Shocking, R-Rated 70s Thriller Is A Paranoid Descent Into Conspiracy

By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

When people say “they don’t make thrillers like they used to,” I have full reason to believe they have films like 1971’s Klute in mind when they’re airing their grievances. Sometimes, all you need to tell a compelling story is a missing persons case, a climbing body count, and some good old fashioned police work. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, Klute delivers all of the above in spades, and it’s no surprise that its critical and commercial success kicked off what’s affectionately, and informally, known as the “paranoia trilogy,” which also includes 1974’s The Parallax View and 1976’s All the President’s Men.

Anchored by a tight mystery that never fully reveals its true nature until it reaches a breaking point, Klute is a hard-boiled neo-noir thriller you can really sink your teeth into as you try to put the puzzle pieces together yourself.

Starts With A Missing Person And A Call Girl

When Pennsylvania-based chemical company executive Tom Gruneman (Robert Milli) vanishes without a trace, private investigator John Klute (Donald Sutherland) is summoned to trace his whereabouts. Before committing to the case, he’s briefed on intel provided by Gruneman’s employer and colleague, Peter Cable (Charles Cioffi), so he knows exactly what he’s getting into. The only lead John Klute has to work with involves a New York City call girl named Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda), who has received several obscene letters from Gruneman in the lead-up to his disappearance.

The investigation starts out simply enough, with John secretly renting a basement apartment in Bree’s building so he can surveil her and gather intel. Bree is a tough nut to crack because she genuinely enjoys the independence her career affords her as a high-class call girl between sparsely offered acting and modeling gigs. John knows he’s tailing the right woman, but Bree, given how many johns she’s encountered over the years, only vaguely remembers an encounter with Gruneman, who was said to have laid hands on her.

Bree is at first hesitant to work with John, but when their frequent run-ins result in a budding romance, their motives align and she becomes more willing to cooperate with the investigation. That cooperation leads John to Frank Ligouin (Roy Scheider), Bree’s former pimp. Upon learning about two other call girls, Jane Mckenna and Arlyn Page, who both had similarly troubling encounters with Gruneman, John comes as close as he ever will to locating him, only to realize that Gruneman’s disappearance is merely the tip of the iceberg. There are more parties involved, and they don’t want their dark secrets exposed.

A Straight-Faced Thriller With A Gutpunch Ending

More than 50 years after its initial release, Klute is still as effective as anything coming out today because it doesn’t bother overexplaining what’s truly at stake. Instead, it leaves a breadcrumb trail of clues and morally dubious figures in its wake. John Klute has a job to do, but he also finds himself uncovering a far-reaching conspiracy involving powerful people. There’s ample reason not to trust his client at face value, and Bree’s own paranoia and inability to trust anyone adds a palpable layer of tension as she lets her guard down and allows John to become more than just the private investigator living in her building.

Klute checks all the boxes for a rock-solid crime thriller, and it holds up because it’s a well-written mystery that trusts its audience to do the heavy lifting. It leans hard into neo-noir without relying on gimmicks, melodramatic dialogue, or intrusive narration. Its straight-faced delivery is what ultimately pulls you in as you zero in on the guilty parties involved. And if you like what you see here, there’s plenty more where that came from with its unofficial companions, The Parallax View and All the President’s Men.

As of this writing, Klute is streaming for free on Tubi.