Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for August 24, 2010

Wow!

“The Maltese Basset” !!

One of the best films ever made…. and one of my all-time favorites (an overlapping, but not necessarily identical, pair of lists) …

and I almost slept through it!

I hope my ticket will let me stay through the second showing, so I can catch what I missed…

in the August 24th  2020 “CLEO and COMPANY” on Sherpa.

What a story, indeed…. I don’t want to give any spoilers, cos it says “to be continued” …

But it’s one of the first films to be called “noir”…

Every part, from leads to bit parts, of which there are few, cast to perfection.

There is no other_possible_ Sam Basset… or Miss Behave… for this film….

(even though I know another Miss Behave, IRL, but she wouldn’t be right for this film, cos she’s a drag queen… but I digress)

The “Fat Dog” will show up, as a memorable villain… played a famed (and fat) canine stage actor in his first screen role.

The simpering Joel Canine, if I remember his name right…

And the Basset itself…. wow.

Nighthawks has done a beautiful job of capturing the film…

What dogtective, no matter how hard-boiled, wouldn’t fall for that face, in panel three?

He wants to investigate her, privately, from the first moment.

But there are mysteries to sniff out… doggie romance is off the table…

until some details are dug up.

The stage is beautifully set…

thanks, Nighthawks.