After Dark, My Sweet

James (At Close Range) Foley demonstrates again his affinity for the climate of mundane evil, this time Jim Thompson's random world, where all the characters play with crooked cues. Ex-boxer and drifter Collie (Patric) seems just punchy enough to recruit as the muscle in a child kidnapping, but turns out unpredictable; and Uncle Bud (Dern) and Fay (Ward) have a testing time keeping up with his mood swings. Nobody trusts anybody, and they're right. Dern, always awkward, has matured into a showpiece of behavioural hairpin bends. Excellent.