Blood Simple

TCM had a month of latter-day noir back in July: movies that share a lot of the themes of the classic noir cycle of the late 1940s and early 1950s, but because of the exclusive use of color and the end of the Production Code form a cycle unto themselves. This gave me the chance to record a couple of movies I hadn't seen before, including Blood Simple.

Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya) owns a bar in Texas of the sort that's slightly seedier than Mickey Gilley's place in Urban Cowboy, but not as bad as the bar in Missouri that Patrick Swayze tames in Road House. He's got a pair of bartenders in Ray (John Getz) and Maurice (Samm-Art Williams), and a wife Abby (Frances McDormand) who may or may not love him any more. At least, he's convinced that Abby is stepping out on him. And wouldn't you know, he's right.

Abby has been having an affair with Ray, and is worried that she might use her gun on Julian, so she's thinking of leaving town entirely. What she doesn't know yet is that Julian has hired a private detective, Visser (M. Emmet Walsh) to find out if Abby is having an affair with anybody, and if so, who. So once Julian gets that information, Abby is sure to get it too, since Julian calls up the hotel where Abby and Ray have their little tryst.

Julian isn't so sure what to do, but comes up with an idea borne of jealousy that doesn't seem like a good one if he spent a night sleeping on it: have somebody kill Abby and Ray and dispose of the bodies. I have no idea how anybody expects contract killings to work because as we learned in Double Indemnity you have to go all the way to the end of the line. And who can keep up the crocodile tears over the wife you hate getting murdered? But in any case, Julian discusses with Visser the possibility of killing Ray and Abby, and Visser seems down with it.

Except that Visser has other plans. He sends Julian away for a couple of days in order to establish an alibi, but in fact it's because Visser needs time to carry out his plan. He doctors some photos of a bloddy Ray and Abby dead in their bed, and steals Abby's handgun. Then when it comes time to collect the money from Julian, Visser shoots Julian with Abby's gun and takes the money! This of course means that the police will find Abby's gun, making her the #1 suspect, never mind that she and Ray were having an affair.

But, as always happens in noir films, complications ensue. Visser didn't notice that Julian took one of the photos that Visser had presented as evidence and put it into the safe, presumably as a way to blackmail Visser. And then there's Ray, who shows up at the bar and finds Julian dead. He finds the handgun, which means he knows he'll be implicated too, so he has to clean up the crime scene (good luck with that what with all the blood) and dispose of the body. Said body, however, turns out not to be quite dead yet....

Blood Simple has more twists and turns on the way to its mighty entertaining conclusion. If you can suspend your disbelief enough to think that Visser wouldn't be able to kill Julian at close range, Blood Simple is a pretty darn good movie, and definitely one you should watch if you get the chance.