Tuesday 28 November 2023

The Lineup | Don Siegel, 1958

The Lineup | Don Siegel, 1958

Two circles on a calendar. Yesterday and tomorrow. Yesterday, a man died after stealing a bag and crashing a cab in San Francisco, but nobody knows why. Two detectives investigate and trade in fragments of information, one clue leading to another, and another, and slowly the pieces begin to fit together. Tomorrow comes, and two men in grey suits, one calm, collected, methodical, the other wild, dangerous, impulsive, arrive in the city and yesterday's version of events becomes prophetic. A carefully laid plan unfolds as these men go about their business in the shadows. But tomorrow was always going to come. The boats and planes of yesterday become today’s aquariums and museums. Information trickles back to the detectives. Time ticks by and the cage closes in. And then the road runs out.