52 PICK-UP 1986 Neo-Noir Crime Film

It is based on Elmore Leonard's 1974 novel of the same name, and is the second adaptation of it after The Ambassador (1984). Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) is a successful construction magnate living in the suburbs of Los Angeles, whose wife Barbara is running for city council. However Harry has been playing around with a younger woman and is confronted by three hooded blackmailers who demand $105,000 per year for a videotape of him and his mistress Cini, who turns out to be a stripper and part of the blackmail plan. Because of his wife's political aspirations Harry flatly refuses to go to the police; however, guilt eventually drives him to confess all to Barbara. Then begins a tale of more bluffs and double crosses than a high level game of poker. Not my usual film genre but I have to say I really enjoyed this you could feel the menace hanging thick in the air right from the outset. I recognised Roy Scheider from the film Jaws 1975. The question was why was he playing away from home in the first place I thought his wife Barabara Mitchell (Ann-Margret), was gorgeous in this.

Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United States—roughly from 1945 to 1960. The French term, film noir, translates literally to English as "black movie" or "dark movie", indicating sinister stories often presented in a shadowy cinematographic style. Neo-noir has a similar style but with updated themes, content, style, and visual elements. From my list of Mystery Movies from the 1980s.