and produced by Michael Hacker.

*** The Destiny of Marty Fine is a depressing film. It's a study of a man you can't help but like but, as a member of society, he is completely irredeemable. The settings for this cautionary tale are the most rundown neighbourhoods in Los Angles. And just to rub it in, the whole difficult lesson is filmed in black and white.

The direction, by Michael Hacker -- who also produced the film and co-wrote the script -- was gritty. It was saved from being dismal by several off-beat characterisations which were sprinkled through the movie, but particularly the characterisation of Marty, the unrelenting optimist performed in the genre of the New York comic.

Allan Gelfelt in the lead role was a delight, and the cast members were all strong, helped by a well written script which delved into some fascinating psychological questions.

Marty is a con man with a tongue that's completely out of control; a loveable rogue who is always, always, always upbeat no matter what trouble he's got himself into or new hurdle fate has been thrown in his way.

The film opens on Marty, failed professional boxer, but now a man with a plan which, of course, needs financing. He has a dream -- a worthy and commendable dream -- of starting a training camp in Utah for kids from the streets, where they can develop into professional boxers and perhaps make something of their lives.

He manages to pitch the idea to a gangster, a Mr. Cappelli, whom he happens to be acquainted with, and the guy actually likes the idea. Unfortunately, the next minute, Cappelli is dead, iced by a rival.

Marty, now, is given a choice -- he must either waste another of the rival's foes or accept that he, too, will be floating face down in a grimy canal in the not too distant future.

Our hero can't quite bring himself to do the dirty deed. In the meantime, he's out of friends, money and luck. His girlfriend throws him out, the gym won't have him any more and even his sister won't lend him any more money. It turns out he owes quite a lot, and has no realistic chance of being able to repay it.

Somewhere along the way he develops a new philosophy, a belief that all great men have the souls of murderers. He gives Hitler as an example of this, although, he concedes, he did murder millions of Marty's own people.

The inspiration, it seems clear, is a cab driver, a Russian immigrant who has been in America for two years and already owns four cabs. What's more, he's buying two more tomorrow. Wow! The American dream come true? Well, no -- the cabby confides his cousin in the Russian mafia has been quite helpful.

Is this a film about choices? If it is, the choices Marty made long ago set him on the path which has led him to the point where he really has none at all.

We see a fundamentally decent man who cannot open his mouth without being grossly dishonest, distorting the truth and manipulating everyone who means anything to him. We see a man who has reached the point where he fools no-one but himself.

The people who love him cannot help him anymore, and there are characters out there who are better at this game than he is. Marty the manipulator ends up as the one who is manipulated.

In the end, he can twist this way and that, but he's got to do the job. And it is only then he sees himself -- as a murderer, the person he has become.

REBECCA ZUILL FILM FESTIVAL MPC REVIEW REV