James Foley, Director

Director James Foley died recently in California. If that name has you scratching your head, no wonder. He was never famous, but he did know what he was doing. His major achievement as a director came from helming seven (!) Madonna videos. At the bottom of his directorial hit list would be two of the dreadful Shades Of Grey movies. May they rest in peace.

    Foley’s first major job as director came in 1984 with Reckless. With Aidan Quinn as teen-age rebel Johnny and Daryl Hannah as upper crust cheerleader Tracey, they are thrown together in high school and in this movie. Well, sparks do not fly. The thing ends with Tracey leaving town with Johnny on his motorcycle. As they ride into the sunset, we shed not a tear. Nor a cheer.

At Close Range (1986) has Foley directing two of Hollywood’s strangest actors, Christopher Walken and Sean Penn. However, these two are consummate pros and do a creditable job in this story that is based fairly closely to the Pennsylvania Bruce Johnson gang. The names are changed to protect from lawsuits, but it is obvious that Walken is the crime father and Penn is the wannabe son. Well, these are not nice people, even to each other, and the film winds down with the son preparing to testify against his father. 

After Dark, My Sweet (1990) could never escape that sappy title, but it is a very good modern crime noir film. Roger Ebert just loved it. Audiences did not; it made less than $3 million from a budget of over $6 million. Foley adapted it from a Jim Thompson novel, gave it a modern polish and turned loose Jason Patric (remember him? Me neither), Bruce Dern and Rachel Ward. In keeping with the noir atmosphere, the shady, damaged characters hatch a plot to kidnap the child of a wealthy man. No, we don’t pull for them have any success. 

James Foley’s crowning achievement as a director is the fine film Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) . With a screenplay by David Mamet, based on his Pulitzer Prize winning play, it has become a great American classic. An office full of desperate real estate salesmen who will do whatever it takes to make a deal is the setting. With Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin and Kevin Spacey on board, it takes a real pro to keep this thing together. And he does. The film was not a commercial success, but was highly praised and is on lot of lists of great movies. 

Confidence (2003) involves several con men conning each other and legitimate targets. Just when you think you have it figured out, you don’t. So yeah, I liked it though it didn’t do much business. 

James Foley directed a dozen episodes of House Of Cards, a hit tv series (2013-18) with Kevn Spacey as a crooked South Carolina politician. 

All of the movies in this article are available somewhere. All are for adults only.