After Dark, My Sweet
{{Short description|1990 American film noir by James Foley}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = After Dark, My Sweet
| image = Afterdarkposter1990.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = James Foley
| producer = Ric Kidney
Robert Redlin
| screenplay = James Foley
Robert Redlin
| based_on = {{based on|After Dark, My Sweet|Jim Thompson}}
| starring = {{Plainlist|
| music = Maurice Jarre
| cinematography = Mark Plummer
| editing = Howard E. Smith
| studio = Avenue Pictures
| distributor = Avenue Pictures
| released = {{Film date|1990|5|17|Cannes Film Market|1990|8|24|United States}}
| runtime = 114 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = $6 million
| gross = $2.7 million{{Mojo title|afterdarkmysweet}}
}}
After Dark, My Sweet is a 1990 American neo-noirSilver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; eds. (1992). Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (3rd ed.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. {{ISBN|0-87951-479-5}} crime thriller film directed by James Foley, and starring Jason Patric, Rachel Ward and Bruce Dern. It is based on the 1955 Jim Thompson novel of the same name.{{cite news|last=Farber|first=Stephen|title=In the Desert, a Jim Thompson Novel Blossoms on Film|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/21/movies/in-the-desert-a-jim-thompson-novel-blossoms-on-film.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|accessdate=August 30, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 21, 1990}}
Plot
Ex-boxer Kevin "Kid" Collins is a drifter and an escapee from a mental hospital. In a desert town near Palm Springs he meets widow Fay Anderson who convinces him to help fix up the neglected estate her husband left and lets him sleep in a trailer out back, near her dying date palms.
Her acquaintance "Uncle Bud" shows up. Calling himself an ex-cop, he has long been hatching a scheme to kidnap a rich man's child and needs somebody like Collins to help carry it out.
Reluctant in the beginning, Collins tries to leave and encounters Doc Goldman, who immediately can tell the young man needs to be under medical observation. Doc takes a personal interest in Collins that might include a physical attraction as well. He intrudes on Collins' relationship with the alcoholic Fay.
Collins is persuaded by Uncle Bud to execute the kidnapping plan.
Cast
- Jason Patric as Kevin "Kid" Collins
- Rachel Ward as Fay Anderson
- Bruce Dern as Garrett "Uncle Bud" Stoker
- George Dickerson as Doc Goldman
- Mike Hagerty as Truck Driver
- Rocky Giordani as Bert
- Corey Carrier as Jack
Production
=Filming locations=
Filming took place in Mecca, California, part of the Coachella Valley.{{cite web |title=Coachella Valley Feature Film Production 1920–2011 |url=http://www.visitpalmsprings.com/page/filming-in-palm-springs/126939 |work=Filming in Palm Springs |accessdate=October 1, 2012 |author=Palm Springs Visitors Center |location=Palm Springs, CA |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121001025937/http://visitpalmsprings.com/page/filming-in-palm-springs/126939 |archivedate=October 1, 2012 }} ♦ [http://visitpalmsprings.com/stream/126941?mode=Download Download]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (Downloadable PDF file)
Release and reception
=Box office=
After Dark, My Sweet was given a limited release on August 24, 1990, and grossed $244,919 on its opening weekend. It grossed a total of $2.7 million.
=Critical response=
Film critic Roger Ebert included the film as part of his Great Movies list, saying, "After Dark, My Sweet is the movie that eluded audiences; it grossed less than $3 million, has been almost forgotten, and remains one of the purest and most uncompromising of modern film noir. It captures above all the lonely, exhausted lives of its characters."{{cite web |last1=Ebert |first1=Roger |title=After Dark, My Sweet movie review (1990) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-after-dark-my-sweet-1990 |website=www.rogerebert.com |access-date=8 May 2025 |date=13 March 2005}}
Variety also received the film favorably: "Director/co-writer James Foley has given this near-perfect adaptation of a Jim Thompson novel a contempo setting and emotional realism that make it as potent as a snakebite...Lensed in the arid and existential sun-blasted landscape of Indio, Calif, the pungently seedy film creates a kind of genre unto itself, a film soleil, perhaps."[https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117796693?refcatid=31 Variety]. Film review. Last accessed: February 13, 2011.
Writer David M. Meyers praised the script: "The screenplay, which hews closely to Jim Thompson's heartless novel, is unusually tight, spare, and well constructed."{{note|book1}}{{cite book|author=Meyers, David M.|title=A Girl and a Gun: The Complete Guide to Film Noir on Video|publisher=Avon Books|year=1998|isbn=0-380-79067-X}}
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote: "Patric is sensational as Collie; the pretty-boy actor ... is unrecognizable behind Collie's coarse stubble, slack jaw and haunted stare. Patric occupies a complex character with mesmerizing conviction. Like Thompson's prose, his performance is both repellent and fascinating."Peter Travers, [https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/after-dark-my-sweet-19900824 "After Dark My Sweet" review], rollingstone.com, August 24, 1990.
When the video was released in 1991, Entertainment Weekly film critic Melissa Pierson wrote: "Fittingly, director James Foley (At Close Range) puts style over story, capturing the gritty, long-shadowed tone of his source material. After Dark, My Sweet looks simultaneously crisp and drenched in the yellow light of a strange dream, an effect that becomes especially haunting on video. In this alluring tour through unsettled emotional territory, Jason Patric (The Lost Boys) gives an exceptionally sharp performance as an ex-boxer with one screw loose and another turned down tight. He's drawn into a kidnapping scheme concocted by a former cop (Bruce Dern) and a sultry widow (Rachel Ward). Together, they visit a place where desire and pain are indistinguishable, and everything goes twistingly awry."[https://web.archive.org/web/20070401083603/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,313582,00.html Pierson, Melissa]. Entertainment Weekly, video review, March 8, 1991; accessed February 13, 2011.
In an interview with Robert K. Elder for his book The Best Film You've Never Seen, director Austin Chick praises the movie for its cinematography, stating: "It's beautifully shot ... every frame and every camera move is clearly thought out and brilliantly, beautifully executed."Elder, Robert K. The Best Film You've Never Seen: 35 Directors Champion the Forgotten or Critically Savaged Movies They Love. Chicago, IL. Chicago Review Press, 2013.{{ISBN|1-56976-838-2}}.
{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|80||20|ref=yes|access-date=May 9, 2025}} {{Metacritic film prose|78|23}}{{cite web|url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/after-dark-my-sweet/|title=After Dark, My Sweet|website=Metacritic|access-date=May 9, 2025}}
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
{{wikiquote}}
- {{IMDb title|id=0098994|title=After Dark, My Sweet}}
- {{AFI film|id=58389|title=After Dark, My Sweet}}
- {{Rotten Tomatoes|after_dark_my_sweet}}
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080408131014/http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2007/08/after-dark-my-sweet-1990.html After Dark, My Sweet]}} at Film Noir of the Week by film historian Alain Silver
- {{YouTube|1SZr7z8Pwrw|After Dark, My Sweet film trailer}} (Lionsgate Entertainment YouTube account)
{{James Foley}}
{{Jim Thompson}}
Category:1990 crime thriller films
Category:1990 psychological thriller films
Category:1990s English-language films
Category:American crime thriller films
Category:American neo-noir films
Category:English-language crime thriller films
Category:Films about kidnapping in the United States
Category:Films based on American novels
Category:Films based on Jim Thompson novels
Category:Films based on thriller novels
Category:Films directed by James Foley