“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.”

— Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

1990 was quite the year for hardboiled and Noir on the big screen. Pacific Heights (Michael Keaton) came in as the 41^st highest grossing movie of the year, with Revenge (based on the novella from the uber-talented James Harrison) was 83^rd. Those are both solid Noirs.

At 107^th was The Two Jakes – the long-delayed sequel to Chinatown. At 109th was Miami Blues, with Fred Ward as Charles Willeford’s Hoke Mosely. I’ve read the books several times, but not seen the movie.

The 135^th highest grossing movie is probably second only to The Maltese Falcon in the harboiled genre for me. It’s the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing. Starring the tastefully-last named Gabriel Byrne! At 155th is a remake of a Bogart flick, Desperate Hours. Mickey Rourke delivered a pretty good Noir.

But today, I want to talk a bit about a little gem that was pretty much overlooked and landed at 157^th: After Dark, My Sweet. Sadly, it failed to earn back even half of it’s approximately $6.5 million budget. But this is a wonderful adaptation of Jim Thompson’s novel.

It starts with director and co-writer James Foley, who has a mixed resume. He directed Sean Penn (married to Madonna at the time) in the very good Noir, At Close Range. He got the gig because he was producing Madonna’s videos. Sadly, the next movie he directed was Who’s That Girl. That’s the kind of thing that can end a career.

Foley wanted to make a small film, his choice, his way. It strikes me as washing a bad taste out of his mouth. And he went to his love of Noir. I’m telling you, there needs to be more movies like After Dark My Sweet. It’s a little less than two hours of bleak, compelling, Noir.

Jason Patric is a former boxer who goes to work for a widow – after he escapes from a mental institution. Rachel Ward is a tour de force, and Bruce Dern is her shady acquaintance. All three are superb in this movie. I think as good as any other performance they did.

This is a dark film. Jim Thompson is one of the finest writers I have ever read. But he’s bleak. And it can be tough to find somebody to root for in his novels. This movie pulls you in, hoping somebody makes the right choice before it’s too late. Self-destruction is a theme here.

The tension stays high right to the end, with the script following Thompson’s novel pretty closely. If you can believe it, Ward’s character is a far heavier drinker in the book. But I cannot praise her performance enough.

When you read a Jim Thompson novel, you constantly wonder if the main character is ‘going to make it.’ It’s usually a safe bet that the answer is ‘No,’ but that’s the lure of his books. If you’ve seen The Getaway, or The Grifters, you know what a Thompson book is like. And The Killer Inside Me showcases the dark side of his Noir.

I wanted this to be a spoiler-free post. You can see the trailer here. I have only praise for this one. There have been some good Jim Thompson movies. Somehow I’ve not seen Stacy Keach’s The Killer Inside Me. As I said, this is a ‘little’ movie. It’s lean, and it’s tight. It’s not glitzy like The Grifters (which I like). This was a talented director making a movie out of a book from a writer he admired, in a genre he loved. And it’s a million miles from Madonna stuff. If you don’t mind a dark, depressing drama, you really should check this one out.

Foley’s next film would be Glengarry Glen Ross – this guy directed some quality films. But his two most final movies were from the Fifty Shades franchise. Ugh. He passed last year of brain cancer. I’d absolutely have watched another Noir from him. He understood the genre.

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Bob Byrne’s ‘A (Black) Gat in the Hand’ made its Black Gate debut in 2018 and has returned every Summer since.

His ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate from March, 2014 through March, 2017. And he irregularly posts on Rex Stout’s gargantuan detective in ‘Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone.’ He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, and founded www.SolarPons.com (the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’).

He organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series, as well as the award-winning ‘Hither Came Conan’ series. Which is now part of THE Definitive guide to Conan. He also organized 2023’s ‘Talking Tolkien.’

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories — Parts III, IV, V, VI, XXI, and XXXIII.

He has written introductions for Steeger Books, and appeared in several magazines, including Black Mask, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, The Strand Magazine, and Sherlock Magazine.

You can definitely ‘experience the Bobness’ at Jason Waltz’s ’24? in 42′ podcast.