IMDb user comments for
The Drowning Pool (1975) More at IMDbPro »

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Index

20 comments in total

---

16 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Intelligent thriller, 11 September 1999

Author: Penfold-13 from London, UK

A mature, intelligent thriller, in which Newman recreates Lew Harper. It takes place around New Orleans and involves public corruption and an intricate web of deceit.

The style is fairly laid-back, though it doesn't actually lag - even though it sometimes seems it's about to. The characters are all sharply delineated and complex, and there is a lot of very good acting going on.

Thoroughly watchable, with some tension and suspense, but only sporadic action.

---

10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Intriguing, carefully paced mystery., 17 October 2002
Author: Poseidon-3 from Cincinnati, OH

Ten years after Newman's success in "Harper" as the title private investigator, he reappeared in this follow-up. While the caliber of the cast can't hold a candle to the stellar first film, the acting and mystery elements are excellent. Woodward plays a wealthy Louisiana woman who once had a brief fling with Newman. She hires him to find out who's blackmailing her about her extramarital dalliances. Once he lands in the bayou, he is immersed in several confusing and complicated situations involving sex, real estate war and murder. Newman is utterly appealing as the hard knock investigator, Woodward is cool and refined, Franciosa puts his method acting to good use and Hamilton puts an enjoyably quirky spin on a villainous role. Griffith effectively plays Woodward's sexually ripe daughter and Browne adds great authority in her brief appearance as Woodward's domineering mother-in-law. The plot is extremely convoluted and risks losing all sense at times, but it all comes about in the end. The actors succeed in making the audience want to see more of what they are all about. The title refers to a climactic scene in which Newman and an exasperatingly upset cohort are trapped in an enclosed hydrotherapy room which is filled to the brim with water. This affords a rare opportunity to see the relatively modest Newman trotting around in damp boxer shorts. The film utilizes (perhaps overutilizes?) the song "Killing Me Softly" throughout. The film is like a reunion of sorts for Newman. Aside form his frequent collaborations with his wife Woodward, she and Franciosa had starred with him in "The Long Hot Summer", Hamilton had appeared in "The Hustler" and Jaeckel co-starred with him in "Sometimes a Great Notion". Director Rosenberg has also directed Newman in "WUSA", "Cool Hand Luke" and "Pocket Money". Years later, Griffith would appear with Newman in "Nobody's Fool".

---

10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Underrated followup to Harper in a different key, 18 November 2000

Author: fs3 (thewildbunch@yahoo.com) from Louisiana

Where Harper was jazzy, amped up for its day and often dark humored in its intrigue and violence, this sequel has more of a laid-back and ultimately melancholy tone. The humor is still there, but the dysfunctional family theme that produced edgy laughs in the earlier film cuts deeper here.

Newman looks great and is as effortlessly effective as ever as he prowls Cajun Country, at the behest of onetime flame Joanne Woodward, in search of a blackmail source that quickly turns into much more. Filmed all over South Louisiana, including a mansion shot here in Baton Rouge, it gets the local flavor down pretty well.

Dismissed as draggy even in its day, and certainly so in the age raised on the newspaper ad quote "A Thrill Ride!!!", it's a thoughtful, well acted addition to the private eye genre, with Melanie Griffith coming out the gate full force as a troublesome nymphet (an interesting predatory flip-side to the victimized variation seen later the same year in the superb Night Moves.)

Hopefully a widescreen DVD will one day soon afford its excellent Panavision photography to be seen for the first time in 25 years.

---

9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Better With Every Viewing, 22 June 2006

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

The Drowning Pool is Paul Newman's second and last time as private detective Lew Harper. The plot takes him to the Louisiana bayou country where an old flame Joanne Woodward has hired him to trace and find out who's been sending her nasty notes about her sex life.

The investigation quickly centers around recently fired chauffeur Andy Robinson, but before long Newman gets himself immersed in the local politics of the area with a slick oil millionaire (Murray Hamilton), Woodward's nymphomanic daughter (Melanie Griffith), an obsessed police lieutenant (Anthony Franciosa) and various and sundry other bayou characters. Quite a few of the characters are killed off before the climax.

The Drowning Pool goes somewhat astray in its development, but the ends are nicely tied together in the end.

The hit song made popular by Helen Reddy in the seventies, Killing Me Softly With His Song, comes from The Drowning Pool. It was a mega hit back in the day and to my amazement I discovered it wasn't even nominated for an Oscar.

Of course my favorite here is Anthony Franciosa. He had an incredible ear for dialect and he really got the Cajun speech patterns down to perfection.

But the real reason I love The Drowning Pool is the scene where Paul Newman and Gail Strickland are locked in a hydrotherapy room by Murray Hamilton. Strickland is Hamilton's wife. Why they are both there I won't say, but their escape from the room is one of the most spectacular ever put on film.

You should see The Drowning Pool for that alone.

---

5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and a nubile Melanie Griffith, 21 June 2000
Author: hawktwo from Washington DC

Ross MacDonald's novels generally translate well to movie. This one certainly does, although I've never seen a Ross MacDonald movie that successfully captures the atmosphere that MacDonald creates in his novels. Paul Newman is the detective Lew Archer (I seem to remember that his name was changed to Harper for the movie to keep a string of "H" movies going: Hud, Hombre, and Harper). The movie moves along with a complex plot that is not difficult to track and understand. Melanie Griffith is perfection in the role of the 14-year old seductress. >

---

5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent mid-seventies noir, 6 February 2008

Author: robb_772 from United States

Newman reprises his role as Lew Harper for the second and final time in the long-awaited sequel to 1966's HARPER, another twisting mystery; this time set in Louisiana. Unfortunately, THE DROWNING POOL was tepidly received by both critics and audiences, most of whom seemed to think the film paled in comparison to the original. I am one viewer who disagrees strongly with the general consensus in this case. Not only is THE DROWNING POOL a first-rate mystery thriller, but it is also one of the most sorely underrated films in Newman's filmography.

The film has a completely different look and feel than the previous film, which may have been the reason that so many critics and audiences unfairly rejected it. Gone is the sixties-era go-go mania, which has been replaced with the moody elements of modern film noir which perfectly suits the intricate story of murder and blackmail. The film may not have the starpower of the previous film, but it nonetheless offers solid work from Joanne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, and a particularly affecting turn from Linda Haynes. Best of all is the then-18 year old Melanie Griffith, who owns her role as the scheming bit of jail bait, unsubtly lusting after Newman's Harper.

Yet nothing can even come close to upstaging Newman, who is as commanding here as anywhere else in his career. In many ways this is a transitional effort for Newman, paving the way from early brutish roles (1958's THE LONG HOT SUMMER, 1963's HUD) to his latter day, more cerebral heroes (1982's THE VERDICT, 1994' NOBODY'S FOOL). Also, even at age 50, the man has rarely been sexier. To top things off, we also have one of the greatest, most original escape scenes in movie history - although I'm not giving it away; you'll have to check out this underrated thriller and see for yourself.

---

3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Perfect for a Paul Newman film festival, 21 August 2004
Author: USNewsDesk from United States

A California PI is called to New Orleans and the locals start turning up dead. This is a relaxed thriller full of Southern kooks and cranks. Great cast, well-known director, and of course the worldly Ross MacDonald (aka Ken Millar), the master of the why-dunit. The plot unzips pretty quickly with Paul Newman the detective running into several women and the men they have to put up with. It's all about how many of these women he'll be able to protect. It's fun to watch Newman keep his cool in one crazy fix after another. The film holds up pretty well because the story is character-driven and every other scene is shot in a colorful location. Good alternative to watching a re-run of your favorite crime drama.

---

5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Some pleasure, 12 July 2004

Author: Bob Taylor (bob998@sympatico.ca) from Canada

It's a lot better than Harper. Newman has fewer tics and the story moves along smoother. Harper had no dynamism because Jack Smight is a terrible action director; the only excitement came from the exchanges between Newman and Arthur Hill in the car. Stuart Rosenberg can be relied on to throw enough kinkiness and ambiguity at us to keep our interest.

Melanie Griffith was used better by Arthur Penn in Night Moves; it's too bad the kitten with a whip persona had to end when she grew up. Andy Robinson was so good as the villain in so many pictures--that sensual face worked well for him, as it does here. You'd expect to see him at Andy Warhol's Factory. Gail Strickland and Murray Hamilton as the rich couple were enjoyable to watch. If Joanne Woodward's part had been better written, she could have given us more than just the nervous belle. An average picture, affording some pleasure for Paul Newman completists.

---

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
" That is one ride I don't ever want to try again ", 21 June 2009

Author: thinker1691 from USA

In 1966 Ross MacDonald's private investigator Lew Harper (Paul Newman) was hired by a wealthy matron to find a missing husband. It is nearly ten years later and we find the Los Angelas detective traveling to Cajun country in the deep south. Upon arriving he is immediately welcomed by Lt. Franks of the local police (Richard Jaeckel, superb performance) by arresting him for child molestation, lewd exposure, sex with Schuyler Devereaux, (Melanie Griffith) an underage girl, carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest. His influential employer, Iris Devereaux (Joanne Woodward) is an old flame from California, whom he had a love interest with six years ago. Now she wants him to discover who sent her a threatening Blackmailing letter. Her protector is the Chief of Police (Anthony Franciosa) who reminds Harper that he will be watching him for the slightest provocation against the family. There is no shortage of villains in this mystery story. Among them is Mr. Kilbourne (Murray Hamilton) a powerful millionaire intent on acquiring the oil rich land the Devereaux's own but won't sell. Pat Reavis (Andrew Robinson) the deject employee who seeks revenge for his dismissal and 'Candy' (Paul Koslo) who's as vicious as the dogs he trains for the arena. Harper plays it close to the vest as he quickly discovers his investigation begins to uncover more family secrets than a closet can hold. All of his efforts produce dead bodies, murder, mayhem, a lost account book and finally a drowning pool which threatens his very life. All in all, a superb movie for cast and characters and one which easily marks this film as a Classic. ****

---

1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Drowned, 1 May 2009
Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach

What a lesson this is in how slight humor moves out of its zone in time!

When this was new, Paul Newman delivered a perfect character, one with smart, funny lines, an attitude and a sexual presence.

We saw New Orleans, which then by definition was something of a fun joke. We had sexual encounters with four sexy women. And we had one impressive stunt. Newman's character is trapped in an abandoned mental hospital. He and the villain's sexy wife have as few clothes as the raters will allow, and fill the room with water with the plan of floating to a skylight to escape.

When we saw this new, somehow we didn't care that Newman's 50 year old body was not attractive. The sexy women — who include a seventeen year old Melanie Griffith, are by today's standards as outside the profile of humorous sex and the other humor is. Nothing works here, including the 70's shirts and hair styles.

When Newman finally thought he achieved a level of competence in acting — decades later — this would be one of the main films he would mention as horrible.

Except for Newman, Woodward and Lolita Griffith, all the actors were pulled from the TeeVee pool, and look like it.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

---

---

Page 1 of 2:

[1] [2]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Ratings	Awards
External reviews	Parents Guide	Plot keywords
Main details	Your user comments	Your vote history