BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
John Getz, Frances McDormand, M. Emmet Walsh,
Dan Hedaya, Samm-Art Williams, Deborah Neumann
The Coen Brothers' first movie, a discourse on how important it is not to do anything stupid when you're trying to get away with murder. John Getz works at a bar owned by Dan Hedaya, whose wife (Frances McDormand) is having an affair with Getz. M. Emmet Walsh plays a private eye hired by Hedaya to stake out the lovers, which he does, gleefully, and everything goes horribly, comically wrong from there. Two favorite bits: the part where the camera glides up and over a passed-out customer as it tracks down the bar, and what happens to the detective when he reaches out the window and into the room next door. A career role for Walsh, and the screen debut of Frances McDormand (aka Mrs. Joel Coen).
