Her Alibi (1989)

A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thinking her innocent, but as she shows ... See full summary »

Director:

Bruce Beresford

Writer:

Charlie Peters

Stars:

Tom Selleck, Paulina Porizkova, William Daniels

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Selleck	...	Phil Blackwood
Paulina Porizkova	...	Nina Lonescu
William Daniels	...	Sam
James Farentino	...	Frank Polito
Hurd Hatfield	...	Troppa
Ronald Guttman	...	'Lucy' Comanescu
Victor Argo	...	Avram
Patrick Wayne	...	Gary Blackwood
Tess Harper	...	Sally Blackwood
Bill Smitrovich	...	Farrell
Bobo Lewis	...	Rose
Jane Welch	...	Millie
Austin Hay	...	Oliver
W. Benson Terry	...	FX
Joan Copeland	...	Audrey

Storyline

A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thinking her innocent, but as she shows more and more interesting abilities (such as knife throwing) he begins to doubt his first assessment. He is still falling for her, but more and more nervous as time passes, and there are more close calls with death on his part.

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Plot Keywords:

detective | writer's block | romanian | hairy chest | bare chested male | 

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Taglines:

A Romantic Comedy

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Mystery | Romance

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Romanian Spanish

Release Date:

3 February 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mi testigo preferido

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$18,699,037

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The name of the annual clown meeting which was in the memory of the greatest clown of all was "The Funeral of Grimaldi". Several scenes in this movie take place at this event towards the end of the film. Grimaldi refers to real-life clown Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837), who is the most celebrated English clown in history, and just like in the movie, there really is a "Funeral of Grimaldi" held every year on the first Sunday in February, at the All Saints' Church in London. His actual birth and death dates were also reproduced on poster artwork seen in the film, these being Born: 18th December 1778 and Died: 31st May 1837.

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Goofs

As Phil picks up Beeswax the cat and moves through the kitchen, you can briefly see a hand-held boom-mic being quickly lowered to Phil's left as he goes past the oven. The mic is in the slot between the oven and the adjoining cabinet.

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Quotes

Phil Blackwood: [to Phil's shock and amazement, Nina has just thrown a kitchen knife across the room, impaling a large bug on the wall] Jesus!
Nina: [Shrugging indifferently] Umm... I do not like bugs.
Phil Blackwood: Well, neither do I, but I usually scream at them and... hit 'em with a rolled up copy of "Sports Illustrated."

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Connections

Referenced in Parker Lewis Can't Lose: Rent-A-Kube (1990)

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Soundtracks

TUTTI FRUTTI
Written by Little Richard (as Richard Penniman), Dorothy La Bostrie and Joe Lubin
Performed by Little Richard
Courtesy of Dominion Entertainment, Inc.

User Reviews

Selleck's humour

It's true that this film is rather undeep and not particularly demanding. But still, in my opinion, it's charmy. From this point of view, the film is stylistically correct because the books Philip Blackwood writes are also romantic thrillers with exaggerated characters and no attempt to be serious or even world class. We're in the world of trash. Of course, the movie can be understood as kind of a parody on the book that's being written during the film. But on the other hand, it corresponds to it.

Tom Selleck's humour or maybe only the humour around his role keeps the movie alive. Like in „Folks!`, he is the poor guy, damned to passiveness, who desperately tries to cope with what is happening to him. But here the humour doesn't arise only from his mishaps but also from the way he falsifies them when transferring them into his novel. Paulina Porizkova is not a convincing actress but in this movie this doesn't matter because her inflexible face makes her character unfathomable, unpredictable, unlike Philip Blackwood's stories.

If you want to see a trashy little comedy about trashy little thrillers, this is the right one for you!