Good, Gitty Elmore Leonard Adaptation.

This film bucks the trend. The major pattern of putting Elmore Leonard's books on film is that the better the book, the worse the film adaptation - even if Leonard has hand a hand in writing the screenplay. Happily this doesn't follow that pattern. It has a classic gritty and grimy mise-en-scene, character driven action - lowlifes, pimps, prostitutes and killers - and assured direction from John Frankenheimer.

Roy Scheider (JAWS,MARATHON MAN, KLUTE) is a blackmailed businessman who fights back against the lowest of LA's underbelly - I won't reveal the plot but it has sex, murder, violence and hardboiled dialogue.

It ranks with JACKIE BROWN and GET SHORTY as the best of Elmore Leonard on film.

Rent it. Rate it.