Love Loaded

October 1958. Downtown Los Angeles. At Club Figaro, songstress Didi Scanlon (Young), a knockout torch singer with an even more devastating voice, sings a sultry number by the piano. Amongst the patrons sits husband Jack (Huss), club owner and legendary surgeon, trying his best to become a legendary alcoholic as well, while around him, friends, admirers and even past lovers watch on in awe.

But as the night begins to wind down, with everyone now making their way into the crisp LA night, suddenly, a gunshot rings out. Lying there, on the cold, hard ground outside his own club, is Jack. Not dead, but someone clearly meant him to be. So, with Jack now in hiding, Didi is left alone to doubt everyone around her, as she looks to find answers to the troubling questions. Who fired the shot? And why?

From the very start, Love Loaded swaggers into the joint, rests its hat on the bar while ordering a scotch neat, and invites us to pull up a chair, ready to spin us a tale about all the crazy reasons people might do just about anything for love; the good, the bad, and the downright deadly.

It's a delectable journey of meticulous noir homage, getting almost everything spot on;

sights, sounds, speech and expected skullduggery in a story filled with complex and suspicious characters, all with their own reasons for being the one who held the gun. But writer/director Jan Miller Corran isn't content to settle for any old whodunit; the film aspires to be so much more, weaving in themes of prejudice, gender and social status, guilt, and revenge for good measure.

It's the sheer love and devotion to getting every look and feel just right that is Love Loaded's biggest strength. Key locations like Club Figaro are like actually stepping back in time, although they do leave a couple of the perhaps more budget-constrained settings feeling a bit sparse by comparison. But it's always a maximum-effort endeavour, with the impeccable hair and costume design along with the tight, era-authentic script also making sure everyone always looks and sounds the part.

And finally, it's all wonderfully played out by a cast full of more than capable actors. At the centre of it all, of course, are Didi and Jack, who have to be and unequivocally are the strongest parts on show. Young and Huss's is a dynamic with so many layers that makes them perfect to watch and root for despite being completely wrong and right for each other all at the same time.

There are, however, question marks over the mafioso-type element that plays as another subplot here. It seems neither Katsis's Mario Ponzetti, nor his fixer Alex (Bucci) ever have enough menace in them to be taken seriously as a threat, and thus never truly believable to turn out as such. Outside of that though, it's a supporting tour-de-force. Whether its broken-hearted April (Davis), still devastated by Didi's desertion out of fear of revealing her true self, to the other admirer on Jack's side Molly (Goss), the devoted nurse whose feelings for Jack cause deep seated resentment in her husband Gary (Bennett), same of which can be said for fellow-doctor Richard (Heurlin), the creepy devotee besotted with Didi himself. These, and indeed the rest, are all roles that feel fully defined; their circumstances and motivations both relatable and clear, and ultimately true to the era they live in.

Love Loaded is teeming with pretty much everything that aficionados of the genre would want and expect, while also undoubtedly impressing those that simply appreciate astute technical filmmaking, compelling characters and simply great storytelling.