The story is based on a novel by the late Jim Thompson (Grifters, The Getaway) and has an edgy feel to it-as much by the material as by the low budget. When Sonny meets the girl of his dreams in a hotel room, he ends up breaking the rules and has sex with her. She acts like it's a rape and he's put in a situation where he needs to find some money to pay her off. The end result is his willing participation in a robbery of some big stakes gamblers, which we all should know will not go as smoothly as planned. When the burglary turned multiple homicide goes down, with Sonny as the main suspect, he attempts to protect those around him-including the hooker (played by a cute French gal Laure Marsac) and his retarded brother. As in all noir movies, you know he's going to lose out in the end but getting there is most of the fun.

Picture: The picture was presented in 1.85:1 Widescreen and, while looking low budget, was still pretty good.

Sound: The original sound was in Mono but this release listed it as stereo. For a low budget movie of this nature, it wasn't bad with suitable mood music and reasonably good vocals.

Extras: The audio commentary with Director Steven Shainberg was one of the most deadpan tracks I've ever heard. That's not to say it was bad but he generally focused on minutia style detail rather than how the movie attempted to adapt from the novel (it was almost a completely different in all ways). There were trailers and a photogallery too.

Final Thoughts: Don't watch this one expecting a faithful translation from the original A Sell Looking Babe by Jim Thompson but it was a well made indie film with true roots in the noir tradition. The commentary made me think the movie, made in 1996, was more a tribute to Thompson's work rather than intended as a translation. Most of my complaints about this one relate to the characters. Sonny's brother (played by Jay Leggett) might've been given a bit more room to expand his character, which is true of several of the other characters too (William Macy comes to mind), but overall there was a lot of reasonably decent acting within the confines of the movie. Check it out as a rental first but it's pretty good if you like this genre (and low budget films in general).