Wordiezett So much average

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

ianlouisiana Far and away the best of the Joseph Wambaugh adaptations,"The Black Marble" is full of schadenfreunde,compassion,humour,love and all the emotions that make it worthwhile being alive. Mr R.Foxworth,Miss P.Prentiss and Mr H.D. Stanton are hardly "A" - List Hollywood celebrities,but they keep this movie punching far above its weight at all levels. Burn - out L.A. cop of Russian extraction Mr Foxworth is in a cycle of drinking and despair after a particularly distressing case.In the last chance saloon he is buddied up with equally screwed up Miss P.Prentiss.He becomes involved in a blackmail case set in the bizarre world of Dog Shows where embittered trainer Mr Stanton kidnaps one of his charges and attempts to ransom it. The dog's owner - Miss B.Babstock(spelling?) - is as bruised and abused as the two cops and she and Mr Foxworth soon enter a physical relationship based entirely on mutual need. Mr Stanton has the hots for one of his teenage dog walkers and is thus not thinking straight when he evolves his plan to demand big bucks for the return of Miss Babstock's beloved schnauzer. From this rather slight storyline "The Black Marble" somehow evolves into a serio - comic masterpiece with its dual centres of L.A.'s Russian Emigree community and the American Dog Show circuit. In a reversal of roles Mr Foxworth is the sentimental and sensitive partner,Miss Prentiss the knowing and pragmatic. It doesn't matter that you can guess the ending,this is a movie where the pleasure is in the minutiae and the performances.You can watch it again and again with no diminution of pleasure. Undoubtedly along with "Mad Max 2" one of the great neglected movies of the 1980s.

EweLewz The Black Marble was adapted from Wambaugh's novel, which was clever, fresh, funny and compelling. The movie contained none of the above. Harry Dean Stanton's acting was the only saving grace to this movie that went absolutely nowhere from start to finish. Poor acting and painfully slow dialog made this "B movie" appear to last six hours. A true yawn-fest from start to finish. No need to add spoilers to this review as everything that took place was both corny and predictable. Considering Wambaugh was responsible for classics such as the Onion Field and The New Centurions, The Black Marble will be remembered as Wambaugh's Black Plague.

Blooeyz2001 I saw the trailer for this movie in 1980 & it looked interesting. I had never seen it though until recently when I bought a copy for $2.99. I like Paula Prentiss, so I thought I'd like this movie. I didn't. I was very bored. Nothing interesting or exciting takes place. The romantic aspect of the story is tedious & mundane. I didn't find it amusing either. Paula looked great & the endearing, goofy qualities she conveyed in other films is toned down here. I was happy when this movie ended & I doubt I'd ever sit through it again.

Jim_McKendrick IMO, this is one of the most underrated films ever. I love most of Joseph Wambaugh's cop stories and this one was sheer delight. From the opening scenes, when the drunken Robert Foxworth is shown swaying back and forth at a religious ceremony, until Harry Dean Stanton ends up in a Mexican hospital with his genitalia mutilated by a Doberman Pinscher, it's just one long belly laugh after another. The only jarring note in this otherwise splendid comedy is Foxworth's mental flashbacks to murdered children. I think this is one of the few movies I've seen where the screen version of a story surpasses the original book.