The Midnight Man

South Carolina hosted a neo-noir where night watchman Burt Lancaster interrogates all the murder suspects with probing questions, and they confide in him. And he doesn’t even need to shine a flashlight on their faces, which he’s ready to do even during the day! There’s a sympathetically flexible boundary between the good and bad characters, a bizarre subplot involving local rednecks, and a slightly tangled resolution around the parole board. It's intriguing how the reason why former police officer Slade can no longer be a cop unfolds, as well as the fact that the character of the hippie Arthur King is played by Lancaster’s son Bill, who is also the screenwriter of Carpenter’s horror cult classic where Kurt Russell warms up Antarctica with a flamethrower. (08/01/2024)