IMDB 7.4
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Jack's Rating :
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| Who is in charge? In noir whoever is on top of stairs. |
Ned Racine (William Hurt) is a sleazy lwyer who bounces from client to client and from girl to girl. Then, reminiscent of the great entrance of Cora Smith (Lana Turner) in The Postman Always Rings Twice, we have Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner) , all in white, walking in to his life She ignores him as she is reeling him in.
Their first conversation :
Ned: You can stand here with me if you want but you'll have to agree not to talk about the heat.
Matty: I'm a married woman.
Ned: Meaning what?
Matty: Meaning I'm not looking for company.
Ned: Then you should have said I'm a happily married woman.
Matty: That's my business.
Ned: What?
Matty: How happy I am.
Ned: How happy is that?
Matty: You're not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.
Matty takes off after sending Ned to get some paper towels. Ned then starts searching for the playing hard to get Matty. He finds her one night in a dark bar. She tells him he shouldn't have come, he's going to be disappointed.
Ned follows Matty home to say goodnight, and then throws a chair through the glass door to go to her after she had escorted him out. Matty stops playing hard to get and the romance and intrigue begins.
Matty tells Ned: "He's coming home tomorrow. I can't stand the thought of him. He's small, and mean and weak."
Next scene, Ned runs down on the pier with the fishermen and fishing poles. Ned is a fish on a hook.
In their next conversation she pulls him in.
Matty: Ned it scares me to talk about these things.
Ned: Why?
Matty: You know.
Ned: No I don't.
Matty: Let's just not. Let's just not think about all he's got.
Ned: Wait a minute. Tell me exactly what it is that frightens you.
Matty: I'm afraid because ... when I think about it I wish he'd die. That's really what I want. It's horrible and it's ugly but that's what I most want.
Ned: That's where we're at, isn't it?
Matty: What do you mean?
Ned: It's what we're both thinking ... how good it would be for us if he was gone. it would be real sweet for us.
Matty: No, Ned. pleas, don't. Don't talk about it.
Just like Phyllis Dietrichson made Walter Neff think it was his idea in Double Indemnity, and Matty makes Ned think it is his idea here. Matty gives Ned a fedora and he even looks like Walter. He looks at his reflection in the car window, but Matty is sitting there behind the reflection, in control.
Ned meets Matty's husband, Edmund and decides that they have to go through with killing him. The only way Matty can get any money is to kill him. She signed a pre-nuptial agreement with Edmund. Matty then starts talking about changing Edmund's will which gives half his money to his daughter, but Ned says it is not a good idea.
Ned goes to a criminal client (Mickey Rourke) of his and gets a device that starts a fire. When Ned breaks in to Matty's house Edmund wakes up and goes downstairs with his gun and Ned ends up killing him. Then they blow up a building with Edmund's body in it.
Ned then goes to a meeting with lawyers about a will he wrote for Matty. At the meeting Ned finds out that Matty turned on him. Matty had the will re-written dividing assets between her and Ned's sister. However, the will was written incorrectly, and it is invalidated. Ned had made the same mistake in a case years ago. So, since there is no will Matty gets it all. Matty has played Ned like a fiddle, but he still won't turn on her.
Matty tells Ned about her dark past. but a man helped her and she went to work for a lawyer. That's how she learned about making the will invalid. She goes on playing him, and he knows it.
Ned's lawyer friend working with the prosecutor tells him that on the night of Edmund's death, someone had called Ned's room over and over but there was no answer. Someone is setting Ned up. Someone is also trying to give the prosecutor Edmund's glasses which may have some clues with them.
Then Ned finds out that Matty had been referred to him by another lawyer who had been involved in the earlier malpractice suit. Ned now knows it was Matty who had sought him out. Then Ned finds out that Matty had gone to his friend to get another explosive device.
Matty calls Ned and tells him to go get Edmund's glasses in the boat house. and Ned knows she wants to blow him up.he almost wants to do it. he still can't quite believe it. How could she be that evil? Then he sees the wire.
Ned meets Matty at the boat house. Ned tells Matty to go to the boat house and get the glasses. When Matty goes to open the door, Ned shouts and tries to stop her, but the building blows up.
We next see Ned in jail, and Ned suddenly wakes up and says: "She's alive!" Her body was at the site, including her teeth. Ned says that Matty used another girl's identity and that was the body they found. Ned orders Matty's old yearbook and sure enough, Matty's friend was there with Matty's name, and Matty was there with another name. In the yearbook it said her ambition was to "To be rich and live in an exotic location."
We next see Matty at the beach.
Kathleen Turner in her first role, and William Hurt were both great. Matty was one of the all time great femme fatales in a really good neo-noir.
Their first conversation :
Ned: You can stand here with me if you want but you'll have to agree not to talk about the heat.
Matty: I'm a married woman.
Ned: Meaning what?
Matty: Meaning I'm not looking for company.
Ned: Then you should have said I'm a happily married woman.
Matty: That's my business.
Ned: What?
Matty: How happy I am.
Ned: How happy is that?
Matty: You're not too smart, are you? I like that in a man.
Matty takes off after sending Ned to get some paper towels. Ned then starts searching for the playing hard to get Matty. He finds her one night in a dark bar. She tells him he shouldn't have come, he's going to be disappointed.
Ned follows Matty home to say goodnight, and then throws a chair through the glass door to go to her after she had escorted him out. Matty stops playing hard to get and the romance and intrigue begins.
Matty tells Ned: "He's coming home tomorrow. I can't stand the thought of him. He's small, and mean and weak."
Next scene, Ned runs down on the pier with the fishermen and fishing poles. Ned is a fish on a hook.
In their next conversation she pulls him in.
Matty: Ned it scares me to talk about these things.
Ned: Why?
Matty: You know.
Ned: No I don't.
Matty: Let's just not. Let's just not think about all he's got.
Ned: Wait a minute. Tell me exactly what it is that frightens you.
Matty: I'm afraid because ... when I think about it I wish he'd die. That's really what I want. It's horrible and it's ugly but that's what I most want.
Ned: That's where we're at, isn't it?
Matty: What do you mean?
Ned: It's what we're both thinking ... how good it would be for us if he was gone. it would be real sweet for us.
Matty: No, Ned. pleas, don't. Don't talk about it.
Just like Phyllis Dietrichson made Walter Neff think it was his idea in Double Indemnity, and Matty makes Ned think it is his idea here. Matty gives Ned a fedora and he even looks like Walter. He looks at his reflection in the car window, but Matty is sitting there behind the reflection, in control.
Ned meets Matty's husband, Edmund and decides that they have to go through with killing him. The only way Matty can get any money is to kill him. She signed a pre-nuptial agreement with Edmund. Matty then starts talking about changing Edmund's will which gives half his money to his daughter, but Ned says it is not a good idea.
Ned goes to a criminal client (Mickey Rourke) of his and gets a device that starts a fire. When Ned breaks in to Matty's house Edmund wakes up and goes downstairs with his gun and Ned ends up killing him. Then they blow up a building with Edmund's body in it.
Ned then goes to a meeting with lawyers about a will he wrote for Matty. At the meeting Ned finds out that Matty turned on him. Matty had the will re-written dividing assets between her and Ned's sister. However, the will was written incorrectly, and it is invalidated. Ned had made the same mistake in a case years ago. So, since there is no will Matty gets it all. Matty has played Ned like a fiddle, but he still won't turn on her.
Matty tells Ned about her dark past. but a man helped her and she went to work for a lawyer. That's how she learned about making the will invalid. She goes on playing him, and he knows it.
Ned's lawyer friend working with the prosecutor tells him that on the night of Edmund's death, someone had called Ned's room over and over but there was no answer. Someone is setting Ned up. Someone is also trying to give the prosecutor Edmund's glasses which may have some clues with them.
Then Ned finds out that Matty had been referred to him by another lawyer who had been involved in the earlier malpractice suit. Ned now knows it was Matty who had sought him out. Then Ned finds out that Matty had gone to his friend to get another explosive device.
Matty calls Ned and tells him to go get Edmund's glasses in the boat house. and Ned knows she wants to blow him up.he almost wants to do it. he still can't quite believe it. How could she be that evil? Then he sees the wire.
Ned meets Matty at the boat house. Ned tells Matty to go to the boat house and get the glasses. When Matty goes to open the door, Ned shouts and tries to stop her, but the building blows up.
We next see Ned in jail, and Ned suddenly wakes up and says: "She's alive!" Her body was at the site, including her teeth. Ned says that Matty used another girl's identity and that was the body they found. Ned orders Matty's old yearbook and sure enough, Matty's friend was there with Matty's name, and Matty was there with another name. In the yearbook it said her ambition was to "To be rich and live in an exotic location."
We next see Matty at the beach.
Kathleen Turner in her first role, and William Hurt were both great. Matty was one of the all time great femme fatales in a really good neo-noir.
Quotes:
Ned: You can stand here with me if you want but you'll have to agree not to talk about the heat.
Matty: I'm a married woman.
Ned: Meaning what?
Matty: Meaning I'm not looking for company.
Ned: Then you should have said I'm a happily married woman.
Ned: I need someone to take care of me, someone to rub my tired muscles, smooth out my sheets.
Matty: Get married.
Ned: I just need it for tonight.
Ned: Maybe you shouldn't dress like that.
Matty: This is a blouse and a skirt. I don't know what you're talking about.
Ned: You shouldn't wear that body.
Judge: Mr. Racine, the next time you come into my courtroom I hope you've got either a better defense, or a better class of client.
Ned: Can I buy you a drink?
Matty: I told you. I've got a husband.
Ned: I'll buy him one too.
Matty: He's out of town.
Ned: My favorite kind. We'll drink to him.
Matty: Only comes up on weekends.
Ned: I'm liking him better all the time.