As Good As It Gets

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Blistering performances.

An early John Sturges film with character player Lloyd Corrigan in a rare lead. Corrigan is a widower who decides to take an afternoon off work for a round of golf. While out puttering around the course by himself, he gets a hole in one. He writes his initials and date on the ball before resuming play. He slices the ball off into a bunch of trees just off the course. Rooting around a brush filled gully looking for his ball he gets quite the shock. He finds a woman with more than a few extra holes in her. He checks her clothes for id and pulls out a small paper wrapped package. He then hears several voices coming up the gully. He beats the feet, climbs out and hides among the trees. A man, Wilton Graft, and a woman, Doris Houck reach the body and begin a search of same. They are not pleased with the absence of the package. The man does however find Corrigan's ball with his initials and today's date on it. The pair leave. Corrigan does likewise leaving a small piece of sweater on a barb-wire fence. Corrigan decides to say nothing to the police and stashes the package in his office drawer. Next day the papers are full of "Dead Show Girl found at Golf Course!" Corrigan's daughter, 17 year old Terry Moore, does nothing but talk about the murder. Moore and her beau, Paul Burns, are crime buffs and decide to go have a look at the scene of the murder. Needless to say, Moore finds the material from the sweater. She recognizes it as from her father's sweater and of course thinks he is the murderer. He must of went for the showgirl and then had a falling out with her! Meanwhile, going back to the package. It seems it contains some plates for making counterfeit $20's. The gang is not amused with the missing plates. There had been an argument about the split and the girl had taken off with them. This of course resulted in the overdose of lead. The gang quickly hunts down whom the initial's belong to and plan a visit. The gang calls on Corrigan pretending to be the police. Corrigan tumbles to the play and tells them he is going to spill to the real cops. Corrigan quickly changes his mind when Graft informs him his gang has Moore as a hostage. He agrees to hand over the package only if he knows for sure Moore has been released. Moore is brought to Corrigan's office for the exchange. A quick couple of shots to the gangster with an axe settles things. Moore is safe and the law is called. Film starts off with a slight comic feel but gets darker as it goes. Not great, but quite watch-able as a 70 min time-waster. This low–budget Columbia quickie was the second film directed by John Sturges . Sturges did, "Sign of The Ram", "The Man Who Dared", "The Walking Hills", "The Capture", "Bad Day at Black Rock", "Mystery Street" and "Jeopardy". He also did "The Magnificent 7", "The Great Escape" and "The Eagle has Landed". Corrigan had parts in "The Chase" and "The Big Clock". Terry Moore was in "Shack out on 101" and "Portrait of Allison". And of course being involved with Howard Hughes is about as noir as can be! The d of p was Henry Freulich who worked on " The Devil's Mask", "Chinatown at Midnight", "Bunco Squad" and "Miami Story". (b/w)