Bob Signorelli (Face Down) – The exciting detective website

Created by Thom Eberhardt

Iin the noirish, albeit overly brightly lit, made-for-TV film Face down (1997, Showtime), disgraced Big Apple cop turned clean-cut private investigator in Manhattan BOB SIGNORELLI (played by a pre-Spenser Joe Mantegna) is no knight. He seems more like a horny, middle-aged goat who seduces a young, attractive, broken client to whom he has just provided proof of her husband’s infidelity.

Charming, huh?

But the villain ditches her for another potential client, Merre (played by Kelli Maroney), who’s a little sexier. And a little crazier, too, it turns out. She wants to hire a detective because she’s convinced she’s being followed and that someone is entering her apartment while she’s not there.

Bob discovers, after a one night stand, that Merre—sometimes called Meredith—may have more than a few mental health issues. And maybe—or maybe not—is involved in a murder or two.

Both Bob’s doughnut-loving secretary, Emily Jones, and his straight-talking partner, Herb Aames (J.K. Simmons… with her), disapprove of the relationship. Bob, however, pays little attention to it.

And then Herb is found dead. In Bob’s car. It’s a clear frame, and Bob has no choice but to go on the run, while he tries to pry Merre from the slimy clutches of her boss Derek Fry, a particularly pretentious art dealer played by Adam Ant (yes, THAT Adam Ant).

Meanwhile, Bob’s former NYPD partner, Lieutenant “Coop” Cooper (Peter Riegert), investigates the murder of Richard Casio, a prominent mob con man, and Merre’s name surfaces. Could the two cases possibly be connected?

Gosh, they could do that, right?

As expected, there’s some obligatory wobbly sax and some nifty camera angles to suggest noir, and there are a few nice plot twists, especially as things get going. I liked the idea of the vulnerable Merre being a reluctant fatal womanand Mantegna plays the natty, man-about-town sleuth well, while neatly mixing up various tropes we’ve all seen a million times before. They also get bonus points for working in a handy quote from Hammett‘S The Maltese Falconand it is not the one about the murder of a man’s partner.

But this is just a slightly better than average example of live-cable programming from that era, with a little nudity for the “adults” (Oh, boobs!), marred by an eye-rolling conclusion that feels rushed (and stupid).

Three, maybe three and a half stars out of five, but no more than that.

OH YEAH?

Actress Kelli Maroney has said that playing the schizophrenic “Merrie/Meredith” was her most fulfilling role.

UNDER OATH

“…a passable film noir…while writer-director Thom Eberhardt (Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, Night of the Comet) doesn’t really add anything to the genre, he honors its conventions with enough flair to make this a better-than-average made-for-TV movie.”
—Todd Everett (The Los Angeles Times)

TELEVISION

FACE DOWN | Buy this video
(1997, Showtime)
A Lion’s Gate movie
Rated R for strong sexuality, violence and language.
Written by Thom Eberhardt
Directed by Thom Eberhardt
Producers: Roni Weisberg and Thom Eberhardt
In partnership with Hallmark Entertainment and Showtime
Score by Gunther Schuller and jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano
Filmed in Toronto
Starring Joe Mantegna as BOB SIGNORELLI
and Kelli Maroney as Merrie/Meredith
Starring JK Simmons as HERB AMES
Also starring Peter Reigert, Adam Ant, Cameron Thor and Shannon Lawson