Chicago Joe and the Showgirl: Rating: 4.5 stars

An American G.I. (Kiefer Sutherland) and a starry-eyed showgirl (Emily Lloyd) hook up and wreak mayhem in war-torn London.

Chicago Joe and the Showgirl (1990)
1990 · R · Thriller
Reviewed May 26, 2008

This is probably a film only Kiefer Sutherland fans have heard of — which is a pity, because it’s a damn fine crime thriller that deserves a bigger audience. Based on the true story of the Cleft Chin Murder, the story takes place in 1945 London, where an army deserter and a small-time showgirl hook up and wreak havoc as they attempt to impress each other with their criminal daring. It’s like Bonnie and Clyde in reverse: instead of committing the crimes and then bragging about them, these two try to coast by on their made-up stories of past exploits, only to wind up in deep trouble when their bluffs are called.

There is nothing more entertaining than watching delusional people come face-to-face with reality — or maybe I’m the only one who thinks so. Either way, I found this movie immensely entertaining, both as a true-crime thriller and as a study of fantasy vs. fact. The whole movie, in fact, feels like a film-within-a-film, staged on indoor sound sets that at certain points reminded me of the sets in Gone with the Wind. Kiefer Sutherland does a fine job as the G.I. “gangster” who meets his match in the sociopathic showgirl; his reactions as his bluffs are called and he’s forced to commit himself to committing crimes are simultaneously hilarious, sexy, and tragic. Emily Lloyd, whom I can’t recall having seen in anything else before, hits on just the right mix of criminal amorality, teenage boredom, and borderline idiocy as the sleazy showgirl (damn, I cannot stop alliterating that word!). Patsy Kensit (as the G.I’s naive young love interest) kind of baffles me — I get the impression she’s a terrible actress, but the roles she picks are so perfectly suited for her kind of terribleness that it’s really hard to tell. Whatever — it works. It all works, in fact, well enough that I’m kind of pissed that I’d never heard of this movie before. Think of all the years I could have been recommending it to my sociopathic gangster pals!