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Night Moves
Gene Hackman Movie edition.
- GenresFiction
144 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 28, 1975
24 people want to read
About the author
Alan Sharp
41 books1 followerAlan Sharp is Professor of International Studies and Provost of the Coleraine campus at the University of Ulster.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 27, 2021
Friday I spent a few hours reading all of Night Moves by Alan Sharp (1934-2013). I have to say, I went away from the book somewhat bewildered and disappointed. Sharp starts off like a house afire, with brilliant descriptions of private eye Harry Moseby and of a Los Angeles fully enmeshed in the seventies malaise. Moseby is the best thing about the book - he’s a burned-out, ex-football player with a failing marriage and a bottom-of-the-barrel-private-eye agency. Sharp opens the novel with Moseby working a case involving a dispute between neighbors over a dog - for a $10 fee.
But the book fails as a private-eye saga. The story involves a washed-up actress asking Moseby to find her missing, teenage daughter and it moves from LA to New Mexico to the Florida Keys and back several times. Sharp keeps returning to the idea that things are never as they seem - so there’s always another double cross, another twist that you don’t see coming. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work very well. The novel becomes convoluted at the end.
Night Moves is one of those books that you’re glad that you read, but it’s not very satisfying. At 144 pages, it’s a quick read. So it’s still worth your time if you can find a copy. My copy ran about $20 form an online bookseller. If that’s more than you want to pay, the 1975 movie with Gene Hackman and Melanie Griffith is a good alternative.
But the book fails as a private-eye saga. The story involves a washed-up actress asking Moseby to find her missing, teenage daughter and it moves from LA to New Mexico to the Florida Keys and back several times. Sharp keeps returning to the idea that things are never as they seem - so there’s always another double cross, another twist that you don’t see coming. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work very well. The novel becomes convoluted at the end.
Night Moves is one of those books that you’re glad that you read, but it’s not very satisfying. At 144 pages, it’s a quick read. So it’s still worth your time if you can find a copy. My copy ran about $20 form an online bookseller. If that’s more than you want to pay, the 1975 movie with Gene Hackman and Melanie Griffith is a good alternative.
August 23, 2025
Night Moves, written by Alan Sharp
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Night Moves is a splendid crime story.
The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list includes it:
- http://www.listchallenges.com/new-yor...
The director, Arthur Penn is the creator behind Bonnie and Clyde, where he had the chance to work with Gene Hackman.
The latter is one of the best actors ever:
- The French Connection, Unforgiven, The Conversation, The Royal Tenenbaums, Night Moves, Bonnie and Clyde stand proof of an extraordinary talent.
In this film, Gene Hackman is Harry Moseby a private detective.
He is hired, as is most often the case on screen and perhaps in real life, to find a missing person, a girl who seems to be a teenager.
Melanie Griffith has the role of Delilah “Delly” Grastner and this is the first important role in the career of…
- The Working Girl
Harry Moseby is hired by a former Hollywood actress that has married a film mogul and acts unpleasantly.
She agrees to the fee stated by the private detective even if he states that she could find cheaper and she wonders about better.
Harry travels to Florida where he starts his investigation, clashing with a beaten man called Quentin, a strange mechanic.
James Woods plays Quentin and he has a few funny lines and a role that makes him a suspect in a killing.
- “ Harry Moseby: What happened to your face?
- Quentin: I won second prize in a fight.
…
- Harry Moseby: You got any idea where she could be? Is she visiting friends? Is she meditating? Did she join a commune?
- Quentin: [scoffs] Delly's idea of a "commune" is her and a guy on top of her.”
Harry Moseby finds the very young girl, who is under age, but she does not want to get to the home of her mother.
Her sex appeal makes the man who has to live around her, the step father say that he wished there were laws “on that”…
“There are” is the dry, witty and funny line of the detective that has plenty of those and is actually a great figure.
He is determined, we established he has a great sense of humor, wise, persistent, brave, resilient, professional.
- “Paula: When we're all as free as Delly there'll be rioting in the streets.”
With a girl as attractive and “liberated” as Delly it is hard to stay on the right side of the law, moral and social rules.
But Harry has a method:
- “Paula: How do you resist Delly?
- Harry Moseby: Oh, I just think good, clean thoughts, like Thanksgiving, George Washington's teeth.”
I insist on the fact that it is not just the plot that is interesting and has a lot going for it, surprises a murder or two.
The dialogue is superb, with humor, fine observations, reference to the more famous Sam Spade and unfamiliar independent authors:
- “Harry Moseby: I saw a Rohmer film once. It was kind of like watching paint dry…
….
- Paula: [of the uninhibited Delly] Did she offer you the key to the city?
- Harry Moseby: Well, no. It was, uh, more like a sightseeing tour.”
A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:
- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/
Night Moves is a splendid crime story.
The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list includes it:
- http://www.listchallenges.com/new-yor...
The director, Arthur Penn is the creator behind Bonnie and Clyde, where he had the chance to work with Gene Hackman.
The latter is one of the best actors ever:
- The French Connection, Unforgiven, The Conversation, The Royal Tenenbaums, Night Moves, Bonnie and Clyde stand proof of an extraordinary talent.
In this film, Gene Hackman is Harry Moseby a private detective.
He is hired, as is most often the case on screen and perhaps in real life, to find a missing person, a girl who seems to be a teenager.
Melanie Griffith has the role of Delilah “Delly” Grastner and this is the first important role in the career of…
- The Working Girl
Harry Moseby is hired by a former Hollywood actress that has married a film mogul and acts unpleasantly.
She agrees to the fee stated by the private detective even if he states that she could find cheaper and she wonders about better.
Harry travels to Florida where he starts his investigation, clashing with a beaten man called Quentin, a strange mechanic.
James Woods plays Quentin and he has a few funny lines and a role that makes him a suspect in a killing.
- “ Harry Moseby: What happened to your face?
- Quentin: I won second prize in a fight.
…
- Harry Moseby: You got any idea where she could be? Is she visiting friends? Is she meditating? Did she join a commune?
- Quentin: [scoffs] Delly's idea of a "commune" is her and a guy on top of her.”
Harry Moseby finds the very young girl, who is under age, but she does not want to get to the home of her mother.
Her sex appeal makes the man who has to live around her, the step father say that he wished there were laws “on that”…
“There are” is the dry, witty and funny line of the detective that has plenty of those and is actually a great figure.
He is determined, we established he has a great sense of humor, wise, persistent, brave, resilient, professional.
- “Paula: When we're all as free as Delly there'll be rioting in the streets.”
With a girl as attractive and “liberated” as Delly it is hard to stay on the right side of the law, moral and social rules.
But Harry has a method:
- “Paula: How do you resist Delly?
- Harry Moseby: Oh, I just think good, clean thoughts, like Thanksgiving, George Washington's teeth.”
I insist on the fact that it is not just the plot that is interesting and has a lot going for it, surprises a murder or two.
The dialogue is superb, with humor, fine observations, reference to the more famous Sam Spade and unfamiliar independent authors:
- “Harry Moseby: I saw a Rohmer film once. It was kind of like watching paint dry…
….
- Paula: [of the uninhibited Delly] Did she offer you the key to the city?
- Harry Moseby: Well, no. It was, uh, more like a sightseeing tour.”
August 22, 2025
"Charles and I are going to see a Chabrol film, Le Boucher. Want to come?"Moseby grimaced under his moustache "I saw a Chabrol film" he said, lying "it was like watching paint dry."
My world has been thrown off its axis seeing what the Alan Sharp line in the Night Moves novel(isation) originally was...
A line so good about Rohmer is devastating about Harry Moseby when applied to Chabrol.
The novelisation is absolutely wonderful. Sharp writes some very good prose.
My world has been thrown off its axis seeing what the Alan Sharp line in the Night Moves novel(isation) originally was...
A line so good about Rohmer is devastating about Harry Moseby when applied to Chabrol.
The novelisation is absolutely wonderful. Sharp writes some very good prose.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews