I, the Jury (1982)

Director:

Richard T. Heffron

Writers:

Larry Cohen (writer)
Mickey Spillane (novel)

Release Date:

22 April 1982 (West Germany)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

He was only a private eye - but he wanted to be the judge and jury as well. [Video]

Plot:

An old friend of a private detective is murdered. The detective, Mike Hammer, will make every effort to find out the killer...

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Private Detective | Mike Hammer | Killer | Chase

Cast

Armand Assante	...	Mike Hammer
Barbara Carrera	...	Dr. Charlotte Bennett
Laurene Landon	...	Velda
Alan King	...	Charles Kalecki
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Joe Butler
Paul Sorvino	...	Detective Pat Chambers
Judson Earney Scott	...	Charles Kendricks (as Judson Scott)
Barry Snider	...	Romero
Julia Barr	...	Norma Childs
Jessica James	...	Hilda Kendricks
Frederic Downs	...	Jack Williams
Mary Margaret Amato	...	Myrna Williams
F.J. O'Neil	...	Goodwin
William G. Schilling	...	Lundee
Robert Sevra	...	Breslin

Runtime:

USA:111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Movielab) | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Finland:K-18 | France:-12 | UK:18 (cut) | USA:R | Norway:16 (video) (cut) | Norway:(Banned) (1982-2003) (cinema release)

Company:

American Cinema Productions

Trivia:

Larry Cohen, the writer of the film, was originally hired to direct this film, but was replaced after a week.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Hammer has coffee with Kalecki on the rooftop, the position of Hammer's coffee cup handle changes between camera angles in the same scene.

Quotes:

Mike Hammer: Why so hot and sweaty?
Girl: I just came back from a five-mile jog!
Mike Hammer: Oh? I thought it was me.

Movie Connections:

References The House Without a Key (1926)

A Jury of One

***WARNING SPOILERS*** Mike Hammer, Armand Assante, taking time off from his grueling and back breaking job as a divorce investigator to find who's responsible for the murder of a Vietnam army buddy of his Jack Williams, Frederic Downs, and bring him or they to justice; Mike Hammer-style.

Jack a private investigator who lost an arm in Vietnam seemed to be on to something when he was murdered. Mike gets a clue from his widow Myrna, Margaret Amato, on what Jack was doing up until the time of his death. Going to a Manhattan sex clinic where Jack was a patient in Hammer finds the clinic manager Dr. Bennett, Barbara Carrera, anything but helpful. It's then that Mike figures that Jack was undercover there as a patient and uncovered something that cost him his life, but what was it?

It later turns out that the sex clinic is a front for a rouge element of the CIA thats working together with the New York Mafia smuggling weapons and at the same time using the patients in the clinic with sever mental problems as programed assassins. Having them go out and murder those who are on to the clinics real purpose and at the same time having those killings written off as simple sex-related crimes by the police. The operation is run by former US Army Special Forces colonel Romero, Barry Snider, who's tactics in Vietnam were even too much for his superiors in the business of breaking down or turning enemy combatants to be cooperative.

Hammer doesn't realize that he's being used by the US government to bring down this operation and at the same time he's on his own doing it. Since those in government don't want it to come out that it's an unofficial CIA/Mafia endeavor since it would lead to the many sponsored covert CIA/Orginized Crime actions over the years. Mike Hammer does his job, even though he doesn't seemed to get paid for it, with brutal and deadly efficiency. Taking everything the rouge CIA/Mob group could dish out and putting them out of business in grand fashion at the conclusion of the film. Hammer does this in a one man shoot-out at their secret headquarters where he finishes off both mob boss Charles Kelecki, Alan King. Mike now has just one loose end to tie up to finally close the case on the death of his friend Jack and he'll do it with a smile a kiss and a gun.

Armand Assante is very good as the brutal, but at the same time added a lot of humor in his role, private eye Mike Hammer. His actions at Dr. Bennetts office and her sex clinic run mansion in suburbia were hilarious and Barbara Carrera was both sexy and deadly as the dragon-like lady Charlotte Bennett. Carrera together with Assante had the most super charged sex scene in the film that made all the orgy sequences in the movie pail in comparison.

Besides both Alan King and Barry Snider being in roles as the mob boss and rouge CIA operation chief Paul Sorvino was in the movie as Mike's friend in the NYPD Det. Chambers. Det. Chamber knew what the US government was planing in having him do their dirty work but was too scared to tell him until Hammer found it out for himself.