| Love Walked In | |
| Director: | Juan José Campanella |
| Producer: | Ricardo Freixa Denis Leary |
| Screenplay: | Juan José Campanella Lynn Geller Larry Golin |
| Music: | Wendy Blackstone |
| Cinematography: | Daniel Shulman |
| Editing: | Darren Kloomok |
| Studio: | Apostle Pictures JEMPSA Entertainment Triumph Films |
| Distributor: | TriStar Pictures Líder Films (1999, Argentina) |
| Runtime: | 95 minutes |
| Country: | Argentina United States |
| Language: | English |
Love Walked In is a 1997 Argentine-American neo-noir drama/thriller film co-written and directed by Juan José Campanella and starring Denis Leary, Terence Stamp and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón. It was based on the novel Ni el tiro del final ("Not Even The Final Shot") by Argentine writer José Pablo Feinmann. The film takes its title from George Gershwin's song "Love Walked In".
Jack (Denis Leary) is a world-weary pianist and writer in a lounge named the Blue Cat. His wife, Vicki (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), is a songstress who has a way with the "pseudo-Gershwin" tunes her husband writes. The couple is desperately poor after 10 years of touring crummy clubs.
Meanwhile, Fred Moore (Terence Stamp), the club owner, is captivated by the beauty of Vicki. Moore is married to a wealthy woman, known only as Mrs. Moore (Marj Dusay), whom he admits to having married for her money. Although Fred is a faithful husband, the jealous Mrs. Moore has hired Eddie (Michael Badalucco), a private detective who happens to be an old friend of Jack's, to gather evidence of Fred's infidelity. Having come up with nothing, the sleazy detective begs Jack to help by arranging for Vicki to seduce Fred in front of a hidden camera. Together Jack, Vicky and Eddie plan to blackmail Moore.
At the same time Jack is also writing a crime short story set in the 1930s, a noiresque crime thriller, which the viewer sees inter cut in imaginary scenes as Jack narrates. This secondary narration is also a telling of what happens with Jack and Vicki in a different and subtle way.
Dennis Schwartz gave the film a grade D.[1]
Roger Ebert gave the film 2 out of 4.[2] Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote: "Nothing in "Love Walked In" makes psychological or even economic sense. In one preposterous plot turn after another, the movie does awkward somersaults to try to drum up tension and generate heat."[3]
On the evening of July 17, 1996, at 8:31 pm, the production was filming in the banquet hall of a Westhampton, NY beach club. Camera and sound equipment were recording when TWA Flight 800 exploded directly south of the beach. Sounds of the blast were caught on sound recording equipment. Two blasts were heard by crew members.