Three-time Oscar winner Robert Benton writes & directs The Late Show, the nicest, warmest, funniest, and most touching movie you’ll ever see about blackmail, mystery, and murder. The Honeymooners’ Art Carney stars as Ira Wells, an aging, semi-retired Los Angeles private eye on the hunt for his friend’s killer. Along the way, he’ll form an unlikely partnership with a kooky new client (Lily Tomlin), when his search for vengeance becomes entangled with the case of her missing cat. This Robert Altman-produced neo-noir deserves wider recognition – it’s a breezy callback to the classic gumshoe films of the 1940s.
“A movie that dares a lot, pulls off most of it, and entertains us without insulting our intelligence” – Roger Ebert
“The Late Show never lets up; the editing is by Lou Lombardo (who has often worked with Robert Altman) and Peter Appleton, and I can’t think of a thriller from the forties that is as tight as this, or has such sustained tension… The Late Show is fast and exciting, but it isn’t a thriller, exactly. It’s a one-of-a-kind movie – a love-hate poem to sleaziness.” – Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
Kim Morgan writes about The Late Show on the New Beverly blog.
