Night Moves 

Night Moves 

Film editor Dede Allen’s second-to-last project with longtime collaborator Arthur Penn is a ruthless neo-noir that critiques youth culture, old money, the film industry, international art cinema, and American greed—all in under 100 minutes. Los Angeles-based private detective Harry Moseby (Gene Hackman) is hired to track a runaway daughter (Melanie Griffith in her first major film role) to Florida, where she’s living an uneasy life with her parasitic stepfather (John Crawford). Initially a commercial flop, Night Moves found popularity with its 1990s home video release and has since received critical reappraisal for Hackman’s performance and the film’s off-kilter narrative arc.  


DIRECTED BY: Arthur Penn. WRITTEN BY: Alan Sharp. WITH: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Edward Binns, Melanie Griffith. 1975. 99 min. USA. Technicolor. English. Rated R. 35mm. 
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation. 



Back to Main Series