Mulholland Falls (1996)

In New Zealand director Lee Tamahori's self-conscious, flashy neo-noir crime thriller and nostalgic detective murder-mystery drama, his first Hollywood film, it was clearly modeled after the quintessential neo-noir film Chinatown (1974). The derivative script for the hard-boiled suspense film by novelist and ex-newspaper columnist Pete Dexter, was set in the early 1950s - the post WWII period.

It followed the exploits of a special and elite group ("hat squad") of four ruthless, unorthodox, crime-fighting and chain-smoking LAPD detectives, sartorially decked out with dapper suits and wide-brimmed fedoras. The justice meted out by the rogue group against gang members in LA was often harsh and beyond legal means: ("Four men, no politics, no favors. We answered to nobody"), and condoned by LA's Chief of Police. In fact, the film was only very loosely historically tied to the archetypal fact that a "Hat Squad" of tough and brutal hooligan cops actually did exist in LA.

The themes of the entangled plot of the film included moral corruption, deceit and cover-up, the pursuit of truth leading to personal demons and ruin, illicit films and sexual liaisons, blackmail, and a conspiracy of powerful US military-government officials regarding a desert military base hiding atomic testing secrets. The body count ended up being 6. Its tagline was mysterious:

• "The Power of Love vs. The Love of Power."

On a budget of an exorbitant $29 million, the neo-noir only boasted revenues of $11.5 million. It featured superb cinematography by Haskell Wexler, Dave Grusin's evocative score, moody atmospherics, tremendously authentic (and expensive) production design by Richard Sylbert, and a fantastic and talented ensemble cast. The undeveloped role of a neglected and cheated-upon wife played by Melanie Griffith received the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.

Maxwell "Max" Hoover (Nick Nolte)	Elleroy Coolidge (Chazz Palminteri)
Eddie Hall (Michael Madsen)	Arthur Relyea (Chris Penn)

• the opening title credits were presented under a sepia-toned home movie of a large number of observers wearing sunglasses at an outdoor pool party in a desert resort; there were also brief glimpses of an atomic testing site nearby (with an A-bomb blast producing a mushroom cloud), a view of a man with thick glasses (later identified as Gen. Timms) in civilian clothes dismounting from a white horse and entering a two-story building with military officers, and a quick view within a top-secret government-military facility-base where it appeared that a sickened patient was being housed and treated; the locale then switched to the LA apartment of the busty dark-haired beauty seen earlier by the pool; she was being filmed (through a two-way mirror) having sex with the same bespectacled man [Note: The identities of the individuals, the locales, and the circumstances depicted were impossible to identify until much later in the film.]

Other Film Footage: Busty Brunette at Poolside at a Desert Resort - And Later In Her Own LA Apartment As She Was Filmed Having Sex With the Older Bespectacled Male

• a four-man anti-gangster team of strong-armed LA police detectives in a shiny black 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible, pulled up and entered the swanky Perino's restaurant on Wilshire Blvd. in LA; the gravelly-voiced leader of the vigilantes was Max Hoover (Nick Nolte), who was accompanied by his partners: his loyal second-in-command Elleroy Coolidge (Chazz Palminteri), Eddie Hall (Michael Madsen), and Arthur Relyea (Chris Penn); they breezed through the lobby, ignored the Maitre D' (Larry Garrison) and confronted Chicago gangster Jack Flynn (William Petersen) at one of the tables during a mobster party; the group seized him, drove him up the winding Mulholland Drive in Hollywood Hills to view the city below at a scenic overlook, and threatened to toss him off "Mulholland Falls" - a strange reference given that there were no falls in the LA area; they explained how they had nicknamed the site "Mulholland Falls" - it was common practice for criminals to fall to their deaths from the spot; Flynn objected: "You guys can't do this. This is America," but Max retorted: "This isn't America, Jack. This is L.A."; after heaving him over, the group drove back down Mullholland Dr. and viewed Jack's bruised and broken body by the side of the road; Hoover reminded the criminal: "We don't have organized crime in L.A., and frankly, we don't want organized crime"
• meanwhile, Max was happily married to his faithful and languid blonde wife Katherine "Kate" Hoover (Melanie Griffith), and they lived in the LA suburban neighborhood of Los Feliz
• Max and his squad of officers were summoned to a new housing subdivision construction site where a foreman (Ernie Lively) described how a suspicious body had been unearthed; a female's bloodied and mangled body had been found crushed or pressed into the dirt ground; when the body's arm was picked up, it revealed that every bone in her body had been pulverized; when Max asked for the body to be rolled over, he was taken aback (he apparently recognized the female, but kept his knowledge of her identity hidden); later in the morgue, when Max asked the coroner (Richard Sylbert) how she died, the answer came back that she had fallen too: "It's like she jumped off a cliff" - Max flatly stated the obvious: "There's no cliff out there"; a mysterious sliver of glass was removed from her foot

The Discovery of a Bloodied Body Pressed into the Ground - and Max's 'Knowing' Reaction - He Recognized the Victim

• Max returned home after a drunken bender due to being haunted by the sight of the dead girl, and found Katherine on the sofa reading Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms"; he told her why he was distraught after a tough day at work: "We found a dead girl in the Valley. She was broken into 30 pieces. Couldn't even pick her up"; although he actually knew the female, he only identified her as: "nobody. Just a girl"
• the next day in the police office, Max received a posted manila envelope with a film can and a 16 mm film-reel inside, with a phone number (HO 5964) written on a note; in a projection room, as Elleroy threaded the film into a projector, he revealed his new obsession with his female psychiatrist and therapy sessions to control his hot-headed anger and food addiction; when the film was screened, it was revealed to be the same film seen under the opening title credits, and Coolidge blurted out: "That's the girl we found in the Valley, Max"; again appearing very uncomfortable and upset, Max pulled the projector's plug and left the room; Elleroy pursued him and humorously (unintentionally) suggested he talk out his anxiety: "If something's wrong, I mean, maybe it's best to talk it out, you know, and get it out in the open"
• Max made contact off-screen (through the phone number) with the film photographer and found him on a deserted area of beachfront sand dunes; the crazed Jimmy Fields (Andrew McCarthy), who claimed that he was the gay friend of the deceased female, was wielding a gun and begged: "I need protection...Look, that guy in the movie, he killed her!...A mutual friend is dead, they killed her, and I'm going out the same way unless I can get some help"; Max discovered that Jimmy had last seen the female (a prostitute-hooker) in Vegas on the previous Saturday - she had dropped off his movie camera (after shooting additional footage) before going for a ride with her hired lover-client Gen. Thomas Timms (John Malkovich); she had promised to meet Jimmy back in LA where they both lived, but hadn't called; Fields stated that Allison was unaware that he had been surreptitiously filming her having sex with the General (and other clients); Max refused to comply with Jimmy's demands for police protection and left
• Max returned to his squad members, one of whom - Elleroy - had caught on to Max's strained demeanor by specifically pinpointing the cause of his reaction: "Was something going on between you and that dead girl?"; as they drove off, Elleroy traded places with Max and was at the wheel of the Buick convertible after questioning why Max always chauffeured them around and had the keys; they arrived at a local motel (with long-term apartments available for lease), where Max - by himself - visited Room # 22; he had been there before - it was the efficiency apartment of hooker-prostitute Allison Pond (Jennifer Connelly), the female in the film who had been found dead; according to Jimmy, she had been killed by her sex-client Gen. Timms; Max sat on the bed of the completely disheveled apartment, reminiscing over Allison's death; it was the exact same locale of the sex-scene filmed between Gen. Timms and Allison
• in a series of flashback images, he remembered having made love to Allison himself in the same bedroom (marked by the scallop-shell shaped headboard and three framed pictures above the bed); and then he realized the filming angle came from a two-way mirror on the wall to the side of the bed; the manager had told the other three detectives that Allison's best friend lived next door to her in Room # 23, but neither of them had been seen in over a week; the equally-ransacked apartment revealed that it indeed had installed a two-way mirror to spy on and film Allison's sexual encounters; Max was distraught, knowing that he had been filmed as well
• out on the apartment complex's balcony, Max was asked by Eddie Hall: "How long were you seeing her?"; Max had been having an affair with Allison for six months, and Eddie surmised: "That guy's got film on you and everything, doesn't he?"; due to Max's personal failings, he had been compromised and was now the perfect target for blackmail
• Max described to Eddie - seen in flashback - how he had met Allison for the first time when he witnessed her being assaulted by hoodlum Kenny Kamins (Titus Welliver) at a party; when she slapped the thug back for attempting to shoot up an underaged girl named Jenny (Chelsea Harrington), Kenny held a drug-containing syringe at her face and threatened to break her neck; Max broke Kenny's fingers with his blackjack (nightstick or sap), and then injected him with his own needle, causing him to overdose; Allison complimented Max: "That's an inventive way of dispensing justice," and Max replied: "It's an integral part of the job"; after she congratulated him with a cigarette and a light, he asked, "So, who are you?" and she quipped back: "Well, you won't find out by killing me"

The Moment Max Became Completely Obsessed with Allison Pond (Jennifer Connelly)

• on the way back to the police station, Elleroy asked Max about his attraction for Allison: "Why did you fall for her, Max?" - it was inferred by Max's reticence to respond that he hadn't even told his wife Katherine about his long affair with Allison; the squad members considered that there might be the possibility that "fruit" Jimmy might be "running scared" and could threaten Max with blackmail (to 'shake him down'), and that they should pay him a visit; they also discussed the identity of her male lover in the 7 minute film who might also cause problems - General Thomas Timms, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and the head of US Atomic Testing of A-bombs at a desert military base
• Jimmy was brought in to the police station for questioning -- and explained again in more detail: 'She said that she was going for a ride with Timms. Out to where they test those things"; he admitted that he had made the films possibly for blackmail purposes, but mostly: "Because it made me feel a part of it. You know, watch the boys get impassioned"; he confessed there was also footage taken of Max in the act, but when he had returned to his ransacked apartment after being in Vegas, all of his films - except for the final film that the police had - had been stolen, possibly by Timms: "Timms knew about the film. He's the last to see her alive. She's dead. They killed her up there"; Max disagreed: "She didn't die in the desert, she died here. Right outside of LA"; Max then wondered: "Why would a guy kill his girl over a film he didn't even know existed?"; Jimmy also refuted Max's accusation that he had killed Allison, by claiming that she was his 'best friend"; in fact, he asserted that Max's ending of their relationship after 6 months had almost "killed" her
• the interrogation concluded with Jimmy's condemnation of the brutal, violent, and hard-ass behavior of the cops - one of the film's major themes: "You know, you sit there like you're protecting the innocent. All you really do is just beat up on the weak and disregard or destroy anybody or anything that stands in the way of you and your pathetic little sense of right or wrong or justice and power. If anybody is responsible for Allison's death, it's you"
• back on the home front, Katherine realized that her husband Max was pre-occupied and upset over something, and they knowingly hugged each other; she was still not aware of his affair with Allison
• while Hall and Relyea were guarding Jimmy at a beach residence, the location was raked with machine-gun fire and house-owner Earl (Ed Lauter) was shot and killed; petrified by fear, Jimmy fled from the house during their counter-fire; the next morning, his body was found wrapped by seaweed on the beach; the coroner stated he had been questioned and then executed: ("They stuck a gun in his mouth and blew the back of his head off")

Earl (Ed Lauter) - Shot During Machine-Gun Attack on Beachhouse

"Fruitcake" Jimmy Found Dead on the Beach

• another startling discovery, derived from Allison Pond's X-ray, revealed that the sliver of glass found in her foot was radioactive
• the discovery set the Hats off for a long half-day drive in the Buick convertible from Los Angeles to Nevada, to the site of a top-secret, restricted goverment-military base; the sign outside the base read: "U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION, Atomic Proving Grounds, Western Land Sites"; at the entry gate, they were denied admission by the MP guard to meet with General Timms, due to the "no-exceptions" policy about the entry of civilians
• after driving off, the group approached another unguarded Restricted Area locked gate, where Hall chided Relyea for pulling out his gun to shoot the lock: "Wait, wait, wait. Amateur hour. Seen too many movies, Relyea," but then after Hall's failed attempt to pick the rusty gate lock, Max dispatched with the lock with one gun-blast; after traveling further into the secure area, Hall went into an unrelated, long-winded conversation with himself about his recollection of old cowboy movies with Gene Autry when he was a young boy
• as they drove in, they passed some mannequin dummies propped up with shredded clothing; they come upon a huge atomic bomb crater - the obvious result of an A-bomb test, and peered over the edge - it was a remarkable image ("Jesus, what a big hole!"); moments later, the trespassing group found itself pursued and then surrounded and apprehended by the base's security forces; after being tested for radioactivity by geiger counters, as they sat with their hands up in their vehicle, they were found to be "clean"
• the military base's strict, by-the-book, officious and militaristic Col. Fitzgerald (Treat Williams), Gen. Timms' adjutant, threatened to have the squad members "shot" for violating federal law and trespassing in a "federally restricted area"; when the driver was identified to him as Lt. Max Hoover - who was investigating a homicide out of his jurisdiction - it made no difference to Col. Fitzgerald ("Out here it's military law"); the group was arrested and ordered to be escorted back to the base and locked up; however, Fitzgerald received a field phone call from his superior (presumably Gen. Timms) who counter-ordered the Colonel; Max was singled out, and driven in a Jeep to meet with the General at his hilltop home, while the others would await Max's return at the base

(r to l): FBI Head J. Edgar Hoover, President Truman, Gen. Timms

Framed Pictures of Atomic Bomb Blasts

• in the lobby of Gen. Timms' home [Note: The home was the same location seen in Jimmy's last film where Col. Timms dismounted from a white horse], Max observed a photo of Timms with FBI head J. Edgar Hoover and President Truman, and other framed photographs of mushroom clouds from atomic bomb blasts; Max was introduced to the civilian commander of the base, retired Gen. Thomas Timms (John Malkovich), head of the Atomic Energy Commission; Timms was ailing from a recent horse accident with a pinched sciatic nerve [Note: Timms was also dying of cancer and suffering from TB]
• Timms admitted he knew about Allison Pond's gruesome death, and confessed he had been sleeping with her ("a certain relationship") as were other men; Max stated how Timms was considered a prime suspect for her demise, because he was thought to have been with her during the last 3-day weekend of her life; Timms claimed he had been with her in Nevada in his base-home (but not at the test site, contradicting Jimmy's account) on Friday, but then on Saturday, he and Allison had gone to Tahoe to stay at a Senator's borrowed home before he flew to Washington, DC on Sunday night for a meeting with the Sec. of Defense; meanwhile, Allison had returned to LA on Saturday
• the frail and eccentric genius-crackpot Gen. Timms delivered a fascinating monologue, when he began to philosophically muse over the existence and power of invisible atoms: ("These tiny particles of matter, which are so small that no one's ever seen them, never, they contain enough energy to blow up this house, an entire city, every person on Earth. That is inconceivable"); Timms also equated himself to Max: "We're not so different, you and I, Lieutenant"; the General went on to describe his twisted philosophy about how those in positions of leadership, such as themselves, often broke the law, but were suitably not punished: "You protect society, the ordinary citizen. Now, in doing so, sometimes you may break the law. And yet, nothing happens, because it is understood that that is part of the burden of leadership, and you accept it. You accept your sins"
• Max brought up an uncomfortable, undeniable fact; due to the radioactive glass sliver found in her foot, it proved that she HAD been at the test site on the weekend: "Allison Pond was out at your test site" [Note: Sand heated by an atomic explosion fused into a glassy substance called trinitite.]; Max demanded further details from the seemingly-cooperative General about his weekend's whereabouts; as Max walked away, Col. Fitzgerald informed Timms: "I've spoken to Los Angeles. We'll have the film within 24 hours" - an indication that a massive coverup and conspiracy was underway to destroy the film-evidence that the LA police had obtained about Allison's last weekend with the General
• upon his return to LA, Max met with his superior, Chief of Police (Bruce Dern), who was already being confronted by FBI special agent McCafferty (Daniel Baldwin); McCafferty was sent to affirm FBI Director J.Edgar Hoover's "personal guarantee" that General Timms had nothing to do with the death of Allison Pond, although he provided no additional evidence or proof; it was reiterated that the FBI was threatening that the investigative case against Gen. Timms should be dropped, due to its sensitive nature
• once McCafferty departed, the Chief expressed his disgust to Max: "Do you have the slightest idea how intensely I hate these pathetic little Ivy League cops being in my town?"; Max vowed to seek evidence to confirm his belief that Gen. Timms was lying, although the Chief was worried about Max going up against the head of the Atomic Energy Commission; he also speculated about why the "innocent" Allison Pond was at the center of the controversy: "She must've done something. Otherwise, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about her like this"
• before leaving town, McCafferty and two other federal agents conducted a legal search (with a warrant) of Max's home, and in the process of looking for the incriminating film-reel, they ransacked everything; once Max returned home, he was infuriated by the destruction of the interior of his house; Katherine told him that they were looking for a film; he raced to a secret hiding place in the ceiling of his basement and was relieved that the film canister was untouched; he told her a half-truth: "The man in the film is named Thomas Timms. He's the head of the Atomic Energy Commission. And the girl is dead"
• Max was enraged, and sought revenge against the trio of FBI agents; he caught up with them in a parking garage; he knocked out the two additional agents with a blackjack and other blows, and then physically attacked McCafferty by kicking him in the groin and mercilessly beating him; he then dragged him out into an LA street from the federal building to place him inside his jurisdiction - with the warning: "This is L.A. This is my town. Out here you're a trespasser. Out here I could pick you up, burn your house, f--k your wife, and kill your dog"
• to pressure Max to lay off the Timms case, the forces working against him were prompted to mail a copy of the footage of Max's own sexual liaison with Allison to Max's residence the next day - personally addressed to Katherine, instead of to the police station or to Max himself; upon his return home, Max discovered Katherine viewing the projected film in their basement - the depicted sex footage was evidence of Max's own extra-marital affair with the dead girl Allison; she was visibly hurt and upset by the revelation of Max's almost six-month affair; she slapped him hard across the face

Katherine's Devastation at Viewing Max's Filmed Sexual Affair with Allison

• during a phone call to Max, the blackmailer revealed himself to be Colonel Fitzgerald, who demanded an exchange of sex film reels - including the return of the other incriminating film reel showing Allison having sex with Gen. Timms: ("It's a straight trade, yours for ours. What you got today was a copy. We will do whatever is necessary"); Max refused to deal unless he could see Timms; it was then agreed that they would meet at 10:00 am the next day for an even exchange: ("10:00 tomorrow at the military airfield west of the city. You bring everything, we bring everything. Originals and any copies")
• before the rendezvous, Max rewatched the Timms' sex footage and quickly realized that there was more to the film-reel than just evidence of the General's affair; it also included one image of a deathly sick US military serviceman being treated on the restricted base for a serious reaction - after exposure to radioactivity
• Max also recalled - in flashback - his break-up with Allison when he took her to Mulholland Falls and told her he couldn't continue their relationship as a married man: "The thing is you think you can have it both ways, that you can make it work both ways. But I can't"; she admitted: "I have different problems, Max" - she was referring to problems in her other illicit relationship (with Timms), and the fact that she was truly in love with Max
• before his appointment at the airfield, Katherine told Max about how things weren't good between them, and that he must leave - at least for awhile; Max's partner Coolidge also informed Max that the Chief of Police, notified by J. Edgar Hoover, was incensed that Max had beaten up the three FBI agents ("Kidnapping, assault, attempted murder"), and wanted to see him immediately
• to meet the blackmailer's demands, Max and Coolidge left LA and flew from the airfield on a USAF prop-plane to the desert military base to personally deliver the film-reel to Timms; they didn't realize that they were about to be double-crossed by a massive military conspiracy
• upon their arrival, the two were disarmed and escorted by MPs to Colonel Fitzgerald's office; on the way, Max and Coolidge waylaid the two MPs in their car with his concealed blackjack in his coat pocket, and stole their weapons; on his own, Max entered a 'restricted area' - the medical facility (seen in Allison's film footage); he entered a hospital ward where dozens of seriously-ill patients were bedded and hospitalized for exposure to radioactive material due to an illegal atomic test on the site; he glanced at the medical records of one individual

The Secret Medical Facility at the Military Base, Treating Radioactively-Infected Servicemen-Patients

• then, Max met up with Coolidge and they drove themselves to the hilltop residence of General Timms, but found that the front gate was locked; Max located General Timms resting by himself on the outdoor back patio, where he was hooked up to an oxygen tank; Timms revealed his terminal diagnosis: "Cancer. It's in my blood, my bones. Even now, they tell me, in my brain"; Max divulged that he had just entered the private medical facility on the base populated with other terminally-ill patients ('atomic soldiers') - expendable servicemen who were regarded as experimental 'guinea pigs' during illegal atomic-test trials: (Timms: "The hundred who died so that the thousand might live"); the sick and dying were now being secretly treated for lethal radioactivity exposure; Max surmised that Allison had been silenced because she had witnessed illegalities on the base secretly conducted by Timms: "That's why you killed Allison"
• Timms explained away Allison's death as a "mistake," and an overreaction to her breach of base security: "An error in judgment. An overzealous reaction against a perceived threat to national security" - Max drew the obvious fact: "She saw the cancer ward. She took pictures"; Max handed over Timms' film-reel as he recalled: "She was spectacular, wasn't she?"
• suddenly Colonel Fitzgerald arrived with armed MPs and Coolidge in tow to recapture Max; it became clear that the security-obsessed, blackmailing Colonel Fitzgerald was the real evil force on the military base where dangerous atomic tests were still being conducted -- he charged the two LA detectives with a similar 'breach of security" at the base for compromising top-secret scientific areas; General Timms disagreed and explained that he had not been harmed and had been given his incriminating film-reel: ("These men are not enemies"); he ordered Fitzgerald to fly the two men back to Los Angeles
• on their return flight to LA, accompanied by Col. Fitzgerald and the Captain (Kyle Chandler) on a DC-3 plane (a plane set up for jumping with an open door), Max told Coolidge that he realized that they were being set up for the same fate as Allison - she had died by being thrown from the plane mid-flight: ("They're gonna throw us out of the plane, just like they did Allison Pond"); her 'crime' was that she had personally witnessed the atomic-blast test site (acc. to Jimmy's testimony) and filmed inside the cancer ward where lethally-exposed servicemen were still receiving treatments; her death was subsequently covered up
• an argument ensued over differing claims - Fitzgerald told how Max had given him a police training film on the clap; Max counter-argued that Fitzgerald had mailed the sex film to his home, personally addressed to his wife ("and she watched it"), and now felt no pressure from him since he didn't care who saw the film ("I don't have anything to lose); Fitzgerald admitted that independently of Gen. Timms, he had ordered for Allison to be killed
• a violent physical struggle and gun-battle erupted and the two squad members were able to avenge Allison's death and turn the tables on their opponents; the Captain was thrown to his death, and then, just before Fitzgerald suffered the same fate, he yelled: "I did my job. She died because she was in the way!"; Max shouted back: "She died for nothing, you son of a bitch!"; the plane crashed (belly-landed) due to the impaired and seriously-injured and bloodied pilot (Buddy Joe Hooker) who had been shot by stray gunfire

Seriously-Injured Pilot in Cockpit

DC-3 Plane's Belly-Landing

Dying Coolidge in Max's Arms

• shortly later after exiting the plane and exuberant that they were still alive, Coolidge at first claimed that he felt cold, and then collapsed onto the ground; he realized that he had been shot when his bloodied abdomen was uncovered under his vest; as Max assured Coolidge that they were "partners," he died in Max's arms
• the film concluded with Coolidge's formal funeral service in a cemetery with a gun-salute; his "Hat Squad" partners placed their fedora hats on his burial casket as a tribute to him; it was a symbol, representing how Max had broken up the "squad" ("There's no squad without Elleroy"), because it would never be the same
• after the formalities as he strolled through the cemetery with his heartbroken wife Katherine, Max briefly discussed their broken marriage; Max confessed that once he realized that he loved Kate and was mistaken about cheating on her, he decided to end his affair that was dividing them; however, in Katherine's view, the damage was permanent and she decided to break up with Max for good - in the film's final line of dialogue: ("It'll never be the same, Max....You broke my heart, Max")

Max's Final Breakup with His Wife Katherine ("You broke my heart, Max")