Guilty Conscience (film)

"Guilty Conscience" is a 1985 American TV movie, airing on CBS, directed by David Greene, starring Anthony Hopkins as criminal defense attorney Arthur Jamison. The film is a drama, but also a mystery, with as many twists and turns as Arthur's own conniving mind.

Plot

Arthur's marital difficulties with his wife Louise, played by Blythe Danner, are starting to suggest a divorce, which could require that Arthur pay large sums in alimony. His own imagination works overtime for the duration of the film, as he arranges and rearranges scheme after scheme, to kill Louise. Being a defense attorney, he is familiar with both the courts and the minds of criminals. Deep in his own imagination, he bounces ideas off of himself (a double played by Donegan Smith), as he plays each murder, or the subsequent trial, the full way through in his mind, searching for leaks, loopholes, and the elusive watertight alibi.

Eventually his mistress Jackie Willis (Swoosie Kurtz) puts two and two together, and out of worry she confronts Louise in secret. They realize the gravity of the situation and immediately they put together their own scheme, to do away with him, and make it look like suicide. Arthur, now at gunpoint, takes control of the situation, pointing out the flaws in their plan, poking holes with his expertise in what they thought was a foolproof scheme. It turns out that he had been cheating on even his mistress, and while his wife was trying to murder him, he was being missed for a date, so suicide was out of the question.

Arthur was recording the whole situation to cassette. In exchange for her share in alimony, he will not bring the matter to court with the cassette as evidence. He escapes unscathed.

Louise is hysterical, her plan was supposed to work! She chases him with the gun, a brief struggle ensues, and she is shot dead. This is what Arthur wanted, sort of, but it was an accident. However, all evidence points to him now. The cassette was only a bluff, there really is no evidence on his side. He shot his wife; if his mistress, the only witness, testified that it was only an accident, what jury would possibly believe it? Case closed. There is no hope for Arthur now.

Then he stops imagining things, and Louise arrives home and shoots him dead and soon phones his mistress Willis to inform her that the deed is done.

External links

*imdb title|id=0089239|title=Guilty Conscience