23 January 2007

For those who don't know it, the 1990 Chicago Joe and the Showgirl is one of those rare movie that nearly floored a number of promising careers. Directed by newcomer Bernard Rose as the follow-up to his acclaimed 1988 thriller Paperhouse, it starred Emily Lloyd, who had just three years earlier made such a splash in David Leland's Wish You Were Here and Kiefer Sutherland, who was on a bit of a high following his box office successes in The Lost Boys and Young Guns. The Stars were hot, the director on the rise, and the story of a young couple who go on a killing spree in WW2 London had real promise. But just about everyone hated it. It's not hard to see why. There's an awful lot that just doesn't work, not least the drifts between reality and fantasy, as the pair visualise their own image of themselves as glamorous Chicago gangster and his moll. But there's also plenty that does click, most of which was lost in the waterfall of negative critical reaction on the film's release. I'd even go as far as to suggest that the cross-cutting between contradictory confessions at the film's end is one of the best sequences Rose has ever directed. And let's not forget that Rose's next film was the magnificent Candyman...

Well in January you can judge for yourself when the film makes its UK DVD debut courtesy of Metrodome. It's a movie-only disc, which is a shame (Id rather like to hear Rose reminiscing on this one), but does come at the appropriate price of £12.99. Release date is set for 26th January 2008.