NIGHT MOVES MOVIE
NIGHT MOVES PRO

Parental Neglect: Harry comes to believe that much of Delly's rebelliousness comes from Arlene just not paying much attention to her.Nightmare Fuel: In-Universe and very literal after Delly finds the sunken plane (with a partially-eaten corpse inside) she wakes up screaming from a nightmare.Men Are Uncultured: 'I saw a Rohmer film once.The glass bottom of the boat, in particular, shows a couple of important elements of the mystery. But in a more symbolic sense it refers to the use of vision within the story, which both reveals and conceals crucial details.

NIGHT MOVES MOVIE

Meaningful Name: A non-human example: Tom Iverson's boat is named 'Point of View,' which within the movie is a reference to the glass bottom of the boat.Improvised Weapon: When Harry and Tom fight, Tom grabs the inner part of a large seashell so the outer part covers his hand and punches Harry with it.Harry makes it pretty clear he thinks that's the only reason Arlene wants to get her back. Idle Rich: Arlene Iverson seems to be this, as the widow of a studio bigwig, but actually the money is mostly in a trust fund for Delly.Harmful to Minors: Arlene Iverson's father went bankrupt and committed suicide when she was a child (which probably explains some of her own less-than-perfect parenting of Delly).

Throughout the movie it's clear that the sleaze he's continually mired in is starting to get to him. When Paula asks him where he was when the Kennedys were killed, he says that when JFK was shot he was on a bus with his team on the way to a game when Bobby Kennedy was killed, he was tailing a philanderer.

He doesn't seem so much obsessed with the past as unhappy with the present.

NIGHT MOVES PRO

Glory Days: Harry's past as a pro football player.

Delly's death/probable murder pulls him back into the case, but he misses important clues, and even at the very end he doesn't really understand the crimes he's been investigating, and may not even make it through alive. Before we had a union.' It turns out it's still true, but it does him little good. Arlene asks Harry if he's the kind of detective who never lets go of a case he jokingly responds, 'That was true in the old days.

Fille Fatale: Delly would like to think she is, but her naivete gets her killed.

Downer Ending: Paula is dead and Harry has been shot far out at sea and may never get back home, and he still doesn’t fully understand the mystery he was trying to solve.

Distracted by the Sexy: The night Delly finds the sunken plane, Paula seduces Harry so Tom can go out and check it out without Harry noticing.

(Though this has no real effect on Harry's investigation, since he doesn't even find out about it until the very end.)

Dismantled MacGuffin: Paula says that Tom and his cohorts have been smuggling pieces of some priceless antique into the country one at a time.

Disappeared Dad: Harry's father disappeared when he was a child (and possibly his mother, too it's unclear).

Deadpan Snarker: As a film noir this has a lot of snark, but Paula is the main culprit.

(This is a metaphor for Harry's own inability to see the truth of the mystery unfolding around him.) The title of the movie references both this game and the fact that certain key scenes take place at night. Emmrich and Bruno Moritz in which Moritz could have won the game if he had seen a play requiring three knight moves, but he played something else and lost.

Chess Motifs: Harry takes a little chess board with him everywhere he goes, and references a game played in 1922 between K.

Casting Couch: Arlene Iverson says, 'When I was age I was down on my knees to half the men in this town!'.

Bratty Teenage Daughter: Delly, though it's suggested her mother is the real problem.

The Bermuda Triangle: When Delly finds a wrecked plane underwater Tom Iverson mentions this.The Alleged Car: Paula tells Harry he can follow her to Tom's place, but that he should keep his distance because her car is spewing so much smoke.Not to be confused with the 2013 movie of the same name with Jesse Eisenberg, or with the 1976 album (and song) by Bob Seger. Also features Edward Binns, Harris Yulin, Kenneth Mars, and early appearances from Melanie Griffith and James Woods. Hackman plays Harry Moseby, a private investigator (and former pro football player) hired by an ex-Hollywood starlet to track down her wayward teenage daughter. 'Do you ask these questions because you want to know the answer, or is it just something you think a detective should do?'Ī 1975 neo-noir mystery, directed by Arthur Penn ( Bonnie and Clyde, Alice's Restaurant) and starring Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, and Susan Clark.

Night moves