Taglines: The power of love vs. the love of power.
Mulholland Falls is about the adventures of a 1940’s special anti-gangster police squad in Los Angeles, the infamous ‘Hat Squad.’ The four members of this squad are big, tough, no-nonsense cops who don’t hesitate to break the law, if it suits their purposes.
When a local woman is murdered, their investigation turns up the fact that she had been romantically linked to several prominent men and had secret films taken of her liaisons. Since one of those men is the powerful U.S. Army General at the head of the then-new Atomic Energy Commission and another is the (married) leader of the Hat Squad, complications ensue. The FBI even gets involved in an attempted cover-up.
Mulholland Falls is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori, written by Pete Dexter, and starring an ensemble cast featuring Nick Nolte, Jennifer Connelly, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Melanie Griffith, Andrew McCarthy, Treat Williams, and John Malkovich.
Nolte plays the head of an elite group of four Los Angeles Police Department detectives (based on the real life “Hat Squad”) who are known for stopping at nothing to maintain control of their jurisdiction. Their work has the tacit approval of L.A.’s police chief (Bruce Dern). A similar theme is the basis of a 2013 film, Gangster Squad, which Nolte also appeared in, and a 2013 television miniseries, Mob City.
The film opened in wide release in the United States on April 26, 1996. The box office receipts were poor, earning $4,306,221 (1,625 screens) and the total receipts for the run were $11,504,190. In its widest release, the film was featured in 1,625 theaters. The film was in circulation seven weeks (45 days).
The original score for the film was written and recorded by Dave Grusin. An original motion picture soundtrack CD was released on May 21, 1996 on the Edel America label. The CD contained 13 tracks including the old ballad, “Harbor Lights”, by Jimmy Kennedy and Hugh Williams, sung by crooner Aaron Neville. Neville also performs the song in the film. There were five top 10 recordings of the song in 1950.
Mulholland Falls (1996)
Directed by: Lee Tamahori
Starring: Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Treat Williams, Jennifer Connelly, Andrew McCarthy, John Malkovich
Screenplay by: Pete Dexter
Production Design by: Richard Sylbert
Cinematography by: Haskell Wexler
Film Editing by: Sally Menke
Costume Design by: Ellen Mirojnick
Set Decoration by: Claire Jenora Bowin
Art Direction by: Gregory Bolton
Music by: Dave Grusin
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality, violence and languag.
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release Date: April 26, 1996
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