News of Robert Forster's prospective starring role in a new television series based on the Karen Sisco character (see Elmore Leonard's OUT OF SIGHT) got me thinking about the knock-on effect of quality on quality.



JACKIE BROWN is a film (based on Elmore Leonard's RUM PUNCH) that I come back to time and time again, drawn in the main by the wonderfully understated roles of Robert Forster and Pam Grier. Who are these people, I wonder - uncelebrated, unknown in the main - who made this film such a visually gourmet experience?



Ah, `uncelebrated, unknown', did I say? Check out their credits like I just did: Robert Forster's got 48 films under his belt going back 30 years or so, while Pam Grier's got 61 and counting.



I wouldn't mind betting that, were you to ask their co-stars, Robert de Niro (okay, so he's a similar age bracket: just hear me out for the sake of my argument) and Samuel L Jackson about their key formative influences in theatre and film, they'd point unhesitatingly to troupers like these.