Mulholland Falls

Mulholland Falls
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lee Tamahori
Produced by	Lili Fini Zanuck Richard D. Zanuck
Screenplay by	Pete Dexter
Story by	Pete Dexter Floyd Mutrux
Starring	Nick Nolte Jennifer Connelly Chazz Palminteri
Music by	Dave Grusin
Cinematography	Haskell Wexler
Editing by	Sally Menke
Studio	PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	April 26, 1996 (1996-04-26)
Running time	107 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$11,526,099

Mulholland Falls is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori and written by Pete Dexter. The drama features Andrew McCarthy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Melanie Griffith, Treat Williams, and John Malkovich.^[1]

Nolte plays the head of an elite group of four Los Angeles Police Department detectives (based on the real life "Hat Squad") who are known for stopping at nothing to maintain control of their jurisdiction. Their work has the tacit approval of the police chief (Bruce Dern).

Plot

In the early 1950s, a four-man squad of unorthodox Los Angeles Police Department detectives begins throwing its weight around by tossing Jack Flynn (William L. Petersen), a suspected organized crime figure, off a cliff on Mulholland Drive, nicknamed "Mulholland Falls" for all the men they have tossed off it. Detective Maxwell Hoover (Nick Nolte) and his partners Coolidge (Chazz Palminteri), Hall (Michael Madsen), and Relyea (Chris Penn) are called to investigate a suspicious death of a young woman found at a construction site. The evidence shows that every bone in her body is broken. A coroner deduces that she looks like she "jumped off a cliff," although there are no cliffs nearby. The woman is later identified to be an aspiring actress, Allison Pond (Jennifer Connelly).

The detectives receive a film of Allison having sex in a motel room, taken by a secretly hidden camera behind a one-way mirror. Allison's gay friend Jimmy Fields (Andrew McCarthy) admits to making this film and more but he is murdered before he can reveal more information. Radioactive glass is found in Allison's foot, which leads the detectives to the Nevada Atomic Testing Site, where they illegally break in and investigate. Colonel Fitzgerald (Treat Williams) threatens to lock up the police officers, warning them that they have no authority there. The man in the film with Allison proves to be the civilian commander of the secret base, retired General Thomas Timms (John Malkovich), now head of the Atomic Energy Commission. Max's marriage to Kate (Melanie Griffith) is jeopardized by someone desperate to retrieve the film, a blackmailer who sends Kate a copy of a film showing her husband and Allison having sex in the same motel room.

Despite the FBI's attempt to persuade the LAPD's Chief (Bruce Dern) and his squad to drop the case, further investigation leads the detectives to the "atomic soldiers" used as guinea pigs for atomic bomb tests, now dying in a secret military hospital. Images of them also were captured on a film made by Jimmy Fields. Max and his partner Ellery Coolidge board a C-47 cargo airplane with Colonel Fitzgerald and his aide (Kyle Chandler) to return to Los Angeles. During the flight, Max tells Coolidge that Fitzgerald is going to kill them by throwing them off the airplane in mid-air, the same way that Allison Pond died. In a vicious struggle, the detectives fight for their lives during a shoot-out on the airplane. Fitzgerald is thrown off by Max, falling to his death. The pilot is fatally shot but manages to crash land. Coolidge dies of a bullet wound after surviving the crash.

Max cannot reconcile with his wife at the funeral because she feels betrayed and heartbroken. At the cemetery, where he explains that his unit has been disbanded, she walks out on Max for good.

Cast

• Nick Nolte as Maxwell Hoover
• Jennifer Connelly as Allison Pond
• Chazz Palminteri as Ellery Coolidge
• Michael Madsen as Eddie Hall
• Chris Penn as Arthur Relyea
• Melanie Griffith as Katherine Hoover
• Treat Williams as Colonel Fitzgerald
• Daniel Baldwin as FBI Agent McCafferty
• Andrew McCarthy as Jimmy Fields
• John Malkovich as General Timms
• Kyle Chandler as The Captain
• William L. Petersen as Jack Flynn
• Aaron Neville as Nite Spot Singer
• Rob Lowe (uncredited) as Flynn's associate
• Bruce Dern (uncredited) as LAPD Chief Bill Parker
• Louise Fletcher (uncredited) as Esther

Production

The film is loosely based on LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division's "Hat Squad" (the two units were merged in 1969) in the days before the 1966 Miranda Supreme Court decision. Being a period piece, the film utilizes locations, costumes, and automobiles to set the time frame. Among those most recognizable is the car driven by Max, which is a black 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible.

Filming locations include Los Angeles, Malibu, and Desert Hot Springs, all in California; and Wendover, Utah.^[2]

Critical reception

The Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, historically a fan of film noir, liked the film, and wrote, "This is the kind of movie where every note is put in lovingly. It's a 1950s crime movie, but with a modern, ironic edge: The cops are just a shade over the top, just slightly in on the joke. They smoke all through the movie, but there's one scene where they're disturbed and thoughtful, and they all light up and smoke furiously, the smoke lit by the cinematographer to look like great billowing clouds, and you smile, because you know the scene is really about itself."^[3]

Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times film critic, also liked the film. Even though he writes that Mulholland Falls "goes about its business without a trace of finesse" he approved of the direction and the acting in the film, especially Jennifer Connelly's "haunting presence," writing, "Mulholland Falls combines a vivid sense of place with a visceral directorial style that fuses controlled fury onto everything it touches."^[4]

In The New York Times, Janet Maslin also lauded the film, writing, "Mr. Tamahori, who gives Mulholland Falls a smashing, insidious L.A.-noir style meant to recall Chinatown, along with a high-testosterone swagger that is distinctively his own. This director's first Hollywood film has such punch, in fact, that it takes a while to realize how slight and sometimes noxious its concerns really are. But Mulholland Falls is so well cast and relentlessly stylish (thanks to some fine technical talent assembled here) that its sheer energy prevails over its shaky plot. After all, when a filmmaker can show Ms. Griffith contentedly reading A Farewell to Arms, there's not much he won't do. So this film has all the Chinatown staples—dangerous sex, corrupt power and a vast environment-damaging conspiracy—along with mushroom clouds, porn movies, a crash-landing airplane and many quick bursts of one-on-one violence."^[5]

However, many reviewers echoed critic Peter Stack. Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, he notes, "Mulholland Falls falls flat a lot. The best of the old noir detective dramas had lively pacing and crisp tough-guy dialogue. This movie seems at times like an exercise in slow motion and in dull, cumbersome writing (the script is by novelist and former newspaper columnist Pete Dexter, who wrote the Rush screenplay)."^[6]

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 25% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 25 reviews."^[7]

Distribution

The film opened in wide release in the United States on April 26, 1996. The box office receipts were poor. The first week's gross was $4,306,221 (1,625 screens) and the total receipts for the run were $11,504,190. In its widest release the film was featured in 1,625 theaters. The film was in circulation seven weeks (45 days).^[8]

Home media

On September 18, 1996, the film was released on VHS by MGM/UA Home Video. A laserdisc edition was released on May 27, 1997. In addition, it was re-released on DVD on November 2, 2004.

Soundtrack

Main article: Mulholland Falls (soundtrack)

The original score for the film was written and recorded by Dave Grusin. An original motion picture soundtrack CD was released on May 21, 1996 on the Edel America label. The CD contained 13 tracks including the old ballad, "Harbor Lights", by Jimmy Kennedy and Hugh Williams, sung by crooner Aaron Neville. Neville also performs the song in the film. There were five top 10 recordings of the song in 1950.

Music in film not in soundtrack

• Dean Martin - "That Certain Party"
• Count Basie - "Who Me?"
• Kay Starr - "So Tired"

Accolades

Wins

• Razzie Awards: Worst Supporting Actress - Melanie Griffith; 1997.

References

1. ^ Mulholland Falls at the Internet Movie Database.
2. ^ Mulholland Falls at the Internet Movie Database, film locations.
3. ^ Ebert, Roger. The Chicago Sun-Times, film review, April 26, 1996.
4. ^ Turan, Kenneth. The Los Angeles Times, Calendar Section, film review, April 26, 1996.
5. ^ Maslin, Janet. The New York Times, film review, "High-Test Swagger by Burly Buddies," April 26, 1996. Last accessed: March 21, 2008.
6. ^ Stack, Peter. The San Francisco Chronicle, film review, page D-3, April 26, 1996.
7. ^ Mulholland Falls at Rotten Tomatoes
8. ^ The Numbers box office data. Last accessed: December 16, 2006.

External links

• Mulholland Falls at the Internet Movie Database
• Mulholland Falls at the TCM Movie Database
• Mulholland Falls at AllRovi
• Mulholland Falls at Box Office Mojo
• Mulholland Falls at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mulholland Falls film trailer