The Drowning Pool

A slick, stylish sequel to HARPER (1966), this private-eye film has Newman reprising the role of Ross MacDonald's cool gumshoe, Lew Harper. This time Newman is hired by Woodward, a Louisiana oil baroness, to find out who's behind a blackmailing scheme. The murder of Woodward's mother-in-law (Browne) further complicates matters, but Newman slowly discerns that Hamilton, a greedy landowner who is already worth millions, is the culprit behind the blackmailing plot. The villain traps Newman and the lovely Strickland, Hamilton's wife, in a hydrotherapy chamber that is slowly flooded, ergo the title of the film. This and a few other scenes are truly suspenseful, but for ...