This sparkling adaptation of crime master James Ellroy’s novel touches on countless pieces of old Tinseltown lore: the Robert Mitchum marijuana bust, a supposed brothel of Veronica Lake lookalikes, and a notorious level of LAPD collusion with studio bosses and mobsters.
It’s played with perfect understatement by Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger. The three cops are each trying in their own way to get to the truth behind a brutal mass murder in a diner and to work out where a gossip columnist (Danny de Vito), a pimp (David Straithairn) and a Veronica Lake-lookalike call girl (Kim Basinger) fit in.
Looking to avoid stale mimicry, director Curtis Hanson asked the cast to study a host of films starring Sterling Hayden and Humphrey Bogart. The aim was for the actors to inhabit the physicality and mood of those films rather than to blindly copycat.
L.A. Confidential’s genius is that it should be camp, but it dispenses with overt self-awareness, achieving a level of genuine suspense.
Jack Vincennes
Kevin Spacey Wendell ‘Bud’ White
Russell Crowe Edmund ‘Ed’ Exley
Guy Pearce Captain Dudley Smith
James Cromwell Morehouse Pierce Patchett
David Strathairn Lynn Bracken
Kim Basinger Sid Hudgens
Danny DeVito Officer Richard (Dick) Stensland
Graham Beckel Matt Reynolds
Simon Baker Brett Chase
Matt McCoy Mickey Cohen
Paul Guilfoyle DA Ellis Loew
Ron Rifkin Johnny Stompanato
Paolo Seganti Karen
Symba Smith Bobby
Bob Clendenin Susan Lefferts
Amber Smith Leland ‘Buzz’ Meeks
Darrell Sandeen Tammy Jordan
Shawnee Free Jones Officer Michael Breuning
Tomas Arana Officer William Carlisle
Michael McCleery Mrs Lefferts
Gwenda Deacon Sugar Ray Collins
Jeremiah Birkett Louis Fontaine
Salim Grant Ty Jones
Kareem Washington Inez Soto
Marisol Padilla Sanchez Sylvester Fitch
Jeff Sanders Roland Navarette
Steve Lambert Lana Turner
Brenda Bakke
Jack Vincennes
