After suffering a blowout late at night on a freeway, a young artist (Jodie Foster) accidentally witnesses a mob hit. The head mobster (Joe Pesci) spots her but his men are ineffective in killing her. The mafia boss (Vincent Price) hires a professional hit man (Dennis Hopper, who also directed) to find and snuff out the girl but while pursuing her, the hit man becomes obsessed with her and wants to possess her. Hopper's original cut ran three hours and when the studio shaved it down to one hour and forty minutes against his wishes, he had his name removed and the film went out with the standard pseudonym of Alan Smithee (though the print I saw had Hopper's name as director). As is, the film has major gaps in the plot line and characters are underdeveloped (and disappear never to be seen again) and behave in illogical ways. The mixture of thriller and dark comedy plays awkwardly. But there's enough that's good here that I'm willing to give Hopper the benefit of the doubt that his three hour cut would fill in the gaps and flesh out the characters rather than the self indulgence of a director. The film's title sequence, with Foster driving at night through the San Pedro refineries, flames shooting out into the night sky while accompanied by Curt Sobel's intense score is a beauty. The large cast includes Charlie Sheen, Dean Stockwell, Bob Dylan, John Turturro, Julie Adams, Catherine Keener, Fred Ward and Helena Kallianiotes.
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