had also played the role of a PI in the popular TV show The Rockford Files (1974-1980) and starred in the film Marlowe (1969) as Raymond Chandler's title character - LA PI Philip Marlowe.

The film's rich score was composed by the legendary Elmer Bernstein. Its color cinematography (by Polish-born Piotr Sobocinski) and its cast of well-known accomplished actors belied the film's roots in film-noir. However, the deliberately-paced film did feature many of the main components of classic noir: a down-and-out private detective on a mission, a sultry and flirtatious femme fatale (Susan Sarandon), crackling, sharp and witty dialogue, scenes mostly occurring at twilight or nighttime, and numerous twists and complex turns in the predictable, contrived and mundane plot that in some respects paid homage to the confusions in The Big Sleep (1946).

The film's title was again used more noticeably for the unrelated series of romantic vampire films beginning in 2008. During filming, its original title was The Magic Hour, but due to the similarly-named TV show (starring LA Lakers star Magic Johnson) at the time that had been cancelled, a change had to be made. The film's more ambiguous title had a double meaning - it referred to the time of day, as well as to the later stages of life of the major characters. The tagline summarized the protagonist's dilemma:

"Some people can buy their way out of anything. Except the past."

On a budget of 37ドル million, the Paramount film made only 15ドル million, and in addition to mixed and lukewarm reviews, it was considered a box-office bomb. The recent release of the juggernaut Titanic (1997) seriously hurt the plodding and slow-moving film's chances of success. The film was infamous, however, because it featured aspiring 22 year-old actress Reese Witherspoon in her first nude (topless) scene as a 17 year-old runaway. It would be another 16 years before she also appeared unclothed in Wild (2014).

• in the film's opening sequence, aging, white-haired ex-cop and PI Harry Ross (Paul Newman) was drinking beers in a Puerto Vallarta, Mexican resort, while being entertained at the pool by a Mexican mariachi band; he had been hired to stalk and locate a young couple: older and sleazy, small-time thug and loser boyfriend Jeff Willis (Liev Schreiber) and younger 17 year-old Mel Ames (future Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (2005)); he identified them and listened as they ordered drinks 10 feet away from him and charged the tab to Room # 137

• after briefly swimming in the ocean, the two retreated to their resort hotel room, and after Jeff kissed down Mel's naked chest, she asked uncertainly: "Jack? Do you love me?... I mean, it's okay if you don't"; as he showered behind a closed bathroom door, she was confronted by Harry in the bedroom (he had earlier broken in to their room) - and she hypothesized that he had been hired to return her to her home in LA: "Let me guess. My parents sent you"
• as Harry dragged her away through the resort, Jeff (wrapped in a towel) caught up to them and demanded for her to be released; Harry ordered: "Listen, she's 17 years old, and I'm taking her home. Don't try anything"; Harry was hit from behind by Mel, causing him to drop his revolver; Mel picked it up and accidentally fired the gun into the deck-tiling, causing the bullet to ricochet into Harry's right upper thigh
• in Los Angeles (Hollywood), CA two years later (October 20, 1997) - during a taped police interrogation, Harry spoke (in voice-over) resentfully about his 20 year career as a cop and 5 year stint as a PI: "My name is Harry Ross. And here's the way my life has gone. First I was a cop, then a private detective. And then - a drunk. Also, in there somewhere, a husband and a father. You'd think, with all that, that the world loses its power to seduce. But you'd be wrong"
• [Note: As in the classic Murder, My Sweet (1944), the film then flashbacked to the film's almost entire story, to fill in the backstory of why he was being interrogated.]
• the opening title credits played atop a sparkling outdoor pool where a fully-nude female figure swam underwater; retired ex-detective Harry (wearing a crisp, pink long-sleeved Ralph Lauren dress shirt, a gift from) happened to enter the pool area and averted his eyes as Catherine Ames (Susan Sarandon), a wealthy ex-Hollywood 70's star, exited the pool behind him; she manipulatively flirted with him about how he had seen all of her movies: ("You've seen everything there is of me to see...Well, it's safe to turn around now"); after being wounded by the gunshot, as compensation and to keep his dignity, Harry was living as a "kept" man rent-free on the grounds (above the garage) of the Ames' Art Deco estate, doing handyman odd-jobs and errands for the Ames family and subsisting on their good will
• [Note: The location of the Ames' mansion in Santa Monica, CA was built in the 1920s for actress Dolores Del Rio by her husband Cedric Gibbons (the designer of the Oscar statue).]
• from a second floor window, Catherine's celebrity husband, another ex-star Jack Ames (Gene Hackman), called out for Harry to join him for a game of cards; before Harry left, Catherine discussed how she was angered at Jack for "bouncing checks, making withdrawals without telling me, not listening to his doctor's recommendations...in short, being Jack"
• inside as Jack and Harry played a friendly game of gin rummy (with high-stakes betting) while teasingly bickering with each other, Jack asked Harry to complete a simple errand - to deliver a small manila-envelope package (contents unidentified) to Gloria Lamar (Margo Martindale) at an address in Los Angeles; although Harry was dubious, Jack insisted it wasn't blackmail money: ("You think it's blackmail, right? Well, it's not"), although cautioned that Harry should keep it a secret from Catherine
• simultaneously, Jack Ames' delivery request came just after his doctor had informed him that his cancer diagnosis was back and no longer in remission, and he had declined any "aggressive" therapies (angering Catherine); he incorrectly quoted Samuel Johnson: "There's nothing that concentrates the mind like the prospect of death"; he claimed he had only one year and 10 months maximum to live; Harry restated the quote: "The prospect of hanging concentrates the mind"
• in the kitchen, Harry playfully argued with Mel who could barely tolerate his presence, and who put him down as an errand boy: "You think you're a member of this family, don't you? Well, you're not. You're just the hired help"; as Harry was leaving, Catherine spotted the package in Harry's car that he was about to deliver - she queried: "Is Jack in some kind of trouble?", but Harry told her not to worry; she asked if he would be there for Jack, and then for her if needed - Harry reacted as if the question didn't need to be asked
• later at dusk on the errand to deliver the package, Harry pulled up in his old 1986 Ford LTD Crown Victoria in front of a flop-house located at 3104 Palmetto St.; he entered the disheveled house when no one answered his knocks; in a back room, a man holding a bloody abdomen gun-shot wound unexpectedly fired his gun multiple times at Harry; after a pursuit into a bathroom, the lethally-wounded individual fell dead; with dry wit, Harry recalled (in voice-over) about the ex-cop:
  • "One thing you can count on as a private investigator is that any time a client says, 'You don't need to carry a gun,' that's when you ought to bring two. The guy was dead alright, but before he was dead he was a very sick man. As it turns out, his name was Lester Ivar, a retired cop"

• the residence address given for Lester Ivar on his California DL was 5727 Monte Vista St, Apt. 6 in Hollywood, CA; Harry entered the "run-down" site, known as SUN RISE COURT by breaking in; while looking around for clues, he found a row of prescription pill bottles, plus a folder with four two decades-old newspaper clippings:
  • (1) a 22 year-old LA Times article (dated Feb. 9, 1975) titled "ACTOR MISSING"
  • (2) another similar clipping a week later headlined: "ACTRESS QUESTIONED IN HUSBAND'S DISAPPEARANCE"; the articles stated that actor Billy Sullivan may have been suicidal, although his actress-wife Catherine Hayward might also have been implicated
  • (3) a third article was titled: "ACTOR'S DISAPPEARANCE PRESUMED SUICIDE - No Evidence of Foul Play"
  • (4) the fourth article was the most stunning: "ACTOR WEDS CO-STAR" - with a picture of Jack Ames marrying the widowed Catherine
• disturbing questions were raised by the clippings: Were Catherine or Jack involved in the murder of her first husband? Did they have something to hide? Who was guilty, and of what? Who was manipulating who? Who had originally investigated the case and what was the resolution?
• Harry responded by lighting the articles on fire to destroy them, and then flushed the remaining ashes down the toilet; as he came out of the bathroom, four LAPD police officers accosted him with their weapons drawn; one of the officers was well-known to Harry - former colleague and one-time partner and love interest Lt. Verna Hollander (Stockard Channing) - he mentioned one familiar word between them: "Catalina"
• as Harry was taken into the Hollywood Police station, Police Captain Phil Egan (John Spencer) recognized Harry - and recounted the long-alleged, false rumor that Harry had been shot in the groin and had lost his manhood while detaining a runaway in Mexico a few years earlier
• during confrontative questioning in the Police Captain's office, Harry told how he had been called by Lester about taking his night-shift surveillance job; the Captain regarded it as suspicious that Harry (with an expired PI license) was found in Lester's ransacked Hollywood apartment a half-hour after Lester had been murdered at the Palmetto St. flop-house; Harry was dismissed with no further questions, and assured by Lt. Hollander: "I'll always be there for you"
• in the Hollywood police station, Harry reacquainted himself with his old pal - another retired police detective named Raymond Hope (James Garner), a quasi-mirror image of Harry who also worked odd-jobs for Jack, and had been alerted to come by and check on him; they chatted about the old days in Hollywood when Raymond was a studio security guard (and fixer) keeping tabs on Jack's troublesome and promiscuous misbehavior: "If there's an actress he missed boinking, I don't know who she was"; Raymond also recalled the presumed suicidal drowning of actress Catherine's young first husband Billy Sullivan who "swam out to sea and never swam back" (but his body was never recovered); it was conjectured that he killed himself due to her infidelity and his own personal gambling debts; they talked about how Jack had lived a charmed and magical existence earlier, but now had "run out of luck" with his recent diagnosis of cancer; Raymond morosely asked about their own upcoming old-age infirmities: ("Looks like we all run outta luck in the end. Your prostate started acting up?...Something to look forward to")
• that evening back in the Ames' home, Harry listened to Catherine at the piano, softly singing a few lyrics of Ray Noble's ballad "The Very Thought of You": ("The very thought of you and I forget to do the little ordinary things that everyone ought to do; I'm living in a kind of daydream...."); she mentioned that Jack had become upset over an incident earlier in the day - something that probably involved Harry ("I had an idea that maybe you might know what happened")
• during their conversation, Catherine claimed that she had never heard of the day's murdered victim Lester Ivar, but Harry didn't believe her: "You're lying. You were at Lester Ivar's apartment this afternoon" - he knew that she had been there, looking for something because he had recognized her distinctive Bal a Versailles fragrance-perfume in the air; he wouldn't be persuaded by her charming ways to accept her lies
• when she also mentioned how Harry had become too "familiar" with everything in the house, he felt betrayed and deceived and began packing one bag in his bedroom above the garage; he told Catherine that she and Jack were both "over-extended" and "broke" - and it was time for him to leave; she felt that she had been vainly trying to stick it out as long as possible with Jack before he passed away, but had failed: ("That doesn't seem like it'll happen"), and then wondered: "I don't know why you've even stuck around for so long anyway"; after a deep glance at each other, they hugged and kissed, and slept together
• as they chatted after sex in Harry's room, they were interrupted by the home's intercom with Jack calling out to them as he suffered a heart attack; Catherine hurriedly grabbed Harry's pink shirt and raced back to the house, where she found him collapsed on their bedroom floor; after she attempted CPR and supplied him with oxygen, he then realized that she was wearing Harry's distinctive shirt with a polo horse design - and he called her out: "Cath, how could you? How f--king could you?"; shortly later, Jack was whisked away to a hospital in an ambulance
• shortly later, Harry answered the Ames' residence phone and found himself speaking to Gloria Lamar - the person who was to receive Jack's package; Harry arranged to redeliver the package in one hour at the Santa Monica Pier (at the water pistol range) to Gloria herself (self-described as "blonde, big, mucho hair, mucho tits!"); at the arcade, Harry was redirected to meet Gloria ("Mucho") under the pier, where he found the sassy blonde bitching about sand in her shoes; Harry refused to turn over the package until he understood why he was confronted by a mortally-wounded Lester Ivar in the Palmetto St. house; when Gloria held a gun on him, Harry disarmed her, but then was subdued by Mel's ex-boyfriend Jeff pointing a gun at his head before knocking him unconscious
• Jeff revealed that he had been incarcerated in Yuma, AZ after Harry had caught him with Mel in Mexico, and Jack had him arrested and sent to prison for about two years for "transporting a minor"; Jeff instructed the revived Harry to tell Jack about the blackmail payment in the package - it was considered to be only an installment: "This is just a down payment on what he owes me"

• after witnessing the assault under the pier, limo driver Reuben (Giancarlo Esposito), one of Harry's ex-partners, came to Harry's rescue and dragged the disoriented Harry away from the rising tide; when Harry came to his senses, he denied Reuben's claim: "We were never partners!" and insisted that Reuben was only a wanna-be partner or team member
• awaiting him by the Ames' pool as Harry returned to his above-garage accommodations was his true ex-cop partner Lt. Verna Hollander, who helped tend to Harry's head-wound that would require stitches; Harry admitted that he was aging and his 25 years as a cop and PI were over, and that he had also lived through a failed marriage and family and became a drunk: "Besides, I'm getting rusty, I'm a danger to myself"; Verna had followed up on Lester Ivar's murder case - she stated that Jack and Catherine Ames had to be questioned; also, she added an important detail about the past: "Lester Ivar was the investigating officer when Billy Sullivan disappeared"
• Harry mused (in voice-over):
  • "About the only person I could think of who might be able to help me was Raymond Hope. Plus he owed me, either that or I owed him, I couldn't figure out which. Anyway, it was Raymond who pulled me off the bar stool that I was living on two years ago, and introduced me to the Ameses. Seen in a certain light, everything that had happened since then was his fault. Maybe I'd tell him that"
• Harry visited Raymond at his Hollywood Hills home with a spectacular deck and view of LA, where he luckily avoided a stream of Raymond's urine coming from the second floor deck; during their discussion, Raymond stated that he had accepted the LA Times' account that Catherine's first husband Billy Sullivan had committed suicide, although investigating officer Lester Ivar doubted the official account and contested it - but now he was dead: "Billy's suicide was good luck for Jack and Catherine. Him out of the way, they can get married. Lester just couldn't believe the way it all worked out so smooth...Anyway, he's dead now. End of story"; Raymond quickly deduced that both Verna and Harry remained suspicious about the case; as Harry left, he confirmed for Raymond that the rumor about his "pecker" being shot off in Mexico was totally false
• although Jack had been advised after his heart attack to remain in the hospital for treatment, he insisted on being returned home to die; in his death bed, he immediately pointedly asked Harry: "I'm curious, what kind of a man f--ks his dying best friend's wife?" - Harry agreed that he was despicable, but had only spent one night with her; Harry then asked whether Catherine knew about how Gloria was blackmailing him, and stated how the extortionist threats from Gloria (and her ex-con partner Jeff) would undoubtedly continue: ("I kept the money. She's got the restaurant section of the phone book"); Jack was upset when Harry dug deeper: "What really happened to Billy Sullivan, Jack?," but then requested that Harry continue his quest to "find this guy Jeff and deal with him. You owe me"
• in the kitchen, Harry cornered Mel and asked: "Where's Jeff?" - but she refused to answer at first, but then confessed that she had foolishly given the unemployed and broke Jeff the keys to the Ames' unoccupied ranch house north of the city; he drove out of town to the ranch and awaited anyone else's arrival
• in a voice-over, Harry described the residence where blackmailer Jeff was hiding out - with lots of dug-up dirt holes and shovels surrounding the house:
  • "Maybe they hadn't forgotten or maybe they were trying to forget. Maybe there was a reason not to sell a 1ドル million property even when you're hard up for cash. Somebody else had apparently come to the same conclusion. Somebody who thought they could dig up the past with a shovel, without knowing where to dig. Somebody who wouldn't have to break in because he had a key. Somebody without much interest in housekeeping, but with a serious appetite for BBQ'd chicken wings. Somebody not too bright with a lot of time on his hands, and the kind of patience you learn doing time in places like Yuma, Arizona"
• after waiting awhile in the shadows, Harry saw a car drive up and he watched as a darkly-silhouetted Catherine ran into the distance, and appeared to kneel on the ground at a gravesite
• back in Hollywood, Harry phoned his cowardly, wanna-be PI sidekick Reuben to provide back-up for him in 15 minutes time at Garvey's (Jeff's favorite BBQ checken restaurant-bar) in Hollywood; inside Garvey's, Harry confronted Jeff eating greasy chicken wings and fries, handed over an envelope with the money, and then pushed Jeff's face into his plate and put him into a strangle-hold; Jeff was forced to take Harry to Gloria's (Mucho's) nearby apartment, where Jeff blurted out that Gloria was to blame for the blackmail scheme: "Ask her whose idea it was to track down Ivar and look up somethin' on the Ames guy?"; then Gloria reluctantly admitted that she was Jeff's parole officer
• the pieces of the puzzle regarding Lester Ivar's death came into focus when Gloria described their involvement - she and Jeff had located Ivar, and after plying him with Wild Turkey, they grilled him about the Sullivan case; they found out that he believed that Sullivan was buried on the ranch house property: "Said he'd have solved it 20 years ago if they'd given him a court order and a bulldozer. The way he figured it, the body had to be buried out at that ranch that Ames owns, the one that nobody goes near anymore"; Jeff added: "That's when I got the idea to call Mel - to let me stay at the ranch so I could look for the body"; Gloria continued: "I tried to explain that we didn't really need to find Billy Sullivan's corpse, we just had to convince Ames we knew where it was buried" - hence their blackmail scheme for 10,000ドル dollars; Harry insisted that the blackmailers leave LA (with the 10ドルK in the package) and end their extortionist demands
• as Jeff opened the apartment door, an unseen gunman point-blank shot Jeff dead and peppered the room with bullets - also lethally-wounding Gloria in the abdomen; as she died, she told Harry: "I never learn. All my life, I pick the losers. I know better, too"; Harry phoned Jack, expecting to be arrested soon at the crime scene and needing bail, and told him with disgust: "I am f--king fed up working for you"; he no longer felt indebted to his famous friend Jack to bury his secrets; then he phoned Verna for support and to tell her about two more deaths: "I got a real mess"

• as Gloria's apartment was swarming with cops, Harry confided in Verna: "Did it ever strike you this is a lousy way to make a living? You start out thinking you're gonna win a few, but mostly it's, it's just like tonight. Watching people run out of the little bit of luck that they got left. You think you're gonna beat the odds, but you don't, and not very often"; at first, Verna refused Harry's request to be let go for 24 hours to find the killer: ("I screwed up right from the very beginning, and two people are dead because of it and you gotta give me some time, so I can find out whoever did it, and, I dunno, square things up at least a little bit"), but then Verna risked her career and overruled the Captain, and she released Harry
• Harry called Reuben to meet him at 36001 Mulholland Hgwy, and bring his gun; in the next scene, Reuben was digging in a large hole near the ranch-house property, and uncovered a skull with a bullet hole - confirming Lester's long-held suspicions; Harry ordered: "Cover it up. I know who it is"; he returned to the Ames' home and found Catherine sleeping and in the arms of her ailing husband; the next day, Jack announced to Harry that he would be attempting chemotherapy to save his life
• Jack was unemotional when Harry told him about finding Billy Sullivan's remains: "I guess I've been expecting that for 20 years. Look, you can think what you like. It wasn't murder..."; years earlier, according to Jack's account, the drunken Billy threatened and confronted him at the ranch after finding out that Catherine was cheating on him; Billy was accidentally pushed into an empty swimming pool where he struck his head; Harry didn't believe Jack: "I would have believed you - except that I saw the corpse...He had a bullet hole in the back of his head"; Harry surmised that Jack had assumed that Billy was dead, but hadn't verified it; Jack claimed that he had called his co-conspirator-fixer Raymond, to have him take care of the mess, although there was a complication -- Raymond lived one-hour away at the time; Harry assumed that he might have called Catherine to help him eliminate Billy and then dispose of the body
• at twilight, now wearing a dark, blood-red shirt, Harry told Catherine: "I'm tired of people getting killed, I'm tired of being lied to"; it appeared to him that Catherine was manipulating both Jack and himself for her own purposes ("Enough to kill for") - she had possibly put the bullet hole in Billy's head, and had lethally-wounded Lester Ivar as well

• Harry asked more questions of her - and she denied any involvement in Billy's, Lester's, and Jeff's deaths; he then preached to her about her carefree and privileged life: "I believe that you're smart. And you're beautiful and rich. Life has worked out for you in ways that it doesn't for most people. I think people like you get used to having it work out for you and after a while, you begin to think that you're entitled to all the things that you've got"; she retorted: "You think people like me care so much about things that we would kill for them? Is that what you think? That I just care about things, Harry?" - and to prove her attestations, she smashed some of her belongings
• later in the evening, over drinks at Raymond's place, Harry was straightforward in his accusations about Raymond's loyal involvement in Jack's past affairs: "You did a lot more than clean up Jack's mess, didn't you?"; Raymond was forced to regretfully admit he had ended Billy's life: "Billy Sullivan was gonna wind up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. I ended his misery. I did him a favor"; he was also paid off handsomely (with his house) for doing Jack's and Catherine's bidding, to keep them out of jail; and then Raymond questioned Harry: "Don't you ever get tired of the beautiful people? Doesn't it ever bother you that the Jacks and the Catherines of this world can do as they please, 'cause it's always guys like you and me who clean up after them?"; Raymond admitted he was a fixer for both of them: "That's what I do. I clean up messes and I get paid for it. You imagine you're different, Harry, but you're the same as me. You think it was Catherine who seduced you. It was both of them, Harry. It was the whole package. I know. I was the same way. Let's face it, there's them and there's us"
• Harry intimated that he would leave and call Lt. Verna Hollander to charge Raymond with the murder of Billy Sullivan 20 years earlier, but would give him time to leave town; as Harry slowly walked away, Raymond grabbed his gun and fired at Harry - seen in a mirror reflection, who shot back and killed Raymond

• back at the Ames' house while Jack played another losing game of gin rummy with him, Harry reported that he had shot Jack's co-conspirator Raymond Hope dead - after he had admitted to mercy-killing Billy Sullivan; Harry concluded that he must definitely move on; he helped Jack by switching on the VCR player so that Jack could watch one of his youthful roles from an earlier film, Downhill Racer (1969)
• -- the film returned to the conclusion of Harry's interrogation scene in October of 1997, seen much earlier in the film --
• Harry returned to the Ames' house to summarize to Catherine how his life was in shambles due to alcoholism after his daughter died and after his marriage had broken up; he also suspected that Catherine was behind Raymond's orders to eliminate Jeff and Gloria, but she denied the accusation: "I never asked him to kill anybody"; he asked if she had any qualms or moral guilt, after getting away with murder: "Tell me, does it bother you that all those people would have been alive if it weren't for you?"; she wouldn't answer directly, but asked: "Still love me?"
• in the concluding wrap-up sequence after the interrogation, Harry and the much-younger Lt. Verna made plans to go away together, to rekindle their past love relationship with a "return engagement," possibly in Catalina; she answered him by inappropriately reaching into his pocket to check to feel if he had his 'family jewels'; he joked: "I never knew you cared"