Above Suspicion (1995)

Director:

Steven Schachter

Writers (WGA):

Jerry Lazarus (written by) and
William H. Macy (written by) ...

Release Date:

21 May 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

They thought they could get away with murder. They thought they were... [Above Suspicion]

Plot:

Paralyzed cop takes advantages of the sympathy he attracts to get rid of his wife and her lover

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Courtroom | Sex In Shower | Nudity | Wheelchair

Cast

Christopher Reeve	...	Dempsey Cain
Joe Mantegna	...	Alan Rhinehart
Kim Cattrall	...	Gail Cain
Edward Kerr	...	Nick Cain
Geoffrey Rivas	...	Enrique
Finola Hughes	...	Iris
William H. Macy	...	Pros. Atty. Schultz
Ron Canada	...	Captain
Natalia Nogulich	...	Def. Atty. Wallace
Clark Gregg	...	Randy
Marty Levy	...	Syd
J.J. Johnston	...	Hank
Blake Foster	...	Damon Cain
Frank Medrano	...	Jorge de La Paz
Joanna Miles	...	Laura

Also Known As:

The Rhinehart Theory

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sex scenes, language and violence.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

South Korea:18 | USA:R (Certificate #33925) | Philippines:R-18 | Australia:MA (Cable TV rating) | Australia:R (original rating) | Germany:16 | UK:18 | Iceland:16

Company:

Rysher Entertainment

Trivia:

In this film, Christopher Reeve plays a paralyzed man. Six days after this film's theatrical release, Christopher Reeve broke his neck in a horse-riding accident, leaving him paralyzed for the rest of his life.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When we cut back to the end of the judge's speech about the unexpected prosecution witness, the judge's lips aren't moving.

Movie Connections:

Features My Favorite Brunette (1947)

Soundtrack:

YOU DON'T LOVE ME ANYMORE

After all I've done for you you betrayed me.. And I can't forgive

***SPOILERS*** Being highly successful in everything that he did, from the top of his class in collage a top Jet pilot and law enforcement officer, Dempsey Cain, Christopher Reeve,is the exact opposite of his younger brother Nick, Edward Kerr. Nick also a member of the San Sebastian police department like Dempsey is a total failure when compared to his older brother.

One evening at a police shooting, the cop ended up dead, Dempsey calls Nick on his personal beeper and gets no answer. It turned that Nick was at Dempsey's house having an sexual tryst with his cheating and unfaithful wife Gail, Kim Cattrail. The next day the police. led by Det. Cain, track down the cop killers in a hotel room and just when their about to make the pinch Nick's beeper goes off, alerting the fugitives. The resulting shootout ends with Dempsey getting shot in the spine and ending up crippled from the waist down.

At the inquest following the shooting Dempsey covered up the fact that his brother's incompetence, leaving his beeper on, was responsible for the shootout. Taking the blame himself for it saying that the noisy beeper was his not Nick's Dempsey forgave his brother for his career ending injuries but not for his sleeping with his wife. Dempsey then concocted a devious and sinister plan to make them both pay for what they did to him with their lives.

Checking Nick's phone bill Dempsey found out that he called his answering service from his, Dempsey's, home at 2:30 AM. Dempsey realized that Nick was having an affair with his wife at the time that the young cop was shot and killed and that illicit affair had been going on for some time.

Putting on an act that he was despondent with his life as a paraplegic Dempsey get's both Nick and Gail to go along with a plan where he's killed, by them, in a burglary and having insured himself for $1,000,000.00 with a double indemnity clause, excluding suicide. The two would both get double the amount and that would also take care of his and Gail's son Damnon, Blake Foster,college and financial future. Getting everything ready for the big night, Friday July 15, 1994,when Dempsey is supposed to be killed Nick & Gail get the surprise of their life. They realize, only too late, that's it's them not Dempsey who's to end up on a cold slab at the local morgue with the insurance policy as the air-tight evidence that they had a financial motive to kill him.

The second half of the movie "Above Suspicion" has to do with Dempsey's fellow police detective Alan Rhinehart, Joe Mantegna,who realized that Dempsey was guilty,trying to convince his superior Capt Lindsey, Ron Canada, and the internal affairs department to have him arrested and tried for his bother and wife's deaths.

The movie ends on a very disturbing note with Det. Rhinehart finally getting Dempsey to stand trial for his brothers and wife's murder but the results shocked even him in how brilliant and, for the loss of a better word, evil Dempsey's plan was. No matter what Rhienhart could come up with he found out, the hard way, that he was totally helpless to have a jury convict Dempsey.