Presumed Innocent (film)

Infobox_Film
name = Presumed Innocent

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caption = Theatrical Release Poster
director = Alan J. Pakula
producer = Sydney Pollack Mark Rosenberg
writer = Scott Turow (novel) Frank Pierson Alan J. Pakula
starring = Harrison Ford
Brian Dennehy
Raul Julia
Bonnie Bedelia
Paul Winfield
Greta Scacchi
music = John Williams Richard Wolf
cinematography = Gordon Willis
editing = Evan A. Lottman
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = July 27, 1990
runtime = 127 min.
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0100404|

"Presumed Innocent" is a 1990 film adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Scott Turow, which tells the story of a prosecutor charged with the murder of his female colleague and mistress.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film stars Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, Raul Julia, Bonnie Bedelia, Paul Winfield and Greta Scacchi.

Plot

Murder

Rozat "Rusty" Sabich (Harrison Ford) is a prosecutor in Kindle County and the right-hand man of Kindle County Prosecuting Attorney Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy). Sabich is married with a young son. He arrives at work one day to learn that his colleague Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi) has been tortured and murdered in her apartment. Horgan insists that Sabich take charge of the investigation, especially since the election for County PA is due in a few days' time and that Tommy Molto (Joe Grifasi), the acting head of Homicide, has left to join the rival campaign of Nico Della Guardia (Tom Mardirosian).

Sabich faces a conflict of interest since he had an affair with Polhemus. She dumped him when he showed little in the way of ambition — such as taking over from Horgan — and would therefore be of little use to her and her own career. Sabich has since made up with his wife, Barbara (Bonnie Bedelia), though he is still obsessed with Polhemus and finds it hard to get her out of his mind.

Although Detective Harold Greer (Tucker Smallwood) is initially in charge of the case, Sabich instead calls in his friend Detective Lipranzer (John Spencer) and persuades him to narrow the enquiry in order that details of him and Polhemus are left out. Sabich soon realises that Molto is making enquiries into the case himself.

Aspects of the crime suggest that the killer knew something of the way police gather evidence and covered it up accordingly — suggesting a cop or a private detective or even a PA. Semen has been found in the victim's body but contains no sperm. The killer's blood type was A, which is the same as Sabich's, but he is a father.

A Prosecutor is Prosecuted

When Della Guardia wins the election for County PA, he and Molto are quick to accuse Sabich himself of the crime and pull out all the stops to get evidence against him, including the way he conducted the investigation. They have a beer glass from Polhemus' apartment with Sabich's fingerprints on it, and fibres from his carpet at home match ones found on the body.

Things aren't helped by the fact that Horgan suddenly turns against his friend and former protégé and claims that Sabich insisted on handling the investigation — when in fact he didn't — thus confirming the prosecution's claim of a cover-up.

Sabich calls on Sandy Stern (Raul Julia), a top defence attorney with whom he has often clashed in court. Stern acknowledges Sabich as his "toughest adversary" but agrees to take the case. When it comes to trial, however, it is revealed that the beer glass has gone missing. This was a crucial piece of the prosecution's case and Stern persuades Judge Larren Lyttle (Paul Winfield) to keep this from the jury.

In the course of his investigation, Sabich discovered that Polhemus had acquired a B-file from Horgan which dealt with a bribery case involving law-enforcement officials. It concerned a man called Leon (Leland Gantt) who paid a bribe to get his case of public indecency thrown out of court. His probation officer, who set the whole thing up, was Carolyn Polhemus (prior to her joining the PA's office) and the deputy prosecutor in charge of the case was Tommy Molto.

The main thrust of Stern's defence is that Molto and Della Guardia have set Sabich up due to their personal loathing for him or, Stern hints, as part of a cover-up of the bribery case since it involves Molto. But then Lipranzer tracks Leon down and he reveals that the official who took the bribe was in fact Larren Lyttle, the very judge handling Sabich's trial !

During the cross-examination of the coroner (Sab Shimono), it is revealed that Polhemus had undergone a tubal ligation. This would make it impossible for a woman to become pregnant, so logically she would have no reason to use a spermicidal contraceptive which was found on her. Stern asserts that the only explanation for this discrepancy is that the incriminating fluid sample was not actually taken from Polhemus' body.

Based on the disappearance of the beer glass, the lack of motive (since the prosecutor was unable to present proof of the affair), and the fact that the fluid sample was rendered meaningless, there is little direct evidence to tie Sabich to the murder. In a fair ruling, Lyttle dismisses the charges and Sabich is let off.

Confessions

Pressed by Sabich, Stern later admits, in private, that both he and Horgan knew that Lyttle was taking bribes and that Polhemus was his courier. Lyttle was going through a bad period due to his recent divorce. He offered his resignation but Horgan believed that he was in fact a brilliant judge and should be given another chance. Stern appears to have kept the bribery issue hanging over Lyttle's head during the trial. On the other hand, it has to be said that Lyttle handled the case in a rightful manner.

Lipranzer later reveals to Sabich that he has the beer glass, which he never returned to the evidence room due to bureaucratic mishandling on Molto's part: i.e. Molto signed it as "returned to evidence" when in fact it was still at the lab and, when it was returned to Lipranzer, he had already been taken off the case. Since nobody asked for it back he simply kept it in the drawer of his desk. As far as the cop is concerned: "The lady was bad news." The beer glass is destroyed.

Sabich is in the clear, though he does not appear to be too pleased about the ways by which this was achieved, especially since it would seem that Stern and Lipranzer (though they do not actually say so) believe him to have killed Polhemus.

Some time later, while doing some work in his garden, Sabich comes across a small hatchet with blood and hair fibres on it and realises that they are Polhemus'. He then confronts his wife. Somewhat demented, referring to herself in the third person, Barbara confesses that, following his affair, she fell into a state of depression and even considered suicide, before deciding that it would be better to destroy the destroyer, i.e. Polhemus. She did so by buying beer glasses similar to some given to Polhemus as a house-warming gift. She got Sabich's fingerprints on them and, after killing Polhemus, set up other evidence in order to make it look like a man attacked and raped her. She claims that she did not actually intend to frame her husband; she assumed that he would soon realize it was her and would file it under unsolved cases.

Sabich cannot bring himself to separate his son from his mother and proceeds with a cover-up.

Cast

Harrison Ford ... Rozat "Rusty" Sabich
Brian Dennehy ... Raymond Horgan
Raul Julia ... Sandy Stern
Bonnie Bedelia ... Barbara Sabich
Paul Winfield ... Judge Larren Lyttle
Greta Scacchi ... Carolyn Polhemus
John Spencer ... Det. Lipranzer
Joe Grifasi ... Tommy Molto
Tom Mardirosian ... Nico Della Guardia
Sab Shimono ... 'Painless' Kumagai
Bradley Whitford ... Jamie Kemp
Christine Estabrook ... Lydia 'Mac' MacDougall
Michael Tolan ... Mr. Polhemus
Madison Arnold ... Sgt. Lionel Kenneally
Ron Frazier ... Stew Dubinsky
Jesse Bradford ... Nat Sabich
Joseph Mazzello ... Wendell McGaffney
Tucker Smallwood ... Det. Harold Greer
Leland Gantt ... Leon Wells

Location Of Events

While the city where the film takes place is never mentioned, it was filmed in Detroit. In the scene after Raymond hands Rusty the B-file, it cuts to a scene where the first camera shot is of the B-file itself. Look at the top of the file's page and it says "Michigan". According to commentary on the DVD, 11 Midwestern cities were scouted for filming and Detroit was chosen to be unfamiliar and representative to most Americans.

Also, there is a skyline view of the city very early in the film. There is a tall, cylinder-like building in the distance which appears to be the General Motors Building located in Detroit.

The place where Rusty boards and unboards the ferry is located in Reaume Park in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit.

Reception

On the film review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, "Presumed Innocent" received a 91% approval rating, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. [cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/presumed_innocent/|title=Presumed Innocent|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes|accessdate=2008-09-30]

Trivia

John Spencer and Bradley Whitford later worked together on Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing" TV series