Hustle

Fresh off box-office comedy smash The Longest Yard (1974), director Robert Aldrich and star sensation Burt Reynolds ditched laughs for a gritty, uncompromising neo-noir set in the seedy underbelly of LA. Following the box-office success of The Longest Yard (1974), director Robert Aldrich and star Burt Reynolds chose a very different path with their next collaboration Hustle, a dark, Los Angeles set, neo-noir. Maverick director Robert Aldrich, best known for films like Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and The Dirty Dozen (1967) which explored the darker sides of American society and the human psyche, followed The Longest Yard (1974) with Hustle, a dark, Los Angeles set, neo-noir. Alongside Burt Reynolds, Aldrich gathered a quality cast including European superstar Catherine Deneuve, gnarled veterans Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson and Eddie Albert, Aldrich regular Paul Winfield, and, in a memorable blink and you'll miss it appearance, Freddie Kruger-to-be Robert Englund. For such a box-office hit, Hustle remains surprisingly underseen. This is a rare chance to experience one of the bleakest neo-noirs of the 1970s on the big screen.