There aren’t many movies that I’ve waited 26 years to see, but True Confessions is one of them. Released in 1981 starring Roberts De Niro and Duvall apparently to somewhat less-than-critical acclaim and based on the infamous Black Dahlia murder case, for reasons lost to me I never saw it during its run in the theaters. Then I never caught it on cable — if it even played there. Then when I got my first VCR in the mid-80s a cassette of it either flat out wasn’t made available or somehow managed always to stay out of my reach or beyond my recall.

With my first DVD player in 2000 interest in seeing it renewed… surely the film’s distributor wouldn’t fail to take advantage of this new format, right? Nope. In fact go figure: the DVD of the noir classic wasn’t released until this past April 17 (again with somewhat less-than-stellar reviews). But whether or not the long-sought film meets my expectations or fails in the attempt thanks to moving it up to the top of my Netflix queue, I’m finally going to be able to screen what I’ve been missing all these years.