Final Rating: 3.5/5
Blu-ray Recommendation: Recommend
When the New Hollywood era kicked off in the late 1960s, conventional ways of telling stories in film were challenged. Often, filmmakers of this era would confront their audiences with more uncomfortable subjects and depictions, offering critical perspectives on long-held traditions and sacred cows that were losing relevance in the wake of new ideas and societal outrages.
These filmmakers would debunk and upend many of the tropes of old Hollywood characters. The gangster, the gunslinger, the entertainer; none were spared in the eyes of your Coppolas, Peckinpahs, and Fosses of the world.
It was rarer at this time to cast an old archetype in a nostalgic light, but this was something that writer-director Robert Benton had experience with. As a co-writer for the Bonnie and Clyde screenplay, Benton portrayed the title characters with a sentimental lens that invited sympathy from viewers, even as they were committing crimes with an increasingly violent nature. His work on the What’s Up, Doc screenplay also paid clear reverence to the screwball comedy set-ups and characters of yesteryear without overt critique.
The Late Show, Benton’s first solo screenwriting credit and second directorial feature, would follow five years after Doc with a fond look back at the classic private detective story. This film has been brought to Blu-ray for the first time in the recent Warner Archive Collection edition.
The film centres around Ira Wells (played masterfully by Art Carney), an old school private eye living in a Los Angeles that seems to have passed him by. Ira seems to know it as well, as the opening scene shows the beginnings of what appears to be a memoir of sorts.
Immediately, his ex-partner Harry shows up at Ira’s door with a fresh gunshot wound, babbling about a deal he was going to cut Ira in on before dying. At Harry’s funeral at the Hollywood Cemetery, Ira is approached by another old friend Charlie (portrayed by 70s TV stalwart Bill Macy) who introduces him to the eccentric Margo (Lily Tomlin, in an exuberant performance).
Ira may be past his physical prime, but mentally he is still one or more steps ahead of everyone. So, when Margo asks if he can help her find her “stolen” cat at the funeral, it doesn’t take long for Ira to sniff out that there is more going on. Soon enough, he’s wrapped up in a case involving a valuable stamp collection, a mid-level mobster with marital problems named Birdwell, and a revolver that several different people are after.
The film has some great small moments nestled within the larger story: Ira removing his hearing aid before firing his gun, Birdwell’s hired muscle complaining about wearing cashmere before being ordered to jump in a pool, Mrs. Schmidt (Ira’s sweet elderly landlady) reminding him of the license plate of the car that just shot up her house. It smoothly fits into the definition of a neo-noir, but what sets it apart is its humour and the warmth it has for its main characters.
Margo is the antithesis of Ira in terms of character. She has grand plans of representing artists and designing clothes, which is going poorly enough that she moonlights by moving stolen items to pay her bills. She and Ira eventually begin to work together as the case deepens. While there are some seeds about a potential May-December relationship being planted, a collaborative stakeout-turned-car chase sets the two of them on a slightly different path. It turns The Late Show from a romantic comedy noir into a buddy comedy noir.
At one point Margo says that they felt like Nick and Nora, the protagonists from the hit classic Hollywood franchise The Thin Man, and this ends up being a great comparison for this film as well. Benton’s script gives a lot of respect to both what Ira and Margo stand for, both in friction and harmony. Benton has always been at his best when depicting how characters react to each other, as he did in Nobody’s Fool, Places in the Heart, and (most famously) Kramer vs. Kramer.
The new high-definition transfer on the Warner Archive Blu-ray showcases this underseen late-70s gem incredibly well. The stylish noir-like scenes look great, especially a nighttime scene with moonlight reflecting off a swimming pool. At times, the film has some visual reminders of a Robert Altman film, which is apt given that he produced the film and had several of his frequent collaborators involved on the crew.
The only real complaint for the release is that, like many other Warner Archive editions, it is light on supplemental material. Only a trailer and a brief Lily Tomlin segment from Dinah! are included, and it does leave one wanting for a longer conversation piece from someone like Tomlin herself.
The real plus for this physical release will be availability and exposure of this film to a new group of viewers and collectors. It’s an entertaining and brisk watch while still being well constructed and acted all around, with some nice nods to crime films of the past sprinkled throughout.
Thank you Allied Vaughn and Movie Zyng for the screener.
Buy your copy of The Late Show here: https://moviezyng.com/z9hqmq
