QUARRY'S CLIMAX

A 1970s hit man who starred in last year’s Cinemax series gets his strangest assignment to date: to prevent an unknown rival contractor from killing his target.

Jack Quarry—not his real name—can hardly believe his ears when the Broker, who sends a good deal of work his way, tells him that he not only turned down a contract to have Memphis porn king Max Climer killed, but that he wants to make sure that whoever got the contract fails. Climer, whose operations have grown from the Climax Club to Climax, the magazine that’s giving Playboy and Hustler runs for their money, is just too big a money-spinner for the Broker to lose. That means somebody else has to lose: first whoever’s been hired to kill Max, then whoever did the hiring. Who might want Max dead? Pretty much everybody, says the Broker. But Quarry (Quarry in the Black, 2016, etc.) meets precious few candidates for the honor, because this isn’t that kind of story. Arriving in Memphis with his gay partner, Boyd, whose partnership, he insists, is purely professional, Quarry instantly makes his way to Max’s office in order to show him how lax his security is. Max, hearing his story, hires him ostensibly as a security consultant, leaving Quarry free to prowl around the Climax Club, meeting Vernon, Max’s cousin and sidekick; Vernon’s daughter, Cordelia Colman, who demonstrates her rebellious streak by joining local protests against Climax Enterprises, which sounds absolutely worthy of them; and coupling with every stripper and publisher’s niece he can find, till he protests, “How much sex did these people think I could stand?”

Plenty of fatalities, but you won’t mourn them, since they’re all a lot more forgettable than the vintage '70s soundtrack that seems to be pounding away in every room in Memphis.