Presumed Innocent
Entertainment has always consisted of law related movies. Legal movies are successful because of public interest in different types of legal cases and scenarios. An example of a successful legal movie is Presumed Innocent. The movie Presumed Innocent was produced in 1990. The movie stars Harrison Ford who plays Rusty Sabich, a prosecutor and right hand man of the district attorney Raymond Horgan. Rusty’s colleague Carolyn Polhemus is found dead in her apartment. She was said to be raped and murdered. Raymond puts Rusty in charge of her investigation. It is later exposed that Rusty has a previous affair with Carolyn Polhemus but made up with his wife. Polhemus dumped Rusty. At this time of the investigation, Horgan is undergoing a political campaign in order to keep his job. It turns out that Horgan loses the election to Nico Della Guardia. Along with Della Guardia comes his deputy, Tommy Molto. Della Guardia and Molto prosecute Rusty for Carolyn’s murder because of his former affair with her. Sandy Stern becomes Rusty’s defense lawyer in the murder trial. The investigation by the defense team leads to the idea that Rusty was framed for Carolyn’s murder. The person of interest for the framing is Molto who wanted Rusty’s job (O’Cain). Della Guardia and Molto immediately gather evidence against Rusty. They find a beer glass with Rusty’s fingerprints on it in Polhemus’ apartment. This piece of evidence causes a lot of controversy throughout the trial. It is revealed that the beer glass is missing from the evidence room. Rusty discovers that Polhemus acquired a bribery file (B file) from Horgan. There was a case involving a man named Leon who paid $1,500 to get his case thrown out of court. It turns out that Polhemus was the one who set up the bribe. Rusty and Stern’s defense is that Della Guardia and Molto set up Rusty as part of a cover-up of a bribery case involving Molto. Stern never allows Rusty to testify throughout the trial because it might lead the jury to
Cited: 1. O 'Cain, Derek. "Presumed Innocent (1990) - Plot Summary." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 18 Feb. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100404/plotsummary>