The Preppie Murder (1989)

This is the story of a young woman who was found dead. Now the police investigate, and evidence points to a man she was seen leaving a party with. Now when questioned, he claims that her ... See full summary »

Director:

John Herzfeld

Writers:

Irv Roud (story), John Herzfeld (teleplay)

Stars:

Danny Aiello, William Baldwin, Joanna Kerns

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Danny Aiello	...	Det. Mike Sheehan
William Baldwin	...	Robert Chambers
Joanna Kerns	...	Linda Fairstein
Lara Flynn Boyle	...	Jennifer Levin
Dorothy Fielding	...	Phyllis Chambers
James Handy	...	Detective Joe Brady Quinn
William Devane	...	Jack Litman
Allan Arbus	...	Arnold Domenitz, Grandfather
Christine Healy	...	Ellen Levin, Mother
Herb Mitchell	...	Robert Chambers Sr.
J.C. Quinn	...	Jack Dorrian
Alan Blumenfeld
Thalmus Rasulala	...	Judge Bell
Alan Rosenberg	...	Dan Levin, Uncle
David Spielberg	...	Steven Levin, Father

Storyline

This is the story of a young woman who was found dead. Now the police investigate, and evidence points to a man she was seen leaving a party with. Now when questioned, he claims that her death was accidental, as a result of rough sex. Now her family doesn't believe this, so they press the district attorney's office to try him for murder, but he has a good lawyer who plays his defense right down to putting the dead girl on trial.

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Plot Keywords:

police | murder | trial | sex | death | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

24 September 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Asesinato en Central Park

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jack Grossbart Productions,Preppie Productions,Spectacor Films

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sandra Bullock and Diedrich Bader later co-starred in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005).

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Goofs

"Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak is featured in several scenes, including discos and Robert playing it in his bedroom, but the song was not released until 1989, 3 years after the murder.

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Connections

Features A Current Affair (1986)

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Soundtracks

Wrap It Up
Written by Isaac Hayes and David Porter
Performed by The Fabulous Thunderbirds

User Reviews

and A Time To Kill, May 2008

Update at June 2008

I came across this feature because it is early Bullock, and have started to wonder what happens when one considers this alongside her maturer work, A Time To Kill of 1996.

First, there is a massive quality difference, Preppie is blatantly low budget.

The acting in A Time is solid and real, to me, but Preppie is maybe misunderstood on that point. Look for very weak acting in Preppie I find that it mostly centres on the victim's family. But a couple of girls show it too, even a Heather. Look closer, whenever any actor here has to show deep grief, and the victim's family is rooted in that, then the feel is weak corn. I should interpret the weak acting as due to the direction that the actors received, it likely does not say that they are bad prostitutes.

Both features had me wanting to switch off. I like nice and easy sort of stories and these are not. I found that A Time started to click, I could follow it and gradually get to like it. Preppie, I switched off and came back to try to do some Heather study and then found it to have some interest further than that.

The centre, for me, is the pictures of justice that are shown. Each story includes several understandings of justice and not much clicks with me as including anything remotely healthy. Are these pictures intentionally scary? If this is a portrayal of how many understand justice then this planet is in big trouble. Time has scarier justice from start to end?

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Looking at how I understood justice, to me the idea of individual accountability was marred by questions about free will, free will not being as widespread as all that.

Specialist education as about a potential to be helped, a gentle nursery, towards a fuller free will.

I now look back and discover that education and health in the UK seem more, for me, about leading me astray, towards less and less free will and a decreasing ability re following society's rules.

A belief in the strong individual, about a need for others to Pass The Test, about a dog eat dog world? These two features exploring bits about that.

The killer in Preppie, to me it is so obvious that he is a victim and a disaster too. It is also obvious that when he is – was released from jail that he will be liable to never be properly free because of what I interpret as popular belief systems that fuel an ongoing war against fools. His is a world where the good and the bad play murder games regularly and he is just one of many products of that.

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Harry Potter and The Worst Witch sequels as other explorations re justice and individual development?

A more positive note. Symbolism. At the start of Preppie it felt possible to view this as a New York fashion show with a feature pasted on as a carrier. Except it is only the hat that the victim wears early on that shines for me. The New Worst Witch series, episode one, from England, has even better hats worn by Millie and Cress. Li-Lo's Get A Clue has no equal.

This links with my comment re Hangmen 1987.