MASQUERADE (1988)

This promising old-school thriller (9/10ths of the way) sees super-rich, 20-something Hamptons orphan Meg Tilley fall for pennyless charmer/pro-yachtsman Rob Lowe just as her venal step-dad is shot to death and her one-time townie High School boyfriend (Doug Savant, very good) shows up as the local cop on the case.  Dick Wolf, in an early pre-LAW & ORDER writer/producer credit, tries for a Patricia Highsmith vibe, but shies away from her knowing perversity, holding fast to old Hollywood ways that can make the film feel like a remake of some 1940s triple-cross film noir.  Rigged out with a John Barry score & David Watkin cinematography (the pair recently Oscar’d for OUT OF AFRICA/’86) who turn in stunning work too posh for the situation.  (It needs a bit of dirt under the fingernails.)  Greedy motivations, twisty plot ‘reveals’ & general moral morass keep it involving, but a better reason for watching is a chance to see Lowe trying out a path not taken, playing a morally (and possibly bi-sexually) compromised cad who never knew what hit him when he fell for his victim and tried to go straight.*  He’s very effective.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Though camouflaged by 1988 levels of nudity (so many tushes!), the film is very old Production Code in most ways, with needless sidesteps in character, plot & behavior to protect us from repressed gay angles; serving up sealed lip/old style movie kisses to signify chaste love; and virtue triumphant.  It all hints strongly at a far more dangerous first draft (by co-scenarist Larry Brody?) lost when someone (competent/faceless director Bob Swaim?) got cold feet.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/DOUBLE-BILL:  Lowe’s usual line about a lack of strong acting opportunities blames his own good looks; cursed as too pretty for serious roles.  Maybe.  But that ‘curse’ didn’t hurt Alain Delon, whom he often resembles here.  Delon even played a similar sexy cipher in PURPLE NOON/’60, an acclaimed real Patricia Highsmith adaptation you may know from its remake, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY/’99.  Neither film quite as good as its rep.  On the other hand, when Delon did give Hollywood a try, he got nothing but crap roles, just like Rob Lowe later got.