Synopsis:
RUNAWAY JURY: Director Gary Fleder (THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD, KISS THE GIRLS) tackles best-selling novelist John Grisham's tale of jury manipulation in RUNAWAY JURY. Jury consultant...
RUNAWAY JURY: Director Gary Fleder (THINGS TO DO IN DENVER WHEN YOU'RE DEAD, KISS THE GIRLS) tackles best-selling novelist John Grisham's tale of jury manipulation in RUNAWAY JURY. Jury consultant Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman) can spin any jury in favor of his client. At least he always could before. But his latest job may turn out to be his most challenging. As an explosive civil case goes to trial in New Orleans, Fitch thinks he has arranged for the perfect jury and has the verdict sealed in favor of his client, a gun manufacturer. Soon, however, he starts receiving phone calls from the mysterious Marlee (Rachel Weisz), who claims that she can turn the jury any way she wants and--for a price--she'll spin it his way. Meanwhile, Marlee is making the same offer to the plaintiff's lawyer, Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), a Southern gentleman who always plays by the rules. Marlee's insider is Juror #9, Nick Easter (John Cusack), who is working with her to influence his fellow jurors. Are these two just grifters in it for the money, or do they have another agenda? The audience is kept guessing until the very end.
STAR CHAMBER: A judge frustrated by the lenient legal system joins a secret group of judges who have set up their own court which operates outside the scope of the law. When "verdicts" are reached on two men who are later discovered to be innocent, serious ethical questions arise in this taut and interesting thriller.
THE BOSTON STRANGLER: Boston, 1962. Several elderly women are strangled, apparently by the same unknown assailant. An investigation ensues, but clues lead nowhere. Then the strangler starts to attack younger women. John Bottomly (Henry Fonda) is assigned to direct a more intense investigation, interviewing even the remotest suspects. Meanwhile, the murders continue. Dianne Cluny (Sally Kellerman) survives an attack but remembers only that she bit her attacker's hand. When Albert DeSalvo (Tony Curtis) is caught breaking into an apartment, his mental capabilities are questioned. He goes to the hospital for observation, and there someone notices a bite mark on his hand...
Director Richard Fleischer forgoes his usual flexible but unobtrusive style in THE BOSTON STRANGLER. Shooting in Cinemascope, he makes flamboyant use of the wide screen--splitting it to show multiple images and multiple action as the police pursue leads and hunt for suspects. As a suspect recounts events in a long interrogation sequence, Fleischer imaginatively shows the suspect and his interrogator in flashbacks. With a fine and uncharacteristic performance by Curtis and vivid appearances by Hurd Hatfield and William Hickey, THE BOSTON STRANGLER is a fine addition to Fleischer's series of movies based on real-life murders, following THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING and COMPULSION.
CLASS ACTION: A father and daughter (Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), both attorneys, are on opposite sides in the courtroom. He's on the prosecuting side representing an auto worker whose health has been damaged by the company for whom he worked, and she's for the defense. As father and daughter they become divided, and as attorneys, endangered by the truth.
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