The Straight Time gang — Dustin Hoffman, director Ulu Grosbard, Theresa Russell (looking pretty hot for having just turned 50), Harry Dean Stanton, cinematographer Owen Roizman — took the stage last night at the Billy Wilder theatre, following a 6:30 pm screening of the 1978 noir classic.

(l. to. r.) Theresa Russell, Ulu Grosbard, Dustin Hoffman, Harry Dean Stanton and producer Tim Zinneman — Saturday, 6.23.07, 8:55 pm; Grosbard, Hoffman, Stanton; best wide shot

L.A. Weekly critic Scott Foundas asked the questions, but he didn’t have to work very hard at keeping the ball in the air. Hoffman and Grosbard, in particular, just let it roll and roll and roll. Here’s an mp3 of a portion of what was said (i.e., a recording of a videotape that I took that was way too big to upload — 1.6 gigs). You’ll hear Grosbard first, and then Stanton and Russell (or the other way around) and then Hoffman comes in with a longish riff about his research, including an interesting observation about how criminals and actors aren’t all that dissimilar.