Blue City is a 1986 American action thriller film directed by Michelle Manning and starring Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, and David Caruso. It is based on Ross Macdonald's 1947 novel of the same name about a young man who returns to a corrupt small town in Florida to avenge the death of his father.
Plot
A young man, Billy Turner, returns to his hometown of Blue City, Florida, after five years away. He gets into a bar fight and is thrown in jail. Then, he learns that his father Jim, the town's mayor, was killed while he was gone. The chief of police, Luther Reynolds, tells Billy that the police did not find the killer but that Perry Kerch, Jim's widow's business partner, was a suspect. Billy decides to start his own investigation. He meets with his old friend, Joey Rayford, who refuses to help him. Billy then meets with Kerch. Kerch says that he did not kill Jim and then has his thugs beat up Billy. Billy talks to Joey again, and Joey agrees to help him take down Kerch. Billy blows up Kerch's car and robs Kerch's thugs of money. Joey's sister, Annie, does not approve of what Billy and Joey are doing, but they refuse to stop. Billy gives Annie a ride home, and they have sex. Afterwards, they start a relationship with each other. Annie, who works at the police station, starts to help Billy with investigating Jim's murder. Billy and Joey go to a club that Kerch owns, beat up the workers, and wreck the club. Kerch and Reynolds both continue trying to get Billy to leave town, without success. Billy, Joey, and Annie get lured to a motel. Kerch's thugs arrive, a gunfight ensues, and Kerch's thugs are killed. Reynolds forces Billy to leave. After he leaves, he learns that Joey was shot and killed. Billy returns and goes to confront Kerch at Kerch's house. Reynolds shows up, as well, and kills Kerch and his thugs. Then, Reynolds shoots Billy and reveals that he killed Jim. Billy fights and kills Reynolds. The police arrive, everything is sorted out, and Billy and Annie leave town on Billy's motorcycle.
Cast
Judd Nelson as Billy Turner
Ally Sheedy as Annie Rayford
David Caruso as Joey Rayford
Paul Winfield as Chief Luther Reynolds
Scott Wilson as Perry Kerch
Anita Morris as Malvina Kerch-Turner
Luis Contreras as Lieutenant Ortiz
Julie Carmen as Debbie Torres
Allan Graf as Graf
Hank Stone as Hank
Tommy Lister Jr. as "Tiny" Rex Ryon as Rex Willard E. Pugh as Leroy Sam Whipple as Jailer Paddi Edwards as Kate Rick Hurst as Redneck
The Textones (Carla Olson, Joe Read, George Callins, Phil Seymour and Tom Morgan Jr.) appear in the film performing their song "You Can Run".
Production
Development
The novel was originally published in 1947. It was compared to the work of Dashiell Hammett, in particular Red Harvest.
Walter Hill wrote the script with Lukas Heller and was originally intended to star a leading man in his mid-30s but by the mid-1980s a number of popular young male actors had emerged, so the script was rewritten to accommodate one of them. (The lead in the original novel was a man in his early 20s, although a war veteran.)
Hill handed over directing duties to first-timer Michelle Manning. She previously worked with Sheedy and Nelson on The Breakfast Club as a producer. Her Breakfast Club co-producer was Ned Tanen and when he took over as head of production at Paramount, the studio agreed to finance Blue City with Manning's direction.
"I don't think I'll become Samantha Peckinpah", said Manning, "but I don't think as a woman that I should have to make a movie with girls in locker rooms putting on make up." Manning did admit being a woman director meant "You're under a microscope. You suddenly become a media event for no good reason."
Casting
It was the first film Nelson made since St. Elmo's Fire. He had taken a year off to appear in several plays. "It's the first part ever that I didn't have to audition for", he said. "Instead of having to make the rounds and go to casting calls and auditioning with hundreds of other guys, suddenly my agent has more offers coming in than I can possibly handle. I'm in a position where I can actually turn a job down. It's a strange experience."