After Dark My Sweet

This review is an excerpt from my book “Killer B’s: The 237 Best Movies On Video You’ve (Probably) Never Seen,” which is available as an ebook on iBooks. If you enjoy this review, there are 236 more like it in the book (plus a whole lot more). Check it out! AFTER DARK, MY SWEET: Punch-drunk ex-boxer Kevin “Collie” Collins (Patric) stumbles into a dusty California desert town and is promptly picked up by beautiful, sarcastic widow Fay Anderson (Ward). She cleans him up; she gives him work; she lets him stay in a trailer out in her orchard. Enter sleazy “Uncle Bud” (Dern), who gives Collie some vague, sinister warnings. Even Fay advises splitting before he gets mixed up in their “scheme.” He can’t stay away from Fay, though; she’s the first person who’s ever needed him. Bud’s kidnapping plan is pretty simple, but even Collie’s addled brains can figure out he’s being set up as the patsy; set up to take the fall. All he knows for sure is he’s got to play this out to the end, and that he can add his own spin to the scheme, since they all underestimate him so badly. Is he crazy like a fox? Or just crazy? Discussion: What distinguishes this movie from a standard thriller (which could easily be made from the simple plot) is its unusual point of view: We see situations through the eyes of a borderline lunatic, which fills the plot with unpredictable double- and triple-crosses, some of which might exist only in Collie’s fevered brain. Or perhaps Collie’s questionable sanity is simply simple-mindedness...but simplicity can be a very complicated thing. Uncle Bud’s mistake, and Fay’s as well, is in equating smarts with sanity—or with character. Even though Collie’s brains might be scrambled, his insight into motivation is far more perceptive and accurate than that of any of the other players. The flick wouldn’t work without a brilliant central performance, and Patric pulls it off excellently. Every step his Collie takes is a prowl through the ring; every intuitive gesture is sound psychology. The movie is full of surprises, snowballing up to the ending, which contains one shocking twist after another; all logical, unpredictable and inevitable—if you’ve got the mind of a killer.

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