![]() ![]() He found his dad sitting on a bench one day but could not get himself to approach or confront him, deciding to just walk away. One key scene has Hackman telling his wife about the time he tracked down the father he never knew. You always sympathize with nice-guy Hackman, the childless ex-jock getting blindsided by his spouse with a literally lame 'sideliner' yet able to empathize with, and willing to procure justice for, a deluded kid-and he has an admirable work ethic. A shaken Hackman confronts the kid's mom, accusing her of abandonment and of using her daughter for personal gain. Once back in LA the teen is killed in a rather reckless auto mishap involving a stunt car. Both are pawns in the lives of others: the teen by her narcissistic, self-serving mom and Hackman by his spouse, friends and clients. The kid runs on hormones and reflexes while Hackman is actuated by job, pride and ego. Each of their lives is devoid of loyalty, fidelity or truth. Also probably vicariously comforting himself as much in the lives of both teen and PI seem to run in parallel: both victims of abandonment, betrayal and sexual deviancy, and both having few and tenuous supports. The PI comforts the shaken, bawling teen that night, the big lug showing he has a soft spot and realizing that his target is just a deprived, neglected and probably misguided child. The teen adamently refuses to return to LA with Hackman but changes her mind when she comes upon a corpse while diving off the Keys. A strikingly attractive Jennifer Warren plays the oddball and enigmatic lady friend-your're never sure if she's just being coy and furtive or if she has serious mental health issues, or both-a very cool and crafty performance. The dad, a puffy, glib, overly-congenial maritimer is played particularly well by vet actor John Crawford-his specious manner and veiled virulence sensed throughout. Hackman's search for the teen takes him from trendy suburban LA and a lot of stuntmen pals to the bedraggled Florida Keys where the kid is holed up with her step-dad and his lady friend in a trashy shore house. Susan Clark plays Hackman's unfulfilled and ambivalent spouse. Melanie Griffith plays the rowdy, promiscuous and itinerant teen, reprising her similar role opposite Paul Newman in THE DROWNING POOL earlier that same year of of 1975. ![]() Concurrently, the ex-football star is getting two-timed by his wife with a guy who has a gimpy leg. Tawdry, 70's head-scratcher of a detective flick with Gene Hackman playing a private investigator getting big bucks for locating the flighty 16-year old daughter of an affluent ex-actress. ![]()
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