Cast and Crew:   Alan Parker (Director); Lisa Bonet Charlotte Rampling, Pruitt Taylor Vince

What It’s About: The year is 1955 and two-bit gumshoe Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is hired by Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to find Johnny Favorite, a pre-war singer who served during the war and has supposedly been institutionalized since.  Angel’s investigations eventually send him to New Orleans to investigate Favorite’s voodoo connections, but all along the way he is bogged down with dying witnesses and people who would rather not talk about Favorite…

Why Watch it Today?: Robert De Niro was born on this date in 1943.  De Niro is only in a supporting role in today’s spooky update of Film Noir and detective movie tropes, but what a role…

Other Choices: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, A Bronx Tale, The King of Comedy, Jackie Brown, Brazil, Machete