Appointed Rounds

By JAY COCKS

THE DROWNING POOL

Directed by STUART ROSENBERG

Screenplay by TRACY KEENAN WYNN, LORENZO SEMPLE JR. and WALTER HILL

Come to think about it--and there is plenty of time to do so in The Drowning Pool--the traditional private-eye format does not suit movies all that well. It demands a rigid structure as the detective pursues his investigation like a mailman on his route, moving from door to door, picking up a shred of information, depositing another, occasionally having his appointed rounds interrupted by some mayhem.

Heavy Acting. The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep got around these problems partly through strong writing and heavy acting power, but also because the genre was newer then. More recently, Chinatown combined a script of elegant complexity with the sort of terse romanticism that made the plot move with comparative ease. The Drowning Pool can boast only the formula without the chemistry--plus Paul Newman, reviving his Harper character of some ten years back.

Lew Harper is Ross Macdonald's introverted detective, whose influence is heavily felt in Night Moves (TIME, July 21). Harper is the original Archer, except for his name, which was changed because Newman's most successful movies always had that lucky H in the title (The Hustler, Hud). Newman is generally amusing and attractive to watch, even when he is chomping gum rather than establishing any stronger character points. His role demands only that he ask questions and piece together one of those traditional Macdonald puzzles about sudden death and damaged children.

The sources and suspects in the case are a gallery of stereotypes: the alcoholic mother (Joanne Woodward) and the horny teen-age daughter (Melanie Griffith); the good-hearted slut (Linda Haynes) and the spoiled, untrustworthy rich girl (Gail Strickland); the menacing moneybags (Murray Hamilton), the surly chauffeur (Andy Robinson), the sardonic cop (Tony Franciosa).

The one bit of novelty is the drowning pool itself, a hydrotherapy room that, when flooded, poses a fearful threat to Harper and a fair companion. The rest of the movie is comprised of situations as familiar as the characters: the car-run-off-the-road scene; the private-eye-being-rousted-by-the-local-fuzz scene (cop weighing eye's fire arm: "You got a license for this thing?"); and the final, unpersuasive unearthing-of-the-dark-family-secret scene. The dialogue is also obligatory, right down to the girl's wistful line, "You're not such a tough guy, Harper."

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