Plot
Arthur Jamison (Anthony Hopkins), a wealthy criminal defence attorney, is facing a costly divorce from his wife, Louise (Blythe Danner). Arthur deals with the predicament by imagining numerous schemes in which he kills her. As a defense attorney, Arthur is familiar with both the courts and the minds of criminals, and he spends much of the film consulting an officious imaginary version of himself (a double played by Donegan Smith) for the perfect scheme to rid himself of Louise. Arthur runs each murder, or the subsequent trial, through in his mind, searching for problems, loopholes, and the elusive watertight alibi.
Arthur's mistress, Jackie Willis (Swoosie Kurtz), meets up with Louise in secret. The two concoct a scheme to kill Arthur. They confront Arthur at gunpoint, planning to stage his murder as a suicide. Unfazed, Arthur takes control of the situation, pointing out the flaws in what was supposed to be their foolproof scheme. For one thing, Arthur tells them he has been cheating on both of them with a third woman and was about to go out on a highly anticipated date with her, so was not of a mindset to commit suicide.
Furthermore, Arthur reveals that he had been recording the entire confrontation with Louise and Jackie. He uses the tape to attempt to blackmail Louise, but, enraged by the implosion of her plan, she chases her husband with a gun. A brief struggle ensues, and Louise is shot dead. Now, however, Louise's accidental death implicates Arthur for having murdered her. Arthur had only been bluffing about the tape, there is no evidence that the shooting was an accident other than the word of Jackie, his mistress, who may not be willing to testify to exonerate him. Arthur imagines himself in court, his imaginary self now his own prosecutor, and how the case will unfold.
At this point the film shows Arthur back at home, again poking holes in the scheme. It is revealed to be yet another of his unrealized, purely imaginary plans.
Louise arrives home, shoots him dead, and phones Jackie to inform her the deed is done. The film ends with Louise rearranging the living room to cover up evidence of the murder.
A Shock to the System is a 1990 American black comedy film directed by Jan Egleson and starring Michael Caine, Swoosie Kurtz, Elizabeth McGovern, and Peter Riegert. It is based on the 1984 novel A Shock to the System by British author Simon Brett.
Huff is an American drama television series that aired on Showtime from November 7, 2004, to June 25, 2006. It won three Primetime Emmy Awards from ten nominations, as well as being nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Murder One is an American legal drama television series that aired on ABC from September 19, 1995, until May 29, 1997. The series was created by Steven Bochco, Charles H. Eglee, and Channing Gibson.
Find Me Guilty is a 2006 American courtroom comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Sidney Lumet. The film is based on the true story of the longest Mafia trial in American history. Much of the courtroom testimony was taken from the original court transcripts. Vin Diesel stars as Jackie DiNorscio, a New Jersey mobster who is on trial with 19 of his colleagues for racketeering. A wrench is thrown into the system when DiNorscio fires his lawyer and decides to represent himself. The film also stars Peter Dinklage, Linus Roache, Alex Rocco, and Ron Silver.
Swoosie Kurtz is an American actress. She is the recipient of an Emmy Award and two Tony Awards.
On the evening of August 4, 1962, American actress Marilyn Monroe died at age 36 of a barbiturate overdose inside her home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California. Her body was discovered before dawn the following morning, on August 5. Monroe had been one of the most popular Hollywood stars during the 1950s and early 1960s, and was a top-billed actress for the preceding decade. Her films had grossed $200 million by the time of her death.
They Won't Forget is a 1937 American drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris, and Lana Turner, in her feature debut. It was based on a novel by Ward Greene called Death in the Deep South, which was in turn a fictionalized account of a real-life case: the trial and subsequent lynching of Leo Frank after the murder of Mary Phagan in 1913.
Cruel Doubt is a 1992 miniseries starring Blythe Danner and Matt McGrath, as well as Danner's daughter, Gwyneth Paltrow. The film was broadcast in two parts on NBC in the United States and on CTV in Canada on May 17 and May 19, 1992.
Harmful Intent (1990) is a novel by Robin Cook. Like most of Cook's other works, it is a medical thriller.
Fracture is a 2007 psychological legal crime thriller film starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling, and directed by Gregory Hoblit. It is the story of a man who shoots his unfaithful wife, and then engages in a battle of wits with a young assistant district attorney.
A familicide is a type of murder or murder-suicide in which an individual kills multiple close family members in quick succession, most often children, spouses, siblings, or parents. In half the cases, the killer lastly kills themselves in a murder-suicide. If only the parents are killed, the case may also be referred to as a parricide. Where all members of a family are killed, the crime may be referred to as family annihilation.
Lucius David Syms-Greene, known as David Greene, was a British television and film director, and actor.
A Murder of Crows is a 1998 American psychological thriller film directed and written by Rowdy Herrington and starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tom Berenger. It was released in the UK on 12 December 1998, and in the USA on 6 July 1999.
Miss Mend is a 1926 Soviet spy film, originally realised in three parts, directed by and starring Boris Barnet and Fyodor Otsep. It is loosely based on the books by Marietta Shaginyan. The story follows the adventures of three reporters who try to stop a biological attack on the USSR by powerful Western businessmen.
An American Dream is a 1966 American Technicolor drama film directed by Robert Gist and starring Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh. It was adapted from the 1965 Norman Mailer novel of the same name. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Song for "A Time for Love," music by Johnny Mandel and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.
Dear Murderer is a 1947 British film noir crime, drama, thriller, directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures, and starring Eric Portman and Greta Gynt.
Murder of a Cat is a 2014 American comedy thriller film directed by Gillian Greene and starring Fran Kranz, Nikki Reed, J. K. Simmons, Dileep Rao, Blythe Danner, and Greg Kinnear. The film premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, and was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 5, 2014, by Gravitas Ventures.
On 21 September 1986, Ian Wood shot and killed his partner Danielle Ledez and her daughter Stephanie, and severely injured Christopher, Ledez's elder child, at Ughill Hall in Bradfield, Sheffield, United Kingdom. Wood left his .38 Enfield revolver in the kitchen and called the police before fleeing the scene. He went on the run for over a week, making several telephone calls to journalists and family members. Eight days later he threatened to jump off the Amiens Cathedral in France but was talked down by the police after seven hours. He was then extradited back to Sheffield for trial.
Joseph Baldi, known as The Queens Creeper, was an American serial killer who, from 1970 to 1972, stabbed four women and girls to death in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York City. His case, along with those of Charles Yukl and Ricardo Caputo, garnered notoriety due to the fact that Baldi had been erroneously released after he was deemed mentally ill, allowing him to claim more victims. For these crimes, he was found guilty and sentenced to a 25-year-to-life sentence at Sing Sing, which he served until his death in 2009.
A Guilty Conscience is a 2023 Hong Kong mystery crime comedy film co-written and directed by Jack Ng, in his directorial debut. The film follows the trial of a single mother wrongly charged with the murder of her daughter. An attorney vows to clear her name. It stars an ensemble cast including Dayo Wong, Louise Wong and Tse Kwan-ho.
