Back in 1966, superstar Paul Newman created one of his lasting film characters in "Harper". A big city cop with a bad attitude and trademark Newman sarcasm, Harper/Newman returned nine years later in 1975's THE DROWNING POOL.
This time, Harper visits the backwater swamps and Big Easy city of New Orleans to help a former girlfriend named Iris (played by Newman's real life wife, Joanne Woodward).
What starts as a simple case of domestic intrigue morphs into a very complicated plot around crooked land developers, politicians and some very bad relatives.
An impossibly young Melanie Griffith plays a young teenager with loose morals and strong convictions that always seems to surface at the wrong time for Harper.
Murray Hamilton (Jaws) is a powerful local businessman with some twisted connections, 70's TV star Tony Franciosa is a local detective with loyalties on both sides of the swamp and Gail Strickland is a wife caught in the middle of some very bad folks.
This swamp is teaming with nasty folks and a plot too complicated to follow half the time, but Newman is so consistently cool, funny and wise cracking throughout, he just defines movie star.
They just don't make them like Newman or McQueen anymore.
The bayou seems overflowing with sex, crime and bad intentions, but Newman swims perfectly through the murky waters and gets a B.
