Even though this picture came out in 1975, I can't exactly call it a classic. However, I felt act three twists, in what started as a bland private investigator story, make "The Drowning Pool" ahead of its time.

This contemporary classic--maybe, is about Lew Harper, a PI from Los Angeles who travels into the southern states to help his ex-girlfriend, Iris Deveraux, who's being blackmailed. She asks him to find out who's got the good's on her.

As he investigates, Harper finds the woman's mother Olivia Deveraux is in a heated battle over oil enriched marshland against industrialist Kilbourne. In addition, he also finds Iris' daughter Schuyler Deveraux is actually sleeping with the blackmailer, the former family chaufer.

It is never actually stated what the blackmailing was for. However, the viewer gets a sense it was something like an affair on her husband.

Through the second act, Olivia Deveraux is murdered, and the local police chief Broussard, who's been giving Harper a rough time, blames chaufer Pat Reavis. Harper continues to investigate, discovering Reavis was actually an industrial spy for Kilbourne.

Giving away the ending, in act three, Iris kills herself, Reavis gets murdered by a couple of hooded rednecks, and as it turns out, daughter Schuyler is the one doing the blackmailing and only having sex with Reavis. If that's not good enough for plot twists, it also turns out Iris was having the affair with Chief Broussard and Schuyler is actually HIS daughter. The third act was very well laid out and exciting, even though the overall picture was extremely dated and conventional for PI movies of the 50s, 60s and 70s.

At the top of act three, Harper and Kilbourne's wife Mavis are kidnapped and contained in a closed down mental hospital bath and shower room. To escape, the two strip down to their underwear, plug the drain in the floor with their clothes, open every water inlet available and flood the room over several hours, floating and swimming to the sky light above.

However, the two can't open the sky light, nor break it, so they cling to each other, panicking and losing the last of their air. Suddenly, Kilbourne and his henchman open the door to the room and the water sloshes through the halls, killing the henchman and wounding Kilbourne. Eventually, Kilbourne's wife shoots him dead. I know it sounds hoaky written out like this, but trust me, even for today's cinematic standards, the sequence was extremely intense and exciting.

Paul Newman (Road to Perdition) stars as Harper, while a very pretty Joanne Woodward (Mr. and Mrs. Bridge) supports as Iris. An extremely young Melanie Griffith (Working Girl) plays daughter Schuyler, and Murry Hamilton (Jaws) played Kilbourne.

Newman was a stud in the picture, but he gets his butt kicked a few times, making his character believeable. Woodward's character seemed a bit overdramatized, because her performance was more fitting for a film noir heroin. This film wasn't quite film noir in either style or material, so she seemed a bit out of place at times.

Griffith was a kid when she did this picture, and she gave a child's value performance. However, as a character, Griffith had a lot going on and pulled her role off well enough.

The film is also loaded with stereotypical cops and henchmen, of whom the 1970s movie private eye always HAS to run into for some reason. Otherwise, main characters held the story and picture together in the end.

Even though the picture starts off as "done before many times over," the last forty minutes are well worth the price of the rental. I suggest seeing "The Drowning Pool" if you're into PI movies or like Paul Newman's past roles where he gets to be a smart-ass. Otherwise, you may not like it as much as I did.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?