Black Day Blue Night (1995)

In writer/director J.S. Cardone's neo-noirish, adventure crime-thriller about a road-trip, with themes of robbery, deceit, adultery, confused identities, and sexual situations in the desert - and a flurry of closing plot twists and abrupt murders. The hapless women-in-peril and road-trip script cleverly kept the audience guessing about how things would end - and its awkward, bloody resolution at a hot springs was convoluted, somewhat preposterous, and confusing. It posited that any of three individuals might be the elusive "third suspect" after a deadly armed robbery of an armored truck - most prominently a charming drifter-"hitchhiker" with a mysterious suitcase possibly filled with stolen money, a suspicious, dogged and ultimately corrupt lieutenant in the Provo, UT police force, or a less-likely innocent, domestically-abused, mousy wife with a cheating husband.

It suffered from limited distribution (by Republic Pictures) and low-budget production, due to the fact that it was released only on VHS-tape in the US (although via DVD in other countries).

This film was the third of director Cardone's Arizona crime trilogy, following A Row of Crows (1991) with Katharine Ross and Shadowhunter (1993). It arrived in the wake of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994), and was very similar in many ways to Thelma & Louise (1991) and Red Rock West (1993). Its tagline was: "What's in a night?"

• the title-credits sequence was a foreshadowing of the film's plot - a tarantula was briefly upended onto its back on a desolate road by the strong draft created by an unmarked blue 1995 Chevrolet Caprice police cruiser that drove over it while speeding across the desert; the creature righted itself and continued on its way
• in the opening sequence, investigative cop Lt. John Quinn (J. T. Walsh) from Provo, Utah drove up in his Chevrolet Caprice to an accident-crash site where - after an armored truck robbery, the getaway car fled from Provo (with two of the three robbery suspects dead); a dislodged, opened suitcase had scattered cash over the landscape - the closest town was Hanksville, Utah about 20 miles further south in southern Utah
• another police trooper noted about the scene of carnage that the getaway car with two robbers inside (actually there were three passengers, but the one in the back seat had survived and fled!) had presumably struck a cow in the road and turned over: "They hit that cow over there. They must have rode over it a couple of times. They're both dead. One male, one female. S--t, there must be a million dollars scattered out here. You think it's them?"
• that night during a thunderstorm, at the Desert Sands Motel in Hanksville, armed and disgruntled Hallie "Hal" Schrag (Mia Sara) suddenly shot her way through one of the cheap motel doors where she came upon her creepy, abusive and unfaithful husband Bo Schrag (Tim Guinee) having sex with an attractive, profanity-spewing, short-haired, butch-like, bleached bottle-blonde Rinda Wooley (Michelle Forbes); with her gun aimed at him, Hallie threatened: "I'm gonna kill you, Bo!"

Desert Sands Motel Encounter in Hanksville, UT	Two Lovers in Motel Room
Hallie Confronting Her Unfaithful Husband Bo Schrag in Hotel Room with Rinda: "I'm gonna kill you, Bo!"	Rinda to Hallie: "Shoot him, for God's sakes"

• Bo's mistress Rinda was shocked that the local stud Bo, an inveterate liar, hadn't informed her that he was married: "F--k, you said you weren't married....You lyin' piece of s--t! You came onto me the first time we met, and we've been foolin' around ever since, and you know it!"
• as Rinda left the room, she urged Hallie: "Shoot him, for God's sakes"; immediately after the encounter, Rinda impulsively quit her part-time, greasy spoon fry-cook job in Hop Chung's Cafe, a nearby Hanksville roadside eatery (run by a Chinese couple named Hop Chung and Fat Mama) after demanding her final one week's pay (without two weeks' notice) from Fat Mama at the cash register; the angry and embittered Rinda strode out into the restaurant's parking lot, where Hallie again suddenly appeared; her first words to Rinda were: "I didn't shoot him"; she asked Rinda for a ride westward: "It's the least you could do after you f--ked my husband"
• the two wronged and allied females went for a road trip in Rinda's dilapidated 1967 red Cadillac DeVille convertible (with California plates) toward Phoenix, enroute to Southern California; while driving along, the two shared a conversation - revealing that Hallie was orphaned (her father was killed in a Moab, UT mine accident 5 years earlier, and her mother died a year later from drinking); she also recounted that she was a victim of domestic abuse from her husband for three years; during the thunderstorm, when they stopped to put up the top, the car became mired in mud
• [Note: their route would took them south from Hanksville to Mexican Hat, UT and toward the north-eastern Arizona border line, and they would eventually end up in the town of Kayenta, AZ]
• they had their first spooky encounter with side-burned drifter-hitchhiker Dodge (Gil Bellows) who also suddenly appeared out of nowhere with a suitcase, begging for a ride; Rinda refused Dodge a ride - warning him with a shot from Hallie's gun
• in a parallel storyline, the pursuit was on for a sole surviving male member of the trio of masked armored-truck robbers (Spoiler: Lt. Quinn himself); the case was being supervised by Provo Police Chief Morris Reed (John Beck); about $900,000 of the haul had been recovered after it was scattered by the wind at the getaway car crash site, but more than $1 million dollars was still missing (fortunately, some of newest bills were traceable); according to the Provo Tribune, after the $2 million heist, one of the criminals shot and killed a retired policeman - Lt. Quinn's ex-partner Vern Pender; the only surviving criminal still-at-large, identified as a male, was presumably hitchhiking and carrying a suitcase with the cash

Provo (UT) Tribune: Report of Armored Truck Robbery and Death of Ex-Policeman

Provo Police Chief Morris Reed (John Beck)

• after sleeping overnight in the car, the next morning, Hallie was startled awake and found herself in the back seat of the vehicle parked in the lot of the Wellton Cafe; inside at a booth, Rinda told Hallie that she had slept through the night while she and Dodge were rescuing their car from the mud; as a reward, she had offered Dodge breakfast - and a lift to the cafe; they noticed that he was clinging to his dilapidated suitcase
• back at the crash site after the robbery, an officer noted to Lt. Quinn that the dead female suspect was Patsy Petlow (Beth Ann Styne) while the deceased male was C.W. Trig; the latter was someone the Lieutenant had busted and wounded (with Vern) in 1978 after C.W. robbed a Provo liquor store with a gun; it appeared that the third unknown, missing suspect (Spoiler: Hallie) had dragged a heavy suitcase of money into the desert away from the crash site toward Hanksville
• meanwhile, Lt. Quinn was doggedly tracking a "third suspect (who) was in the car with the other two" - the possible "hitchhiker" suspect was wanted for armed robbery and possibly murder; with no leads in Hanksville, Quinn proceeded on to Mexican Hat, UT (a town to the south, nearing Arizona); at the Bard Store gas-station in southern Utah near the Arizona border, while the two females were in the ladies' room, Dodge filled up Rinda's red Cadillac convertible; to mislead a Utah patrolman (Dale Swann), Dodge lied that Rinda was his wife, and that they hadn't picked up any hitchhikers
• the trio of drifters ended up in a secluded place, nicknamed "Paradise" (with a hot springs) and recommended by Dodge as a place to hide out; it was across the border in NW Arizona close to the small town of Kayenta, far off the main road; along with a beautiful lake, there was a spring-fed desert hot mineral springs located in a remote canyon
• Lt. Quinn was alerted to the threesome's location after a Navajo Man (Thomas Redhouse), the Bard Store gas-station owner in southern Utah near the Arizona border, reported to Quinn that a group of three in a red convertible had passed through; they bought $20 dollars worth of gas (for a "big red Cadillac") and one of the two females - (Rinda) with "yellow hair, angry eyes, like a coyote" - unwittingly paid for the gas with one of the stolen marked bills [Note: Later, it was revealed that Rinda had been given the $20 dollar bill by Hallie!]
• there under the stars and around a campfire, the trio shared stories of their difficult childhoods and other wild tales; Rinda told how her father was a liar and a "floater" and was discovered having sex with her best teenaged friend; Dodge told how his father was a snake-charmer in a carnival and circus, and that he was a neglected child who got in the way - and thus decided to go "drifting"; Hallie expressed fears of hers: "I'm out here in the middle of God-knows-where with a couple of total strangers... I could get raped, killed, no one would know," and that she had things to be regretful about; Rinda and Dodge kissed, but he said he would postpone swimming with her until the next day; he confessed he had "old records" in his suitcase, but Rinda didn't believe him
• meanwhile, Lt. Quinn spent the night in a motel in Kayenta (Kayenta was 20 miles away from the canyon - a three hours drive due to the bad roads)
• later that night under a full moon, Hallie snuck off from the car where she was sleeping, stripped naked and dipped into some hot springs; she was soon joined by Dodge, who told her: "Hey, I'm glad you didn't leave"; they passionately kissed and began to have sex; feeling miffed from afar as she quietly watched the two coupling together, Rinda felt out of place

Hallie (Mia Sara) with Dodge at Hot Springs in Remote Arizona Canyon

• the next morning, Rinda told Hallie: "Look, I came here for a little bit of fun, a little bit of adventure, and I had some fun. I just didn't quite get the adventure. That's OK"; she decided it was "time to move on" and proceeded on by herself to California; Hallie decided to take Rinda's advice to "stay and play for awhile"; as Rinda drove off, she told Hallie: "Don't live in fear, Hallie. It's gonna be alright"; Hallie and Dodge were left behind in the canyon (without a vehicle)
• Lt. Quinn's Police Chief boss Morris Reed was worried after not hearing from his long-time partner Quinn for some time: "I want to make sure he hasn't gone squirrelly on us...we're like brothers...I just want to make sure he hasn't turned this into something personal"
• at the same time, by happen-stance, Lt. Quinn noticed that the suspect Cadillac was parked in town; he located Rinda inside a restaurant where she initially resisted his questions; he showed her the marked $20 bill used to pay for gas; she admitted that she had no idea it was stolen money: ("I didn't steal anything"); he explained about an armored truck holdup three nights earlier in Provo, UT involving the theft of $2 million dollars, with only one of the three guards still alive; also after a car crash, the sole surviving third male robber (possibly Dodge) was assumed to have been hitchhiking, and was possibly picked up by her

Rinda Intensely Questioned by Lt. Quinn in a Restaurant

• her first reaction was anger that Dodge might have lied to her, and told her that there were only old records (rather than stolen money) in his suitcase; Lt. Quinn offered Rinda the $10,000 reward for information leading to the male suspect that was involved; Rinda promised to lead Quinn back to the canyon - accompanied by a Navajo Nation law enforcement officer named Begay (Norman Patrick Brown) sent to find Quinn by Police Chief Reed
• meanwhile, Hallie and Dodge had just enjoyed a second night at the hot springs; the film's title was attributed by Dodge to his father: "Born on a black day, you die on a blue night"
• once Lt. Quinn and Rinda arrived in the canyon (driven by the Navajo Nation officer in his 1983 Chevrolet Blazer truck), Quinn handcuffed Dodge with his hands behind his back - he suspected him to be the third missing robbery suspect that had taken the heist money and hidden it, but Dodge vehemently denied the charges; a search revealed that there was nothing but a "bunch" of old 33 rpm records and personal mementos in his suitcase - as he had earlier told Rinda; Quinn was incensed with Dodge: "Where's my money!...You think this is funny? I want my f--kin' money!", and dunked his head under water to get him to confess to the money's whereabouts
• when the Native-American officer attempted to side with Dodge and let him go, Quinn shot the officer four times - and he also murdered Rinda with two shots to her upper chest; Quinn sat down, thought to himself for a few moments, and described how he would double-cross everyone: his plan was to frame the two murders on Dodge and then kill Dodge as well

Lt. Quinn Wielding His Revolver

Murder of Native-American Officer Begay

Murder of Rinda

• a flashback to the armored truck-robbery revealed that Lt. Quinn was the third robber in the heist, when he removed his mask; he had been betrayed by his two partners (one male, one female) who sped off without him after the female shot and killed one of the truck's guards; then Quinn - who was recognized by another guard (his retired cop-partner Vern) shot him too; the getaway car subsequently crashed and the two robbers in the front seat died (Spoiler: Hallie in the getaway car survived!)
• Hallie watched as Lt. Quinn began to threaten to kill Dodge by drowning him under water; she blurted out: "He doesn't have it. I do!"; Lt. Quinn was flabbergasted and asked: "You?"; he approached her and she shot him dead with two blasts; he staggered backwards into the water and sank

Hallie's Murderous Confession to Lt. Quinn About the Money: "He doesn't have it. I do!"	Quinn Dunking Dodge Under the Water To Get Him to Confess
Hallie's Murder of Quinn

• as the two survivors drove away in the dead Navajo officer's truck, Hallie made some startling and almost illogical revelations to Dodge, seen in flashback; a few nights earlier near Hanksville, the night of the armored-truck robbery, hitchhiker Hallie described how she was picked up and was seated in the back of the getaway car; in the front seat were a drunk male and a female who was driving; their car ran into a cow standing in the road; (Hallie was obviously involved in the aftermath of the robbery!); Hallie survived the crash - with apparent bruises (but never seen), but the other two suffered bloody deaths; she noticed cash strewn everywhere; when the sun came up and a police car approached, she took the male's gun, and then walked off with a suitcase full of money; for safe-keeping she stashed the money in a bus-depot locker in Hanksville
• Dodge proposed that they abscond with the money, slip into Nogales, Mexico and hide out with a friend of his - and "disappear"; they drove back to Kayenta, abandoned the Navajo officer's truck, and located Rinda's parked Cadillac (outside Quinn's hotel room where he had stayed); using Rinda's car keys, they drove back to Hanksville to retrieve the money in a blue suitcase at the depot; to celebrate, the two had sex in a motel room next to the opened suitcase stuffed with money; later, Dodge left a note, telling Hallie that he had briefly gone out to acquire a different vehicle for their flight to Mexico
• in the meantime while Dodge was gone, Hallie's abusive husband Bo (with blackened skin from his grease-monkey job) suddenly barged into the hotel room with lots of questions for her (i.e., Where was Rinda? Why was she driving Rinda's car?); he opened the blue suitcase and was startled by the stacks of cash; when he asked about Dodge's whereabouts and she lied to him, he brutally slapped her across the face; he grabbed her mouth and asked: "Have you been f--king him?"; enraged, he 'kidnapped' Hallie, deposited Dodge's suitcase and the suitcase with cash in the back seat of Rinda's Cadillac, and forced Hallie to drive them away; Dodge saw them as he was returning and pursued after them in his newly-purchased used 1968 Dodge D-100 pickup truck; while driving, Hallie fought off her husband wielding a pistol
• Dodge watched from close behind as Bo forced Hallie to try and beat a speeding SP freight train at a railroad crossing, but it was clear that she wouldn't make it in time; Bo shot her dead to get the car to stop, but it was already too late and the car lost control; the car and train collided and the demolished vehicle exploded; Hallie's body was thrown from the vehicle along with the suitcase of cash

• in the film's final images, Dodge was stunned by Hallie's death as he left the scene of death and scattered money; he abandoned his truck at the intersection, ran screaming down the country road in the opposite direction, when suddenly a crop-dusting plane appeared and flew next to him on an adjacent field