Trouble Is My Business movie with Brittney Powell: Previous film noir dames have ranged from Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Bennett in the 1940s to neo-noir types like Faye Dunaway and Kim Basinger in the latter part of the 20th century.- Trouble Is My Business (movie 2018) review: Starring and co-written by actor/voice actor Tom Konkle, who also directed, and Xena: Warrior Princess actress Brittney Powell, Trouble Is My Business is a humorous homage to Hollywood films noir, particularly Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.
Trouble Is My Business (movie 2018) review: Humorous film noir homage evokes memories of Touch of Evil and The Maltese Falcon
A crunchy, witty, and often just plain funny mash-up of classic noir tropes, from hard-boiled private dicks to the easy-on-the-eyes femme fatales – in addition to dialogue worthy of Dashiell Hammett and, occasionally, Mel Brooks – Trouble Is My Business means business, but it doesn’t mind having a good chuckle as it walks the dark and winding path of double-crosses, corruption, and death.
Directed by Tom Konkle, who also co-wrote and co-stars with Brittney Powell as the dick and the dame, Trouble Is My Business – no direct connection to Raymond Chandler’s 1939 Philip Marlowe short story – features Konkle as private eye Roland Drake, the quintessential representation of the 1940s noir detective.
No pretty boy, Drake’s visage has more in common with Robert Mitchum (who played Marlowe in the 1975 neo-noir Farewell, My Lovely) than Humphrey Bogart (who was Sam Spade in the movie about the black bird).
Neither of those guys were pretty boys either, which is why we bought them. And that’s why we buy Konkle as a forlorn detective taking the rap for the death of a girl he was supposed to save.
Brittney Powell is also a veteran actor whose credits include Brunhilda in Xena: Warrior Princess, among several auspicious roles in all manner of film and television. She’s very good as Jennifer Montemar, a part written by Powell herself so she could play the kind of woman she always wanted.
Jennifer has a good deal more humor than, say, Mary Astor’s desperate femme fatale in The Maltese Falcon. Yet Powell (eventually) gives the character even more of an edge than Jane Greer’s blonde, man-eating girl-shark in Out of the Past.
More film noir references
Those movies and a number of others that only true aficionados of the genre will notice are referenced in Trouble Is My Business. For fans, it’s lovely catching little homages to Double Indemnity and Murder, My Sweet, but the film Trouble Is My Business circles most often is the great Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.
Shades of Welles’ evil Police Captain Hank Quinlan show up in the character played by veteran Vernon Wells (The Road Warrior). That’s Det. Barry Tate, a sadistic sociopath of a cop that Drake must eventually face, alongside his other demons.
Besides, the twists and turns of the plot are every bit as serpentine as those in most noir. I still don’t know what’s going on in The Maltese Falcon, and I’m not sure I know exactly what’s going on in this movie either – but as is the case with most noir, who cares? It’s the ride, the characters, and the tone itself – not the stories – that make noir … noir.
Noir artifice
To that end, the Trouble Is My Business filmmakers use another film noir trope: artifice. The films noir of old were not infrequently inexpensive productions; some were downright cheap. They usually faked everything from locations and lighting to the existence of walls and ceilings where there were none.
The use of darkness was not necessarily a stroke of filmmaking genius in the production of some films noir; it was at times a necessity because of little production design and lots of stuff to hide. The leading man never changed clothes because the leading lady’s wardrobe was more important.
Trouble Is My Business uses the artifice of props, costumes, and special effects to create 1940s Los Angeles exteriors and lush interiors all of which is slightly unreal, if not a little surreal. Orson Welles, himself a master of the unreal in a number of ways, would have been most impressed.
Trouble Is My Business (movie 2018) cast & crew
Director: Tom Konkle.
Screenplay: Tom Konkle & Brittney Powell.
Cast:
Vernon Wells … Detective Barry Tate
Brittney Powell … Jennifer Montemar / Katherine Montemar
Tom Konkle (as Thomas Konkle) … Roland Drake
David Beeler … Lew MacDonald
Steve Tom … Gavron Grozney
Jordana Capra … Evelyn Montemar
Ben Pace … John Shannon
Mark Teich … Manservant Rivers
Gerrick Lavon … Richard Montemar
William Jackson … Claude Allen
Paul Hungerford … Bert the Cabbie
Steve Olson … Officer Ostrowski
Benton Jennings … Wilson Montemar
E. Sean Griffin … Jake the Valet
Doug Spearman … Officer Bradley
Pete Handelman … Officer PaduanoCinematography: Jesse Arnold & P.J. Gaynard.
Film Editing: Tom Konkle.
Music: Thomas Chase & Hayden Clement.
Producers: David Beeler & Brittney Powell.
Production Design: Reed Johns.
Costume Design: Eric Shane Johnson
Production Company: Lumen Actus.
Distributor: 1091 Pictures.
Running Time: 116 min.
Country: United States.
“Trouble Is My Business (Movie 2018)” notes
Trouble Is My Business movie credits via the IMDb.
See also: Alrik Bursell’s multiverse sci-fi thriller The Alternate is wickedly smart.
See also: Actress and filmmaker Radha Blank makes an astute directorial feature debut with The Forty-Year-Old Version.
Brittney Powell Trouble Is My Business movie image: Lumen Actus.
“Trouble Is My Business (Movie 2018): Humorous Film Noir Homage” last updated in April 2023.