The Woman Chaser Review
by Scott Renshaw (renshaw AT inconnect DOT com)July 18th, 2000
THE WOMAN CHASER
(Inwood Films)
Starring: Patrick Warburton, Leo Malevitz, Emily Newman, Lynette Bennett Screenplay: Robinson Devor, based on the novel by Charles Willeford. Producer: Soly Haim.
Director: Robinson Devor.
MPAA Rating: R (sexual situations, adult themes, profanity) Running Time: 90 minutes.
Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Pulp-noir is tough to pull off in this era of self-referential hipness. Strangely enough, pulp-noir satire may be even tougher to pull off, since the entire genre itself fairly reeks of self-parody every time a hard-boiled guy, a hard-boiled situation and hard-boiled voice-over dialogue combine on screen. Now take that pulp-noir satire and base it on a real pulp novel, and you've got the potential for a smug disaster. THE WOMAN CHASER shouldn't work. It _couldn't_ work.
Writer/director Robinson Devor had the recipe for yet another inert genre parody in his hands, but somehow he turned it into something so wonderfully warped it's almost impossible to resist. Based on the novel of the same name by Charles Willeford, THE WOMAN CHASER stars Patrick Warburton (erstwhile "Seinfeld" David Puddy) as Richard Hudson, a used car dealer recently returned to his hometown of Los Angeles circa 1960. Richard unexpectedly finds himself experiencing an existential crisis, overwhelmed by the need to abandon sales and create something of lasting value. He therefore sets out to write and direct his own film, a gritty drama about an alienated trucker. With the help of his stepfather Leo (Paul Malevitz), a washed-up former filmmaker, Richard gives the sales pitch of his life and finds his project picked up by Mammoth Studios. But he could be in for hard lessons about "The Biz."
If the above summary sets you to puzzling over the film's title, fear not. In the 1950s and 1960s, Willeford wrote within a genre where publishers couldn't care less what was inside the cover, so long as a broad in a tight sweater and a provocative title were on the cover. The author took advantage of that freedom to write unconventional stories like the one that inspired the 1990 Alec Baldwin vehicle MIAMI BLUES, as well as THE WOMAN CHASER (originally titled THE DIRECTOR). Robinson Devor uses Willeford's own off-beat sensibility as a launching pad, then turns THE WOMAN CHASER into such a twisted combination of subversion and homage that you can only ride along where it takes you. Devor nails the genre atmosphere, helped greatly by Kramer Morgenthau's marvelous black-and-white a la KISS ME DEADLY cinematography and Warburton's note-perfect narration. Parody only seems to work when it's inspired by genuine affection, and Devor clearly loves film noir, mannered conventions and all.
He also figures out that his story is a way to give a fresh twist to the trite independent film premise of making an independent film. From Richard's intense pitch of his film's concept, to his unconventional methods of eliciting performances, to his obsession with the perfect edited length of his film, THE WOMAN CHASER finds a kick for every predictable situation. Devor even scripts the most trenchant line I've ever heard on the phenomenon of people assuming they can write a film (Richard, during his quest for an artistic outlet: "Sculpture and architecture require years of training and practice ... but a _screenplay_ ..."). Taking the concept out of the present day film-making world gives it the perfect touch of the surreal, without even the faintest hint of the superior outsider attitude that too often hinders movies about making movies.
Not all the quirkiness in THE WOMAN CHASER works, of course. There are ebbs in Devor's pacing, and a narrative that doesn't always hang together except as a showcase for Warburton's tremendously entertaining performance. Yet even then there's entertainment value in virtually every aborted narrative thread. And you've got to love a film that launches the bearish Warburton on a bare-chested ballet, or lands him in bed with a 50-something Salvation Army volunteer. It's too easy to praise a film simply for being different, but THE WOMAN CHASER is different in all the right ways. It's energetic and imaginative where other parodies are too often limp and witless. It skewers the ego of film-makers, but never loses its love for film-making. It even pokes fun at film noir without resorting to predictable gags. THE WOMAN CHASER is a surprise in every positive sense of the word, because really, it shouldn't work.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 changes of direction: 8.
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