AlsExGal

... with hilarious results.

George and Jerry are in the diner, where George laments that every decision he's made in his life has been wrong. Jerry says that this means that doing the opposite of what he thinks is correct should be right. This makes sense to George, and so he begins to act on this. The results are fantastic. Meanwhile, Elaine's life goes downhill. At the end of the episode she realizes that she, through a series of unfortunate events, mainly inspired by her consumption of jujyfruit candy, has become George.

To top this off, Kramer makes the observation that Jerry is "even Stephen" - that everything evens out for him. So he has one friend - George - for which everything is going right, and another friend - Elaine - for which everything is going wrong.

The comic timing on this episode, for everyone concerned was perfect. It's really top level Seinfeld. Jason Alexander said that several friends came up to him after this episode aired and told him that it inspired them to live their lives differently. This really is an inspirational episode when you think about it!

Also note that this is the first appearance of George Steinbrenner on Seinfeld. It's not the actual Steinbrenner, but either a silhouette or the back of someone in a wig who is supposed to be Steinbrenner with Larry David doing a comic imitation of his voice.

A mass murder occurs at the Night Owl Cafe one night in 1953 Los Angeles, including an officer who had just been dismissed from the LAPD for misconduct earlier that day, Dick Stensland. It looks like a robbery gone wrong from the crime scene. Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) announces that the chief suspects are three black men who were seen shooting off shotguns at a park earlier in the evening.

Three black men are arrested when three shotguns are found in the back of their car. When they are brought in for questioning it is determined they do have records and that they did kidnap and rape a Mexican girl. They escape, and are killed resisting recapture. The guns in the backseat of their car match the bullets in the Night Owl Cafe victims. It looks like the case is closed, but then three of the cops involved in the case - Bud White (Russell Crowe), Ed Exley (Guy Pierce), and Jack Vincinnes (Kevin Spacey) separately conclude that there is something just not right about this case. So they join forces to look into matters, regardless of the consequences. Complications ensue.

This film is cleverly constructed. First, a yellow journalist, Sid Hudgins (Danny DeVito) narrates an introduction about "sunny California" in 1953. How there is so much room, how everything is cheap, how it's a paradise for the "all-American family". This gets the audience adjusted to the place and time and its conventions.

Next the three main characters - the three cops - are introduced via a melee of violence conducted against some Mexican suspects when one suspect insults a cop. You get a feel for what drives each of the three through the fallout of the disciplinary action that follows.

Next is the Night Owl Cafe massacre and its aftermath, and at exactly one hour into the film, it looks like things are wrapping up, showing each cop going on with their life. But then the doubts, and the fateful investigation into what really happened.

There are so many layers of complexity in this last part with so many plot twists, that some people might get lost. Thus, at the end of the film, one of the cops is in a position to be interrogated about what has happened, and that is used as an opportunity to summarize this last part of the plot, just in case anyone is confused. It all works so very well.

I just can't rave enough about this movie -The Hollywood "golden era" crime ridden backdrop, the hard-boiled neo-noir atmosphere, the layering of storyline with some devastating twists, the palpable chemistry between a young and gorgeous Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and Kim Basinger (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress), an impressive supporting cast of colorful characters including the wonderful actor, James Cromwell, and last but not least, the moody but also exhilarating score by Jerry Goldsmith.

I'd argue that this was probably the best picture of 1997 versus Titanic. But that would be like arguing in favor of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington versus Gone With the Wind for Best Picture of 1939. The Academy always goes for the well-made visual spectacle when it hands out its biggest award.

Although Eddie Albert, Lillian Gish, and James Robertson Justice are the first, third, and fourth billed actors, the largest and most important parts are played by Paul Massie, Leslie French, and Irene Worth.

British intelligence believes they've identified a traitor in the French Resistance, and they send in a war-weary pilot (Massie) because he has lived in Paris and speaks fluent French. His mission is to execute the traitor, a different matter from dropping bombs on anonymous targets. He's eager to do the job and gets specialized training in methods of killing (James Robertson Justice is one of his eccentric instructors).

When he arrives in Paris, he meets his contact, a seamstress (Irene Worth) who, unlike him, understands exactly what is involved. Worth's energy and passion leap off the screen, yet she's never theatrical in the wrong way. The target turns out to be an apparently harmless old man (Leslie French, who resembles Donald Pleasence). Is he really guilty? Can the pilot carry out his mission? Should he? What will happen after he makes his decision?

Paul Massie, a Canadian actor, had played Brick in Peter Hall's London production of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. His voice is very much like Richard Chamberlain, and like Chamberlain he is well-cast as a sensitive and decent man. His other big film roles were in LIBEL as Dirk Bogarde's accuser, and in SAPPHIRE. Around 1966 he appeared as a guest artist at the University of South Florida, and he became a professor of drama there, apparently finding a profession he liked better than film and professional stage acting.

I found it amusing that the French people encountered were so English, but it didn't hurt the film which was engrossing and thought provoking and an interesting look at the morals of the war.