The Black Marble (1980)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Let's be realistic.

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

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Far and away the best of the Joseph Wambaugh adaptations,"The Black Marble" is full of schadenfreunde,compassion,humour,love and all the emotions that make it worthwhile being alive. Mr R.Foxworth,Miss P.Prentiss and Mr H.D. Stanton are hardly "A" - List Hollywood celebrities,but they keep this movie punching far above its weight at all levels. Burn - out L.A. cop of Russian extraction Mr Foxworth is in a cycle of drinking and despair after a particularly distressing case.In the last chance saloon he is buddied up with equally screwed up Miss P.Prentiss.He becomes involved in a blackmail case set in the bizarre world of Dog Shows where embittered trainer Mr Stanton kidnaps one of his charges and attempts to ransom it. The dog's owner - Miss B.Babstock(spelling?) - is as bruised and abused as the two cops and she and Mr Foxworth soon enter a physical relationship based entirely on mutual need. Mr Stanton has the hots for one of his teenage dog walkers and is thus not thinking straight when he evolves his plan to demand big bucks for the return of Miss Babstock's beloved schnauzer. From this rather slight storyline "The Black Marble" somehow evolves into a serio - comic masterpiece with its dual centres of L.A.'s Russian Emigree community and the American Dog Show circuit. In a reversal of roles Mr Foxworth is the sentimental and sensitive partner,Miss Prentiss the knowing and pragmatic. It doesn't matter that you can guess the ending,this is a movie where the pleasure is in the minutiae and the performances.You can watch it again and again with no diminution of pleasure. Undoubtedly along with "Mad Max 2" one of the great neglected movies of the 1980s.

This is an offbeat sad, melancholy comedy for which the viewer has to be in the right disposition to enjoy it. Somehow a last stance against total despair. But if the disposition of the viewer IS right, The Black Marble can bring many joyous and thoughtful moments.The main theme is, as often in a script by Joseph Wambaugh, that being a cop in L. A. is just unbearable in the long run. Soft hearted romantic Sgt. A.M. Valnikov, member of the Russian orthodox church, certainly has chosen the wrong job and shows first signs of vodka induced paranoia. He is teamed up with outwardly tough Sgt. Natalie Zimmerman who says „this isn't a goddamn Chekhov play" - but does she mean it? The case the two officers are involved in is the kidnapping of a Schnauzer by a punk who happens to be a dog breeder and trainer. Valnikov flies to the rescue of the distraught female owner without being able to bring the case to a happy conclusion. The only thing he is capable of is offering solace, which he does in a way that makes his colleague, frankly, jealous. But the movie trundles to a generally consoling if not very convincing ending with everybody more or less happy.The team around director Harold Becker made the best out of a tight budget. For me this is one of the most memorable L. A. movies with really beautiful locations (the great musical score by Jarre helps wonderfully). There are many hilarious scenes, especially all the dog world related ones, the violent final (and totally accidental) clash between lawman and perpetrator and an enthusiastic Mexican doctor who has to „clean up" lower body parts of the punk after he got his pecker between canine fangs („it's still there, but you may not want to use it for a few weeks"). Not everything is perfect, sometimes I would really have liked romantic scenes to linger on some more, the last scene falls entirely flat (did the budget run out?), but on the whole The Black Marble is a fine piece of movie making.The ensemble cast is just great. The most intriguing character for me is police officer Clarence Cromwell, played by John Hancock. What else can he be but an angel? He has no other function but to be there when his colleagues argue or are downbeat, not least his boss who doesn't decide anything without consulting him. It all gives that character a strangely supernatural aura.

The Black Marble was adapted from Wambaugh's novel, which was clever, fresh, funny and compelling. The movie contained none of the above. Harry Dean Stanton's acting was the only saving grace to this movie that went absolutely nowhere from start to finish. Poor acting and painfully slow dialog made this "B movie" appear to last six hours. A true yawn-fest from start to finish. No need to add spoilers to this review as everything that took place was both corny and predictable. Considering Wambaugh was responsible for classics such as the Onion Field and The New Centurions, The Black Marble will be remembered as Wambaugh's Black Plague.

I saw the trailer for this movie in 1980 & it looked interesting. I had never seen it though until recently when I bought a copy for $2.99. I like Paula Prentiss, so I thought I'd like this movie. I didn't. I was very bored. Nothing interesting or exciting takes place. The romantic aspect of the story is tedious & mundane. I didn't find it amusing either. Paula looked great & the endearing, goofy qualities she conveyed in other films is toned down here. I was happy when this movie ended & I doubt I'd ever sit through it again.