V.I. Warshawski (1991)

Director:

Jeff Kanew

Writers (WGA):

Sara Paretsky ('V.I. Warshawski' novels)
Edward Taylor (screen story)

Release Date:

26 July 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

V.I. Warshawski: A private detective with a name as tough as she is.

Plot:

A female PI babysitting for a boyfriend gets stuck with his daughter and the case of her murdered father.

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Murder | Personal Computer | Blood | Egg

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Kathleen Turner	...	Victoria 'V.I.' Warshawski
Jay O. Sanders	...	Murray Ryerson
Charles Durning	...	Det. Lt. Bobby Mallory
Angela Goethals	...	Kat Grafalk, Bernard's Daughter
Nancy Paul	...	Paige Wilson Grafalk
Frederick Coffin	...	Horton Grafalk
Charles McCaughan	...	Trumble Grafalk
Stephen Meadows	...	Bernard 'Boom-Boom' Grafalk
Wayne Knight	...	Earl 'Bonehead' Smeissen
Lynnie Godfrey	...	Sal, Golden Glow Bartender
Anne Pitoniak	...	Dr. Lotty Herschel
Stephen Root	...	Mickey
Robert Clotworthy	...	Philip Pugh, Attorney
Tom Allard	...	Big Eddie, Earl's Thug
Mike Hagerty	...	Babe (as Michael G. Hagerty)

Also Known As:

V.I. Warshawski, Detective in High Heels (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Netherlands:12 | Finland:K-14 | Germany:12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Australia:M | New Zealand:R | Canada:14A (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Hollywood Pictures

Trivia:

Kathleen Turner went on to play V.I. Warshawski on BBC radio.

Quotes:

Victoria "V.I." Warshawski: When in doubt, hesitate!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Drew Barrymore/Kelis (#29.12)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

Sittin' On Top Of The World

This movie was much better than the critics thought

Viewed this movie on 11/20/04, and it was so entertaining that it kept me up until two in the morning. My wife, who has markedly different tastes than I do, liked it enough to stay up with me. Imagine my surprise when I went to Maltin to look up a character, and found it classed as a BOMB. He panned it as wretchedly scripted, directed and photographed. To the contrary, I found the script to be easily followed, something that is getting more and more rare in this age of obscure scripts. If it was poorly directed, the actors are geniuses, becaust the scenes hung together well, were understandable and seemed completely natural, even though the story line was a bit picaresque. The photography was certainly adequate to tell the story without intruding on it.

Maltin and I may have seen different movies, because his plot summary spoke of a murdered hockey player, and without betraying too much of the plot, there were plenty of murders but no hockey player in the movie I saw. The plot in the movie I saw was delightfully complex, with a number of twists and turns that would have done O'Henry proud. All in all, it was two hours well spent.