Modern Pulp

March 2 2025

PLAYING THE ODDS

1980s Hollywood gets inspired by the Past.

One of the things we’ve done here at Pulp Intl. occasionally is examine modern remakes of vintage noirs, with an eye toward changes brought about by loosened censorship standards. For our purposes, modern is any film from 1980 onward, and as we’ve explained before, in film noir the plot catalysts were often directly related to sex, but it couldn’t be explicitly stated. Like any new cinematic tool, like computer graphics or color film processing, receding censorship gave filmmakers the option to improve on what came before. That didn’t always happen, but considering Hollywood’s love of remakes there was never a shortage of opportunties.

We decided to have a look at Against All Odds, which premiered today in 1984 and was a remake of the top-tier Robert Mitchum/Jane Greer noir Out of the Past. Jeff Bridges is coerced by gangster acquaintance James Woods into going to Mexico and tracking down the Woods’ girlfriend Rachel Ward, who’s fled with no intention of returning, having stabbed Woods and allegedly stolen $50,000 in cash. In Out of the Past the main character’s secondary story involves his trusting girlfriend; in Against All Odds, it involves Bridges’ NFL career slipping through his fingers, causing both emotional distress and financial pressure. When Bridges arrives in Mexico, he gets a gander of Ward and forgets his deal with Woods. He wants her for himself.

That’s exactly what happens, and after a few idyllic weeks of wearing out each other’s sex organs and moving about the Maya Riviera to throw Woods off their trail—because clearly he’ll have sent someone else when Bridges doesn’t report back—the inevitable happens when they’re discovered in Chichén Itza and a deadly shooting results. Now with a body on their hands, the question becomes whether the two infatuated lovers can weather the storm, or if they’ll be torn apart by the gravity of the dilemma. That’s all the plot we’ll give you. For the rest you’ll have to watch the movie. But should you?

Against All Odds is like the result of a studio exec’s hypothetical question: What if we hired the two best looking people we can afford and put them in a sexually charged thriller? We support the idea. We love watching beautiful people onscreen, especially if they can act.

But there’s the rub. Director Taylor Hackford tried to push each of the movie’s life-and-death set pieces to the absolute height of stressful intensity, but the screenplay by Eric Hughes fumbled the ball in those moments, leaving the film’s stars hanging in the wind trying to emote poor dialogue to a level beyond their ability, while a dissonant soundtrack raked the nerves of viewers. And the climax was botched, period, as everything came down to an armed standoff that would have left Leone or Tarantino (had he been a director at that point) aghast.

That all sounds like a full spectrum slam, but the movie actually isn’t a failure. Literally everything else about it is good. It’s beautiful, it’s sleek, the plot works, the performances outside of those overcooked sequences are good, the locations are spectacular, and even the music is fine for the most part. And, just to state the obvious, Bridges and Ward are pure masturbation material. Even Ward’s misfire of a hair-do—which we suspect was meant to echo the sculptural cuts of yesteryear—can’t diminish her beauty. She looks as good as anyone weighing probably 110 pounds at five-seven can look. With all that was done well, we can’t possibly suggest avoiding the film, even though it folds under pressure.

In terms of direct comparison to Out of the Past, stylistically Against All Odds attempts to be more blockbuster than modern noir. Its move toward eroticism makes Bridges’ dick-driven decisionmaking plausible in a way the sudden romantic obsessions of film noir sometimes aren’t. Additionally, he and Woods are frenemies because of a shared recklessness that’s cleverly illustrated by a dangerous Porsche vs. Ferrari just-for-kicks race up Sunset Boulevard. As viewers, then, we understand Bridges well, and because of Ward’s sexual electricity, we likewise understand his infatuation with her, as well as Woods’ unwillingness to let her go, even though she stabbed him. Toxic behavior all around? Sure, of course.

Critics were reasonably kind to Against All Odds. Audiences enjoyed it too. In the final analysis, the movie can be summed up this way: It’s good, but not nearly as good as it should have been considering its high quality ingredients. It was an attempt to vault Ward into the top ranks of Hollywood performers, but it failed there. Her hair-do, by the way, isn’t the only backwards wink. Jane Greer has a supporting role, and noir baddie Richard Widmark is present as well. Ultimately, yeah, watch Against All Odds. In fact, why not double it up with its inspiration? That would be a fun night, because they’re different enough that one doesn’t give away too much about the other.

Mexico, Cozumel, Los Angeles, Tulum, Against All Odds, Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward, James Woods, Jane Greer, Richard Widmark, Alex Karras, Taylor Hackford, Eric Hughes, poster art, cinema, movie review

Intl. Notebook

April 24 2023

THE PRICE OF A TICKET

Good for one ride on Sharky's Machine.

Above is something a little different for you, a ticket made for the Japanese premiere of the 1981 neo-noir thriller Sharky’s Machine, which starred Burt Reynolds, Rachel Ward, and uber-cool Bernie Casey. It’s a special advance ticket that cost ¥1,500 on the day of the premiere—which was today in 1982, several months after its December U.S. premiere—but ¥1,200 if bought in advance. Those were pretty high prices—about $11.00 and $9.00, if our handy historical yen converter is correct. The movie played as half of an unlikely double bill with the Dudley Moore comedy Arthur. Interestingly, most sources say Sharky’s Machine premiered in Japan on April 17, but at this cinema, at least, it showed up a week later. It’s a pretty cool little memento.

Japan, Sharky's Machine, Burt Reynolds, Rachel Ward, Bernie Casey, Dudley Moore, cinema

Modern Pulp

May 21 2022

PLAIDING HIS CASE

Something old, something new.

This is something a bit unusual. It’s a life-sized promotional cardboard cut-out for 1982’s film noir-sourced comedy Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, which starred Steve Martin and Rachel Ward. We thought of this film recently due to Martin’s new Agatha Christie-influenced television mystery series Only Murders in the Building, which we watched and enjoyed. We first saw Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid years ago, long before Pulp Intl. and all the knowledge we’ve gained about film noir. We liked it much better during our recent viewing.

If you haven’t seen it, Martin uses scores of film noir clips to weave a mystery in which he stars as private detective Rigby Reardon. Aside from Ward, and director Rob Reiner, his co-stars are Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, Burt Lancaster, Barbara Stanwyck, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Cary Grant, and many others, all arranged into a narrative that turns out to be about cheese, a Peruvian island, and a plot to bomb the United States.

The film’s flow only barely holds together, which you’d have to expect when relying upon clips from nineteen old noirs to cobble together a plot, but as a noir tribute—as well as a satirical swipe at a couple of sexist cinematic tropes from the mid-century period—it’s a masterpiece. If you love film noir, you pretty much have to watch it. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid had its premiere at the USA Film Festival in early May, but was released nationally today in 1982.

Modern Pulp

July 16 2016

MACHINE POWERED

Sharky's Machine hums along nicely, but only up to a point.

This poster was painted by the Thai illustrator Kwow for the 1981 thriller Sharky’s Machine. Every blue moon or so Hollywood decides to update a ’40s film noir. Sometimes these are excellent movies—Body Heat as a rework of Double Indemnity comes to mind. Sharky’s Machine is based on William Diehl’s novel of the same name, which is a restyling of 1944’s Laura. If you haven’t seen Laura, a detective falls in love with a murdered woman, focusing these feelings upon her portrait, which is hanging over the mantle in her apartment. In Sharky’s Machine the hero, Atlanta vice detective Burt Reynolds, falls in love with Rachel Ward via his surveillance of her during a prostitution investigation, and is left to deal with his lingering feelings when she’s killed.

Ward observed years back that she had been too prudish in how she approached her roles, and we imagine this was one movie she had in mind. We agree with her. Reynolds’ 24/7 surveillance of a high-priced hooker is not near frank enough. This is where vice, voyeurism, and sleaze as subtext should have come together overtly, as it does in Diehl’s unflinchingly detailed novel, rather than as stylized montages, which is what Reynolds opts for.

Sex and nudity aren’t always gratuitous. The plot driver in old film noirs is often sex, but it couldn’t be shown. Remaking a noir affords the opportunity to explore the sexual aspect further, as in Body Heat, where it’s literally the lure of sex with no boundaries—exemplified by that famous (but implied) anal scene—that snares the hero in an insane murder plot. In Sharky’s Machine it’s sexual objectification that is the initial driver. Reynolds loves Ward’s body first and her personality later, but the surveillance that is the key to this is barely explored.

It’s a missed opportunity to not only make a better thriller, but to examine this lust-to-love transition as an aspect of all romantic relationships. Reynolds doubled as both star and director of the film, and while his relative newbie status in the latter realm may be a reason he didn’t push the envelope, he still manages in his third outing helming a motion picture to put together a final product that is stylish, dark, and neon-streaked—everything a neo-noir should be. Upon release many critics had problems with tone—violence and humor seemed to clash. Reynolds’ was a semi-comedic cinematic figure and his previous two directorial efforts had been comedies, which may have led to jokes leaking into unusual moments of the film. But these days the mix of violence and comedy is common, so we doubt you’ll be terribly annoyed by these few incongruities.

The main flaw with the movie, besides its chasteness, is not its tone, but that it feels compressed in the latter third, especially as relates to the love subplot. True, the film is already a shade over two hours long, but it’s time that flies by, populated as it is by so many interesting roles and great actors (Bernie Casey, Brian Keith, Vittorio Gassman, Charles Durning). Another seven minutes would not have hurt. Still, we recommend this one. It should have been as bold a noir rework as Body Heat, but there’s plenty to entertain in other areas, and Hollywood may make this film perfect yet—a new version of Sharky’s Machine is in development with Mark Wahlberg in the lead. Hah hah—who are we kidding? They’ll screw it up completely. You already know that.

Thailand, Bangkok, Atlanta, Sharky's Machine, Laura, Burt Reynolds, Rachel Ward, Bernie Casey, Brian Keith, Vittorio Gassman, Charles Durning, Kwow, Mark Wahlberg, poster art, cinema, film noir, movie review

Modern Pulp

May 13 2010

LEARNING TO DIE

Les yeux de la terreur had little going for it except Rachel Ward.

Les yeux de la terreur, aka, Terror Eyes is an unremarkable little thriller about a serial decapitator on a college campus. It isn’t very scary, and it isn’t very entertaining, despite its deliberate resemblance to classic Italian giallo. But opinions vary, and as you can see by looking at the above poster, it won the Jury Prize at the 1981 Avoriaz Film Festival, which goes to show that horror fans are so desperate for anything that resembles art they’ll hear Edith Piaf in a victim’s screams and see Jackson Pollack in his blood splatters.

But one thing you don’t have to look very hard for here is British bombshell Rachel Ward in her first film appearance. She would later star in the quirky but satisfying neo noir Sharky’s Machine, the somewhat less satisfying noir rehash Against All Odds, the noir send-up Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, and the excellent modern Aussie noir After Dark My Sweet.

That’s a lot of noir, which is why she’s a favorite actress around here. As a side note, she gave an interview a while back in which she confessed that as a result of aging a bit and losing some of her extraordinary physical beauty, she wished she’d done more nude scenes. Funny, we were thinking the same thing. Les yeux de la terreur—which would later become known in the U.S. not as Terror Eyes, but as Night School—premiered at Avoriaz in January, and in Paris today in 1981.

France, Britain, Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, Les yeux de la terreur, Terror Eyes, Night School, Sharky's Machine, After Dark My Sweet, Rachel Ward, poster art, cinema

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

May 13

1960—Gary Cooper Dies

American film actor Gary Cooper, who harnessed an understated, often stoic style in numerous adventure films and westerns, including Sergeant York, For Whom the Bell Tolls, High Noon, and Alias Jesse James, dies of prostate, intestinal, lung and bone cancer. For his contributions to American cinema Cooper received a plaque on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is considered one of top movie stars of all time.

May 12

1957—Von Stroheim Dies

German film director and actor Erich von Stroheim, who as an actor was noted for his arrogant Teutonic character parts which led him to become a renowned cinematic villain with the nickname “The Man You Love to Hate”, dies in Maurepas, France at the age of 71.

May 11

1960—Adolf Eichmann Is Captured

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who had been living under the assumed name and working for Mercedes-Benz. Eichman is taken to Israel to face trial on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962, and is the only person to have been executed in Israel on conviction by a civilian court.

May 11

2010—Last Ziegfeld Follies Girl Dies

Doris Eaton Travis, who was the last surviving Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl, dies at age 106. The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. Inspired by the Folies Bergères of Paris, they enjoyed a successful run on Broadway, became a radio program in 1932 and 1936, and were adapted into a musical motion picture in 1946 starring Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, and Lena Horne.

May 10

1924—Hoover Becomes FBI Director

In the U.S., J. Edgar Hoover is appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a position he retains until his death in 1972. Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency, and with instituting a number of modern innovations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. But he also used the agency to grind a number of personal axes and far exceeded its legal mandate to amass secret files on political and civil rights leaders. Because of his abuses, FBI directors are now limited to 10-year terms.

May 10

1977—Joan Crawford Dies

American actress Joan Crawford, who began her show business career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies, but soon became one of Hollywood’s most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, dies of a heart attack at her New York City apartment while ill with pancreatic cancer.