Hustle (1975) (Widescreen Collection)

In Robert Aldrich's HUSTLE, a hard-boiled detective, Lt. Phil Gaines (Burt Reynolds), tries to solve a case involving the death of a teenage call girl and soon finds himself wrapped in a dark, complicated riddle of urban corruption and vice. While Gaines faces off against the main suspect, powerful lawyer Leo Sellers (Eddie Albert), the dead girl's father (Ben Johnson) muddies the water of the investigation by doing his own ham-handed sleuthing. As the detective spirals ever-deeper into the murky, violent world of the case, he starts a sizzling affair with a hooker, Nicole (Catherine Deneuve), that could put his own job at stake.

Reynolds transcends his simplistic sex symbol persona--which had made him one of Hollywood's most bankable stars by the mid-1970s--with a nuanced, volcanic portrayal of a man no longer sure of the difference between right and wrong, or even whether a difference would matter. Aldrich uses this second collaboration with Reynolds (THE LONGEST YARD was the first) to dive fully into the morally ambiguous and cynical undertones fringing earlier efforts such as THE DIRTY DOZEN and KISS ME, DEADLY. The result is a suspenseful, glittering disco-era noir with an alluringly troubled heart and a touch like ice.