Private Eye - Philip Lovecraft
                            
Cast a Deadly Spell
Director: Martin Campbell
Year: 1991
Rating: 7.0
It isn't often that you come across a supernatural noir film. It is more common in fiction with a long line of novels that have had detectives investigating the occult or other supernatural phenomenon. Two book series that I quite enjoyed of what I have read in this genre are The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher about a Chicago private eye and the Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch about a London policeman. But in film the only one that comes to mind is Angel Heart which quite honestly freaked me out for days. This film takes the idea and has fun with it. It is like the Maltese Falcon was a gateway to Hell. And demons, monsters, gremlins and men are after it. And of course, the femme fatale. This very much enjoys stepping on every private eye trope known to man.



Private eye Philip Lovecraft (get it?) is a low-rent shamus in Los Angeles in 1948 with the rent to pay. But in this City of Angels everyone has magical powers of one type or another. Lovecraft must have them as well, but he refuses to use them. It is a matter of principle to him. Everyone is using their powers to get ahead - but I want to do it on my own he says at one point. Played by Fred Ward (The Right Stuff) in terse enigmatic tough guy fashion. He gets called on a case. The wealthy Mr. Hackshaw wants him to find an ancient book that was stolen by his chauffer who was eying his sixteen-year-old virgin daughter. In a nod to The Big Sleep, the daughter (Alexandra Powers) comes on to Lovecraft like a kettle on burn. The book is the Necronomicon and Hackshaw needs it by midnight in a few days. Has to be by midnight. The Necronomicon is an invention of the writer H.P. Lovecraft and appears in a few of his short stories.



Lovecraft doesn't have much to go on, but a scrap of paper and some gremlins send him off to a nightclub which his old police partner runs and his old girlfriend sings at. Trouble quickly comes his way with a monster from a spell sent to kill him and the virgin daughter trying to bed him. And the old girlfriend seems interested in rekindling their romance. A lot to handle. Then another H.P. Lovecraft monster shows up. Good fun. Decent special effects. Produced by HBO and directed by Martin Campbell while he was still stuck in TV Land - three years later he was to direct his first Bond film. A good cast is gathered - in an early role Julianne Moore is suitably seductive and devious as the femme fatale, David Warner as Hackshaw is not to be trusted and Clancy Brown as his old partner gone corrupt is always menacing. There was a sequel produced in 1994 with Dennis Hopper taking on the Lovecraft role.


Witch Hunt
Director: Paul Schrader
Year: 1994
Rating: 7.0
Three years after Cast a Deadly Spell, HBO produces this sequel with Dennis Hopper now taking on the role of private eye Philip Lovecraft and with director Paul Schrader taking the helm. It might feel a bit sad that these two iconic film talents were now doing a TV film, but time is rarely fair. They were both well-past their glory days but they make a very entertaining film here. Most reviews that I have seen think it is a step down from Cast a Deadly Spell, but I enjoyed it slightly more. The previous film was almost too stuck in its dark noir imitation while this lessens the noir and adds magic. It also has a sneaky sense of humor. Leaving the noir behind frees it to be more imaginative. Hopper apparently called this the strangest film he was ever in - coming from a guy who was in Blue Velvet, Mad Dog Morgan and Apocalypse Now that is high praise to me. He is fine in this - less of a wisecracker than Fred Ward was - but there is something about him that always commands your attention.



In is Los Angeles in 1953 and the use of magic has become commonplace in all facets of life. Neither film goes into any explanation of how the magic began or where it came from or how it differs from person to person. It just is. Lovecraft still refuses to use it and at one point says why. He must be doing better though as his office is now quite snazzy and cleaner, but his next-door neighbor is still Hypolyta (Sheryl Lee Ralph), a practicing witch who runs a coven and performs witchcraft for a fee. In an early scene, she brings Shakespeare to life to help with a film script. Most of  cases are pedestrian - finding people or following people. He tracks down a man who has run out on paying alimony - a barber - but with magic, nothing is easy or safe. And the knives and scissors that come flying at Lovecraft make his $45 a day seem cheap.



When he gets back to his office, a sleek seductive blonde is waiting for him. She is a famous actress (Penelope Ann Miller) and wants him to find out if her husband is cheating on her. Her husband is a big producer who as it turns out is too big for his suit. Especially, after a spell reduces him to the size of a doll and his two dogs play with it. When the morgue stretcher shows up, the cops tells them that all they need is a lunch pail and the chalk outline of his body is worth a chuckle. "I guess I won't be needing you", she tells him until the cops begin to suspect her and she re-hires him. Find out who killed him.



A Joe McCarthy like politician is making his career by going after magic and witches. To burn them. Played by Eric Bogosian with slime on speed-dial. Lots of magic in this one. In one nifty scene he is at a drive-in film watching Richard Conte and when Conte shoots, so does the screen at him. In another, he is in a high-class bordello where through magic the girls can be molded to your taste. More on top one customer says. The transvestite owner does her best Nina Simone with the song I Put a Spell on You. Before she has her men conk him. Julian Sands plays her magic making henchman. I think this is a great concept - a detective in a world of magic - good and evil - someone should do a TV series for HBO about this. Bring Lovecraft back.