Tom Reagan (Byrne), indispensable man to prohibition crime boss Leo (Finney), is caught up in a no-win love affair, mounting gambling debts, and to add some juice, Irish and Italian mobs are competing for his unique talents. With everything to lose Reagan plays to keep his hat.

A suspenseful movie playing tribute to film noir/crime noir flicks of the 40s and 50s with inspiration from Dashiell Hammett’s ‘The Glass Key’ and ‘Red Harvest’. The plot is complicated that with a patty wagon full of characters it takes considerable effort, initially, to keep ‘em all straight.

This is Coens’ 3^rd movie coming after ‘Blood Simple’ in 1984 and ‘Raising Arizona’ in 1987.

Genre:  Crime—Drama—Film Noir–Thriller

Directed by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Screenplay by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Music by:  Carter Burwell

Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, John Turturro

Film Locations:  New Orleans

Els:  8.5/10

IMDb:  7.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics:  93/100

Rotten Tomatoes Audience:  90/100

Metacritic Metascore:  66/100

Metacritic User Score:  8.4/10

Theaters: 21 September 1990

Runtime: 115 minutes

Budget:  $10-14 Million

Worldwide Box Office:  $5 Million

Source: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, Wikipedia. Graphic: Movie Poster by 20^th Century Fox.