A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is follow up to "Harper" and Paul Newman reprises his role as a private detective loosely based on Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer. The plot is based around Harper being a few years older but basically the same style PI you came to like in Harper. He is smart and has a drive to finish a case; even if he ends up in trouble. You get a mix of Joanne Woodward, Melanie Griffith (as a teen), Tony Franciosa (doing a very good job acting) and a stellar supporting cast. There are a lot of twists and turns, a lot of dialog, one shootout - it's Newman as Harper! Set in pre-Katrina New Orleans, "The Drowning Pool" is a rich stew of intrigue, great cast performances and classic MacDonald twists and turns within a dangerously dysfunctional family. Paul Newman completely inhabits Lew Harper's character, the settings are alternately grand and deliciously seedy, and the cinematography is excellent. A very young Melany Griffith place the infant terrible' in this film, not bad for a kid breaking into the movie game. But the chief action focuses on Newman and he does not disappoint. There's also some interesting plot points involving oil off the coast, and the resulting corruption of the police as money was shovelled around to secure drilling rights.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Revisiting the private-detective character he created for "Harper" nine years before gives this Paul Newman vehicle some interest, especially as the man was then at the apex of his stardom. It makes for a sweet showcase for his ineffable charisma, yet lacks in other key departments.This time Lew Harper is in Louisiana's Bayou Country to help an old flame through a potentially messy blackmail case. Before you can say "You're out of your depth" (which someone does to Lew, sure enough), Harper discovers a hornet's nest of intrigue involving big oil money, local corruption, and murder.Newman does look terrific, even more for the "little gray over the ears" that gets pointed out by the old flame, Iris Devereaux (Joanne Woodward). Woodward was of course Newman's real-life wife and frequent acting partner in romantic dramas, though you don't get as much of them together as you - or Harper - might like. She's more the fly in the ointment who somewhat unwillingly presses Harper to dig into the ugly guts of the case, as well as a bit unreliable as she lapses into Southern-matron airs and too much drink."The Drowning Pool" has less attitude and more likability than "Harper" did: One wishes that they worked out the story before the casting. It's a great cast, which in addition to Newman and Woodward include Murray Hamilton as the creepy oil man Jay Hue Kilbourne, Anthony Franciosa as the somewhat honorable lawman Broussard, Richard Jaeckel as Broussard's less honorable deputy Franks, and Melanie Griffith as Iris's rebellious, jailbait daughter Schuyler, all but busting out of her crochet bikini. None are great, but all like Lew have their moments."Don't you think I'm kind of...sexy," Schuyler asks Harper, who's interested but (rightly) wary.Like "Harper," "The Drowning Pool's" chief flaw is a plot with too many spinning plates and not much of a through-line. We get a lot of lumbering exposition, with everyone telling Harper what's what up front through a swampy first half. Harper's still a cut-up, though the jokes furnished by the writers and director Stuart Rosenberg comes off as a bit labored. "Harper" opened with a famous scene of Newman digging a used coffee filter out of the trash for some needed java; this time we open with him struggling with a rental car's safety belt. Couldn't he just get another rental? Nah, that would be too easy, and nothing comes easy for Harper.Except for the story, which sort of happens with him in the role of wry bystander. "It's quite a zoo you got here," he tells Schuyler, indicating the indoor aviary her grandmother keeps but meaning the world around it as well.The movie's big finale involves Newman and an unhappily married woman played by Gail Strickland trying to escape imprisonment in a shuttered sanitarium by filling a room full of water and making for the skylight. It's an involving sequence, for a few minutes, but moves as slowly as the rest of the film before ending somewhat implausibly, if not stupidly like "Harper" did.I liked watching "The Drowning Pool" in parts. Like jc-osms said in his September 2010 review, there's a kind of relaxed "Rockford Files" vibe to the whole thing, with Newman taking cues from his pal Jimbo Garner. If he was doing anything that important in this film, it might make for a better overall experience. Instead, the best you get here is Michael Small's rich Preservation Hall score and some fine-looking location scenics care of John C. Howard. Woodward assays a solid turn in her smaller-than-expected supporting role.It's hard to believe what others say here, that this was one of Newman's own least liked films. Given that this decade also saw him in "Judge Roy Bean," "Macintosh Man," "Quartet," and "When Time Ran Out...," I'd say what you get here is approaching par for the man, who still shows some game. Go into it looking for Newman's charm, you won't be too disappointed. But he could do a lot better, and so can you.

(Some Spoilers) With the possible exception of his movie debut as Basil the Sculptor in the bombed out, at the box office, 1954 film "the Silver Chalice" the movie "The Drowning Pool" is one film that the late Paul Newman would most want to forget being in.Follow up to his 1966 hit "Harper" Newman is back as the wisecracking and handsome as a movie star, which in fact he is, cool as a cucumber private eye Lew Harper but in new surroundings. Called from his home base in L.A Harper is hired to go to the Bayou Country by his former lover Iris Devereaux, Joanne Woodward, who's being blackmailed. What exactly Iris is being blackmailed about seemed a bit muddy, like the Southern Louisiana swamps, but according to her it somehow has to do with Iris' just fired chauffeur Pat Reavis, Andy Robinson, who claims-in the blackmail note-that he's got the goods on her! As Harper starts to get some mileage in his investigation he runs into local police Chief Broussard, Anthony Franciosa, who tries to put the cuffs on him at every opportunity. There's also Brossard' second in command the sweaty and high strung Lt. Franks, Richard Jaeckel, who's even more determined to put Harper away then even his neurotic boss, in regards to what's going on in the movie, Chief Broussard!We soon find out that Iris' step-mother Mrs. Olivia Devereaux, Coral Browne, known in these parts as the "Bird Lady" is really the cause to all the problems that both she and her sexy Lolita like 17 year-old daughter Schuyler, Melanie Griffith, are having. It fact it's Schuyler who at first tried to entrap Harper in having sex with her in a local motel which he gentlemanly refused by smacking Schuyler around! We also find out that the very hot to trot Schuyler was, or is still, having a hot and heavy affair with Reavis which may be the reason he's, in revenge for her firing him, blackmailing her mom Iris!The movie "The Drowning Pool" goes on and on with different plot-line thrown into it including Mrs. Olivia Devereaux's land holdings which Oil Barron Kilbourne, Murray Hamilton, whats to get his grubby hands on. It's also Kilbourne who, surprise surprise, the just fired Pat Reavis just happens to be working for. ironically one of the hoods that also works for Kilbourne Candy, Paul Koslo, looks so much like Reavis that for a moment,long after Revis departed from the movie, I though they were one and the same person!****SPOILER**** As you would have expected nothing is what it at first seems to be in a movie like this with the truth in this case being far more believable and logical then what the film tried to make you think it was. The half-a** surprise ending was anything but surprising in that by just observing the body language of the those in the movie it gave itself away within the first ten minutes! Only worth watching because of Paul Newman's super-cool performance as P.I Lew Harper with a really cool sequence towards the end of the movie with Newman, or Lew Harper, and Milbourne's abused wife Marvis, Gail Strickland, almost drowning in and effort to escape from being murdered by Kilbourne and his sidekick Candy in what's to be known as the film's title: "The Drowning Pool".

In 1966 Ross MacDonald's private investigator Lew Harper (Paul Newman) was hired by a wealthy matron to find a missing husband. It is nearly ten years later and we find the Los Angelas detective traveling to Cajun country in the deep south. Upon arriving he is immediately welcomed by Lt. Franks of the local police (Richard Jaeckel, superb performance) by arresting him for child molestation, lewd exposure, sex with Schuyler Devereaux, (Melanie Griffith) an underage girl, carrying a concealed weapon and resisting arrest. His influential employer, Iris Devereaux (Joanne Woodward) is an old flame from California, whom he had a love interest with six years ago. Now she wants him to discover who sent her a threatening Blackmailing letter. Her protector is the Chief of Police (Anthony Franciosa) who reminds Harper that he will be watching him for the slightest provocation against the family. There is no shortage of villains in this mystery story. Among them is Mr. Kilbourne (Murray Hamilton) a powerful millionaire intent on acquiring the oil rich land the Devereaux's own but won't sell. Pat Reavis (Andrew Robinson) the deject employee who seeks revenge for his dismissal and 'Candy' (Paul Koslo) who's as vicious as the dogs he trains for the arena. Harper plays it close to the vest as he quickly discovers his investigation begins to uncover more family secrets than a closet can hold. All of his efforts produce dead bodies, murder, mayhem, a lost account book and finally a drowning pool which threatens his very life. All in all, a superb movie for cast and characters and one which easily marks this film as a Classic. ****