Blaise Rybeck

Created by William Applegate Jr.

Pass the cheese platter, please...

The problem with The Big Fall, a 1996 B-flick that went straight-to-video, is that after a promising if unspectacular start, evoking all the usual hard-boiled P.I. touchstones, it unfortunately morphs into a rather predictable action flick. Director and star C. Thomas Howell's scenery-chomping turn as private doofus BLAISE RYBECK is an unintentional laugh riot, as he trots out a weak line of what we're supposed to take as hard-boiled patter. While wearing a fedora and trenchcoat, no less.

I'm not sure is this one was supposed to be a parody or merely a half-ass detective film, though I must admit -- whether the yucks were intentional or not -- that there were a few halfway-decent wisecracks in it.

Blaise, who makes most of his money working divorce cases, gets roped into looking for the lost brother of British babe Emma Roussel ( Sophie Ward), and soon finds himself tangling with a homicidal FBI agent and bungee-jumping mob enforcers.

Yep. Happens all the time.

FILMS

• THE BIG FALL ...Buy this DVD ...Watch it now!
  (1996, PM Entertainment Group)
  Written by William Applegate Jr.
  Directed by C. Thomas Howell
  Produced by Gaby K. Malouf, Joseph Merhi
  Line producer: Richard Pepin
  Starring C. Thomas Howell as BLAISE RYBECK
  Also starring Sophie Ward, Jeff Kober, Titus Welliver, Sam Seder, Justin Lazard and William Applegate Jr. as "Agent Wilcox"

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith, following a lead from television/ film editor Chris Baldemor.

| Home | Detectives A-L M-Z | Film | Radio | Television | Web Comics | Comics | FAQs | Search |
| Trivia | Authors | Hall of Fame | Mystery Links | Bibliography | Glossary | Advertising |
| This Just In... | Word on the Street | Non-Fiction | Fiction | Staff | The P.I. Poll |

Drop a dime. Your comments, suggestions, corrections and contributions are always welcome.
"...and I'll tell you right out that I'm a man who likes talking to a man who likes to talk."