The Drowning Pool (1975)

'The Drowning Pool' is the belated sequel to the 1966 Paul Newman hit 'Harper'. Like the first film this is also based on a Ross MacDonald novel, contains a large cast of characters and plenty of witty 'Harperisms'. Harper travels from LA to Louisiana to assist an old flame (Newman's real life wife Joanne Woodward) to deal with a blackmail plot against her. Said plot turns out to be part of a larger scheme that involves a disgruntled ex chauffer, her mother in law, the local police, a crazy oil millionaire and perhaps her own daughter ( a young Melanie Griffith).

I want to take a moment though to talk about the crazy oil millionaire, who really turns out to be actually kind of crazy, he is played by Murray Hamilton, today best known as the mayor in 'Jaws' which came out the same year as this movie. They are such different parts but if anything 'The Drowning Pool' is the film for which he should be best remembered, he really chews those scenes and his mixture of projected pleasantness and the unhinged is just great.

This movie was not the hit 'Harper' was, it failed at the box office and though not as good as the original film, it's pretty good in its own right. I wish this had been a success so we could have had more of these, it's a perfect role for Newman. The chief set piece at the end, the titular "drowning pool" is pretty great. ***