The Late Show
by Robert Benton
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Art Carney, Bill Macy, Eugene Roche, Joanna Cassidy, Lily TomlinDirector: Robert Benton
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
Published: 2004-03-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-03-30
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Late Show
Movie Review: This town doesn't change...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not sure modern kids can understand the nostalgic brilliance of the 1977 film "The Late Show," Robert Benton's (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart) exceptional pseudo-noir tribute to the fading days of an elderly private eye.
In the late 1970s, I imagine some of the old-time greats were still limping around Hollywood like Art Carney's character Ira Wells, carrying laundry to the washateria in a pillow case, falling asleep in front of the TV and occasionally smoking half a cigarette butt. Wells, a tough-as-nails private eye from the glorious romantic years of Hollywood in the 40s and 50s (The Bad and the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties), lives in semi-retirement as a tenant in a humble rooming house. There was a time when he likely rubbed elbows with the likes of Bogart and Bugsy, perhaps roughing up suspects and doing the dirty work for Mayer. These days, wincing and groaning at the hot Los Angeles sunshine, gray hair in need of a good haircut, he reads the horse racing results while struggling with a nasty ulcer. If Philip Marlowe had survived, or any of the loner detectives from the electric pages of Chandler (The Big Sleep) or Hammett (The Maltese Falcon), they very well could have ended up like this - forgotten a decade earlier as black and white disappeared and an increasingly insane world passed them by.
An old friend of Wells ends up on his doorstep with a bullet in the gut (a cameo by Howard Duff), quickly followed by leftover hippie Margo Sperling (Lily Tomlin in one of her great performances) hoping to hire Wells to find her cat, and we slowly have the makings of a good old-fashioned mystery. Pockets of the old days still exist, perfectly symbolized by Charlie Hatter (Bill Macy), a perpetual small-time hoodlum adorned in white shoes throwing business Wells' way. There's a goon who likes to wear turtlenecks, some fenced color TVs and the villain Birdwell (Eugene Roche) slouching around in bathing trunks with exposed beer belly and wrinkled bathrobe. Gone are the sophisticated days of Sydney Greenstreet.
Through it all, Wells limps from suspect to suspect, dodging a few late night bullets while returning fire with his old hand gun (but not before removing his hearing aid). The dialog is key here, and the conversations between Carney and Tomlin are some of the most delightful ever written. Their growing respect is touching, blooming into love, though I think Benton's whimsical screenplay was leaning towards a father/daughter dynamic. I love Carney's amazing performance, superior in many ways to his Oscar-winning success in Harry and Tonto a few years before. As Wells, he gives the greatest performance of a long and successful career, gruff, lovable, with the dated street lingo down pat, "Back in the Forties, this town was crawlin' with dollies like you. I got news for you. They did it better back then. This town doesn't change - they just push the names around. Same dames screwing up their lives."
Tomlin makes the perfect lanky doll to fireplug Carney, strolling by his side adorned in pants suits and scarves, a non-stop New Age talker who lights incense while spouting astrology. Carney rolls his eyes, snorts a few times, and heads to the local diner to have lunch.
"The Late Show" is one of those films that's so good you don't wish it to end. I usually cry during the final scene, as our mismatched pair catches the bus. The camera lingers on the bench they were sitting on, advertising a local wax museum with a photograph of Boris Karloff. As the haunting song "What Was" (sung by Bev Kelly - Bev Kelly in Person) gently plays and the bus pulls away, you realize the glorious years of fedoras and black coffee are gone. But it goes deeper. There's a sense of time passing, an awareness of the cruelty of old age irrevocably catching us all. As the end credits roll, you realize how much one forgets over the course of a lifetime. And yet you don't want to forget. The world may change, but you try to hold on to the memories.
"The Late Show" is one of the most unique and satisfying mystery films ever made.
Summary of The Late Show
Writer-director Robert Benton, who examined a similar story in 1998's "Twilight," first explored the territory of the geriatric private eye in this sadly underrated 1977 delight. Art Carney stars as a nearly retired detective who suddenly finds himself caught up in two seemingly separate cases. One involves the murder of his former partner (Howard Duff); the other entangles him with a flaky post-hippie (Lily Tomlin), who wants him to find her missing cat. The two cases eventually dovetail, but the plot--which leads them to a Hollywood crime bigwig played by the affable Eugene Roche--is of less interest than the almost magical chemistry between the crotchety Carney and the wonderfully off-the-wall Tomlin. The perfect film for anyone who likes their mysteries in the Dashiell Hammett/Raymond Chandler mode. "--Marshall Fine"Similar DVD Movies
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