USA 1984 Directed by Joel Coen. Starring: John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh.

Abby is cheating her husband with Ray. The husband Marty is getting suspicious and hires a private detective. When Marty finds out the truth, is he want the private detective to kill the couple. But the private detective fools him to believe he´s done the job, and shoot Marty instead. When Ray visit Marty, to get his money that Marty owe him, is he find him dead in a chair. The private detective has put out Abby´s gun on the floor, so Ray thinks Abby killed him. Ray tries to remove all the evidence, but when he drives off with Marty in the back-seat, is he discovers that he´s not dead yet. Ray is seized with panic and tries with no success to eliminate him. When he realize that he can´t do that, is he doing it in the most awful way. Marty is buried alive out in the fields. The private detective recalls that he left his lighter on the table when he shot Marty, and is now after Ray and Abby.

The Coen brothers first film is a thriller with a sure sense of style of the low-voiced kind. The characters aren´t so load as they mostly are in the nineties. And that´s a good thing. When I first saw "Blood Simple" in the eighties I thought it was good, nothing more. Now I wonder why not more movies be like this.

I really like the sleepy atmosphere in the film. I know there are some people who think it´s little slow, but it doesn´t disturb me. M. Emmet Walsh is absolutely superb as the slimy private detective. He steals the show from the other actors. Dan Hedaya as Marty is also good, but the leading actors John Getz and Frances McDormand as Ray and Abby were quite wooden. The stunning camera-work, and the sparing use of the scantily audible music, are combines strongly to that this is a thriller out of the ordinary.

Kent Plamgren

Thrilling Movie Review