It is common wisdom among the cognosenti that Burt Reynolds only gives a real performance when he isn't hiding behind his mustache. Sometimes this payed off for him with a genuine hit (Deliverance, White Lightning, The Longest Yard) but more often it resulted in critical and cult success rather than big box office. 1975 was a big deal for Reynolds with four films in release, the most theatrical exposure he would ever have in a single calendar year. Unfortunately, of these films, At Long Last Love and Lucky Lady would be the two most high profile flops of his career. The third, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, was a cult hit that would inaugurate his good ol'boy cycle of rascally roles. The remaining project would be the most personal, a re-uniting with his Longest Yard director and mentor Robert Aldrich. Co-produced by the two of them under their RoBurt banner, Hustle featured Reynold's most mature characterization to date, a cynical whiskey-drinking police lieutenant trying to keep his head above the criminal sleaze of Los Angeles. It doesn't help that he is shacked up with a French prostitute (Catherine Deneuve) who still plies her trade from the phone in their apartment. European in its sensibilities and tone, Aldrich uses French touchstones, (Deneuve, Charles Aznavour songs, Claude Lelouch movies) to convey a palpable sense of longing by the the two lovers for something slightly out of their reach, while at the same time paying homage to the undying support that Aldrich had always enjoyed from French critics. The film can also be seen as a bookend with Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly (1955), a comparably seedy noir that prefigures the demoralized corruption of the Seventies. With nary a mustache-wearing smirk in sight, Hustle, despite precipitously low grosses during its original run, is a legitimate contender for Burt's most underrated film, a challenging, tragic, moving and melancholy masterwork. DVD REGION 1 & 2
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