Moseby Confidential

Book excerpt: The definitive study of Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975), one of the last radical private detective films of New Hollywood, starring Gene Hackman, Melanie Griffith and Jennifer Warren. Moseby Confidential is the first extended monograph on this cult classic, which is often singled out as a masterpiece and considered one of the great irreverent neo-noirs, alongside Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) and Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974). Author Matthew Asprey Gear draws on a wealth of new and unpublished archival interviews with key cast and crew members and witnesses to the production to write this exhaustive study. The main focus is on the difficult collaboration between screenwriter Alan Sharp (1934-2013) and director Arthur Penn (1922-2010). Though neither was satisfied with the film - which was not a commercial success on release - Night Moves was ultimately seen as offering deep and disturbing insight into the moral ambiguities of the Watergate era.