Mulholland Falls

Last updated

Mulholland Falls
Mulhollandfallsposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Lee Tamahori
Screenplay by Pete Dexter
Story by
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Haskell Wexler
Edited by Sally Menke
Music by Dave Grusin
Production
companies
Distributed by MGM/UA Distribution Co.
Release date
  • April 26, 1996 (1996-04-26)(United States)
Running time
107 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$29 million
Box office$11.5 million [2]

Mulholland Falls is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori, written by Pete Dexter, and starring an ensemble cast featuring Nick Nolte, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Melanie Griffith, Andrew McCarthy, Treat Williams, and John Malkovich.

Contents

Nolte plays the head of an elite group of four Los Angeles Police Department detectives (based on the real life "Hat Squad") who are known for stopping at nothing, including outright murder, to maintain control of their jurisdiction, with the tacit approval of the police chief (Bruce Dern). A similar theme is the basis of a 2012 film, Gangster Squad (in which Nolte and Chris's brother Sean Penn also appeared), as well as the television miniseries, Mob City .

Plot

In the early 1950s, a four-man squad of LAPD detectives, frustrated with the rules and weaknesses of the legal system stopping them from more aggressively battling crime, commit an extrajudicial execution when they toss Jack Flynn, a powerful gangster from Chicago, off a cliff on Mulholland Drive, nicknamed "Mulholland Falls" for all the criminals they have thrown to their deaths.

The squad leader, Lieutenant Maxwell Hoover, and his partners Ellery Coolidge, Eddie Hall, and Arthur Relyea are brought in to investigate the suspicious death of a young woman whose body was found at a construction site. An examination reveals that every bone in her body is broken and the coroner comments that she looks as though she "jumped off a cliff" even though there are no cliffs nearby. The woman turns out to be someone Hoover knew very well: a prostitute named Allison Pond. The detectives receive a film of Allison having sex in a motel room, taken by a camera hidden behind a two-way mirror. Allison's friend, Jimmy Fields, admits that he and Allison made numerous such films, including one with Hoover in it. Fields is subsequently murdered while being guarded by Hall and Relyea.

Radioactive glass is found in Allison's foot, which leads the detectives to the Nevada Test Site, where they are quickly caught by base security. Their superior, Col. Fitzgerald, threatens to have the squad arrested and prosecuted for trespassing on a secret government facility, but the team is able to escape their predicament when the man in the film is identified as the civilian commander of the base, retired Gen. Thomas Timms. Timms, the head of the Atomic Energy Commission, confirms that he slept with Pond, but has an alibi for the day of her death. An FBI agent visits the LAPD and personally asks the chief to stop the investigation; when his request is denied, Hoover's house is ransacked by federal agents with a search warrant, who fail to recover the film. Hoover brutally assaults the FBI agent, after which another film is delivered to his wife Kate, showing her husband and Allison having sex in the motel.

The blackmailer turns out to be Fitzgerald, who demands the film of Timms with Allison be brought to him. Hoover realizes that Fields' film footage of Allison also includes images of "atomic soldiers", American servicemen who were unwillingly used by Fitzgerald as guinea pigs for A-bomb tests before being transferred to a secure military hospital ward on his orders; the colonel intends to let them die so he can avoid being held accountable. Hoover and Coolidge fly to the base, and secretly deliver the film to Timms, who is terminally ill with cancer himself, so he can expose Fitzgerald's wrongdoing.

For their return trip to Los Angeles, Hoover and Coolidge board a C-47 cargo plane, where they are joined by Fitzgerald and his aide, the Captain. During the flight, Hoover deduces how Pond was murdered and tells Coolidge that Fitzgerald is going to kill them the same way - by throwing them out of the plane in mid-flight. In a vicious struggle, the detectives fight for their lives. Coolidge charges the Captain as gunshots go off. The detectives are finally able to throw the Captain and Fitzgerald out of the plane, both falling to their deaths. The pilot is also accidentally shot, but manages a crash landing before he dies. Coolidge celebrates the landing until realizing that he, too, has been shot, also dying at the scene.

Hoover cannot reconcile with his wife at Coolidge's funeral because she feels betrayed and heartbroken, and afterwards, she leaves him for good. With the news that his unit has been disbanded in order to protect the LAPD's image, Hoover is left with nothing.

Cast

Production

Principal photography took place in Los Angeles, Malibu and Desert Hot Springs in California as well as Wendover, Utah. [3]

Reception

Box office

Mulholland Falls opened in wide release in the United States on April 26, 1996. The box office receipts were poor, earning $4,306,221 (1,625 screens) and the total receipts for the run were $11,504,190. In its widest release, the film was featured in 1,625 theaters. The film was in circulation seven weeks (45 days). [4]

Critical response

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 31% of critics gave Mulholland Falls a positive review, based on 32 reviews, with an average rating of 5.14/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Mulholland Falls' vacant characterizations and thin story undercuts its impressive cast and potent style, making for an empty exercise in noir posturing." [5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. [6]

Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, a fan of noir, liked Mulholland Falls, writing: 'This is the kind of movie where every note is put in lovingly. It's a 1950s crime movie, but with a modern, ironic edge: The cops are just a shade over the top, just slightly in on the joke. They smoke all through the movie, but there's one scene where they're disturbed and thoughtful, and they all light up and smoke furiously, the smoke lit by the cinematographer to look like great billowing clouds, and you smile, because you know the scene is really about itself.' [7]

Kenneth Turan, film critic for the Los Angeles Times , wrote that Mulholland Falls 'goes about its business without a trace of finesse', but he approved of the direction and the acting, especially the 'haunting presence' of Jennifer Connelly, writing, "Mulholland Falls combines a vivid sense of place with a visceral directorial style that fuses controlled fury onto everything it touches." [8]

In The New York Times , Janet Maslin lauded Mulholland Falls, writing wrote: 'Mr. Tamahori, who gives Mulholland Falls a smashing, insidious L.A.-noir style meant to recall Chinatown , along with a high-testosterone swagger that is distinctively his own. This director's first Hollywood film has such punch, in fact, that it takes a while to realize how slight and sometimes noxious its concerns really are. But Mulholland Falls is so well cast and relentlessly stylish (thanks to some fine technical talent assembled here) that its sheer energy prevails over its shaky plot. After all, when a filmmaker can show Ms. Griffith contentedly reading A Farewell to Arms, there's not much he won't do. So this film has all the Chinatown staples—dangerous sex, corrupt power and a vast environment-damaging conspiracy—along with mushroom clouds, porn movies, a crash-landing airplane and many quick bursts of one-on-one violence.' [9]

However, many reviewers echoed critic Peter Stack. Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle , he noted: "Mulholland Falls falls flat a lot. The best of the old noir detective dramas had lively pacing and crisp tough-guy dialogue. This movie seems at times like an exercise in slow motion and in dull, cumbersome writing (the script is by novelist and former newspaper columnist Pete Dexter, who wrote the screenplay for Rush )." [10]

Accolades

Home media

On August 27, 1996, Mulholland Falls was released on VHS by MGM/UA Home Video, [12] followed by a laserdisc release on May 27, 1997. In addition, it was re-released on DVD on November 2, 2004.

Soundtrack

The original score for the film was written and recorded by Dave Grusin. An original motion picture soundtrack CD was released on May 21, 1996 on the Edel America label. The CD contained 13 tracks including the old ballad, "Harbor Lights", written by Jimmy Kennedy and Hugh Williams, and sung by crooner Aaron Neville, who also performed the song in the film. There were five Top 10 recordings of the song in 1950.

Related Research Articles

<i>Chinatown</i> (1974 film) 1974 film directed by Roman Polański

Chinatown is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery film directed by Roman Polanski from a screenplay by Robert Towne. The film stars Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. It was inspired by the California water wars, a series of disputes over southern California water at the beginning of the 20th century, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley. The Robert Evans production, released by Paramount Pictures, was Polanski's last film in the United States and features many elements of film noir, particularly a multi-layered story that is part mystery and part psychological drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Nolte</span> American actor (born 1941)

Nicholas King Nolte is an American actor. Known for his leading man roles in both dramas and romances, he has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. Nolte first came to prominence for his role in the ABC miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nomination. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for The Prince of Tides (1991). He received three Academy Award nominations for The Prince of Tides (1991), Affliction (1998) and Warrior (2011).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles Police Department</span> Primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,967 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melanie Griffith</span> American actress (born 1957)

Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She began her career in the 1970s, appearing in several independent thriller films before achieving mainstream success in the mid-1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Connelly</span> American author (b. 1956)

Michael Joseph Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. Connelly is the bestselling author of 38 novels and one work of non-fiction, with over 74 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 40 languages. His first novel, The Black Echo, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1997 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of Connelly's novel The Lincoln Lawyer starred Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. Connelly was the President of the Mystery Writers of America from 2003 to 2004.

Warren Lee Tamahori is a New Zealand film director. He is known for directing the films Once Were Warriors (1994), Along Came a Spider (2001) and Die Another Day (2002).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William H. Parker (police officer)</span> American law enforcement officer

William Henry Parker III was an American law enforcement officer who was Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1950 to 1966. To date, he is the longest-serving LAPD police chief. Parker has been called "Los Angeles' greatest and most controversial chief of police". The former headquarters of the LAPD, the Parker Center, was named after him. During his tenure, the LAPD was known for police brutality and racism; Parker himself was known for his "unambiguous racism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Bosch</span> Fictional detective created by author Michael Connelly

Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is a fictional character created by American author Michael Connelly. Bosch debuted as the lead character in the 1992 novel The Black Echo, the first in a best-selling police procedural series now numbering 24 novels.

<i>Devil in a Blue Dress</i> (film) 1995 film by Carl Franklin

Devil in a Blue Dress is a 1995 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Carl Franklin, based on Walter Mosley's 1990 novel of the same name and features Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, and Don Cheadle. Set in 1948, the film follows World War II veteran Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins who, desperate in need of a job, becomes drawn into a search for a mysterious woman.

<i>The Overlook</i> 2007 novel

The Overlook is the 18th novel by American crime writer Michael Connelly, and the thirteenth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.

<i>The Closers</i> Eleventh novel about Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly

The Closers is the 15th novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the eleventh featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. This novel features a return to an omniscient third-person style narration after the previous two, set during Bosch's retirement were narrated in from a first-person perspective.

<i>Impulse</i> (1990 film) 1990 thriller film directed by Sondra Locke

Impulse is a 1990 American neo-noir film directed by Sondra Locke, and starring Theresa Russell, Jeff Fahey, and George Dzundza. It follows a female police officer who works as an undercover prostitute in Los Angeles, who unwittingly finds herself at the center of a murder investigation. The film also features a power ballad by singer Kim Carnes called "Everybody Needs Someone".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Connelly</span> American actress (born 1970)

Jennifer Lynn Connelly is an American actress. She began her career as a child model before making her acting debut in the 1984 crime film Once Upon a Time in America. After a few more years of modeling, she began to concentrate on acting, starring in a variety of films including the horror film Phenomena (1985), the musical fantasy film Labyrinth (1986), the romantic comedy Career Opportunities (1991), and the period superhero film The Rocketeer (1991). She received praise for her performance in the science fiction film Dark City (1998) and playing a drug addict in Darren Aronofsky's drama film Requiem for a Dream (2000).

<i>Mob City</i> American TV series or program

Mob City is an American neo-noir crime drama television series created by Frank Darabont for TNT. It is based on real-life accounts of the L.A.P.D. and gangsters in 1940s Los Angeles as chronicled in John Buntin's book L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City. The series premiered on December 4, 2013.

<i>Walk a Crooked Mile</i> 1948 film by Gordon Douglas

Walk a Crooked Mile is a 1948 America anti-communist, Cold War crime film, directed by Gordon Douglas, starring Dennis O'Keefe and Louis Hayward.

<i>Gangster Squad</i> (film) 2013 film by Ruben Fleischer

Gangster Squad is a 2013 American action thriller film directed by Ruben Fleischer and written by Will Beall, based on a non-fiction book by Paul Lieberman. The film stars Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña and Sean Penn. Set in 1949, a group of real-life LAPD officers and detectives called the Gangster Squad are assigned to bring down crime kingpin Mickey Cohen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gangster Squad (LAPD)</span> Former anti-organized crime unit of the Los Angeles Police Department

The Gangster Squad, later known as the OrganizedCrime Intelligence Division (OCID), was a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) formed in 1946 to keep the East Coast Mafia and organized crime elements out of Los Angeles.

<i>Bosch</i> (TV series) American drama television series

Bosch is an American police procedural streaming television series produced by Amazon Studios and Fabrik Entertainment starring Titus Welliver as Los Angeles Police Department detective Harry Bosch. The show was developed for Amazon by Eric Overmyer, and the first season takes its inspiration from the Michael Connelly novels City of Bones (2002), Echo Park (2006), and The Concrete Blonde (1994). It was one of two drama pilots that Amazon streamed online in early 2014, and viewers offered their opinions on it before the studio decided whether to place a series order. The seventh and final season was released on June 25, 2021.

<i>City of Lies</i> 2018 crime film directed by Brad Furman

City of Lies is a 2021 crime thriller film about the investigations by the Los Angeles Police Department of the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. It is directed by Brad Furman, with a screenplay by Christian Contreras based on the non-fiction book LAbyrinth by Randall Sullivan. The film stars Johnny Depp as retired LAPD detective Russell Poole and Forest Whitaker as journalist Jack Jackson, with Rockmond Dunbar and Neil Brown Jr. also starring.

<i>The Lincoln Lawyer</i> (TV series) Television series from Netflix

The Lincoln Lawyer is an American legal drama television series created for television by David E. Kelley and developed by Ted Humphrey, based on the books of Michael Connelly. It stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller, a defense attorney in Los Angeles who often works out of a chauffeur-driven Lincoln Navigator. Neve Campbell, Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, Angus Sampson, and Christopher Gorham also star.

References

  1. ↑ "Mulholland Falls (18)". British Board of Film Classification . April 17, 1996. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Mulholland Falls". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
  3. ↑ Mulholland Falls at IMDb OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg , film locations section. Accessed: May 29, 2014.
  4. ↑ The Numbers box office data. Last accessed: December 16, 2006.
  5. ↑ Mulholland Falls at Rotten Tomatoes . Accessed: July 2, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Find CinemaScore" (Type "Mulholland Falls" in the search box). CinemaScore . Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  7. ↑ Ebert, Roger. The Chicago Sun-Times, film review, April 26, 1996. Accessed: August 2, 2013.
  8. ↑ Turan, Kenneth. The Los Angeles Times, Calendar Section, film review, April 26, 1996. Accessed: August 2, 2013.
  9. ↑ Maslin, Janet. The New York Times, film review, "High-Test Swagger by Burly Buddies," April 26, 1996. Accessed: August 2, 2013.
  10. ↑ Stack, Peter. The San Francisco Chronicle, film review, page D-3, April 26, 1996. Accessed: August 2, 2013.
  11. ↑ Razzie Awards Archived December 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine , Entire RAZZIE® History, Year-by-Year: 1980-2010. Last accessed: August 6, 2012. Accessed: August 1, 2013.
  12. ↑ King, Susan (August 16, 1996). "'Letterbox' Brings Wide Screen Home". Times Staff Writer. Los Angeles Times. p. 96. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2023– via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.