After Dark, My Sweet

1990 was a good year for gritty adaptations of the books of Jim Thompson. In addition to The Grifters, this disturbing yet highly entertaining melodrama represented a miniature revival for the novelist. Patric stars as Collie, a literally punch-drunk ex-boxer who is on the run from a mental institution. Dazed, Collie wanders into the seedier side of Palm Springs and becomes tragically entangled with an alcoholic widow (Ward) and a local con man (Dern) who are hatching a scheme to pick up some quick bucks. After Dark, My Sweet is an excellent and claustrophobic study of three social misfits caught in a dangerous pas de trois.