Review of The Verdict (1982) by Anthony S — 07 Apr 2005

[size=3]The Paul Newman Love Fest continues....[/size].

[size=3].... c'mon, men, it's NOT wrong. Admit it. You fell for his sparkling, manure-eating grin in Cool Hand Luke and The Hustler. Admit it, you 'phobes![/size].

[size=3]Well, forget it, then. We'll talk about The Verdict, then. No grins in this one, no sirree. Newman, in another Academy Award nominated performance (man, it gets to me that this guy FINALLY won an award for his reprisal of the Eddie Felsen role in The Color of Money... and a good performance, it was. Yes. But seriously, how would YOU rank his performances in the four above-mentioned films? Mmm-hmm. Thought so.) (back to The Verdict), plays attorney Frank Galvin. He's in his '50's, has a drinking problem, and his career is on the downswing. An understatement, considering that he spends his free time playing pinball and drinking. In the morning. At the beginning of the film (set in Boston), he is seen gaining sly entry into funeral services, where he hands business cards to family members of the deceased. Frank gives his card to a veiled old widow, clasps both hands around hers, and engages her with his own veil of phony servitude. He goes back home, browses the obituaries, circling and crossing paragraphs like they were used car ads.[/size].

[size=3]Galvin has a partner named Mickey Morrisey, who is somewhere between father figure and kindly uncle with an edge. Mickey is played phenomenally by Jack Warden. He's had it with Galvin and his boozing. He's on him... for chrissakes, Frank, I gave you this case eighteen months ago, it's going to court in a couple of weeks, and you haven't even talked to the clients! The case in question involves the sister (along with her husband) of a comatose woman whose anasthesia during surgery was suspected to have been botched. It seems like a cut-and-dry situation, as the authorities who run the hospital are willing to settle in cash out of court. Galvin gets his third, the couple gets their money and takes a vacation....[/size].

[size=3]Instead, Frank Galvin visits the comatose woman in the hospital, and as he snaps Polaroids of her in gearing for his proposal to the hospital bigwigs, he has an awakening of the conscience. He rejects their offer and decides to take the case to court. This is not good. See, Frank as a prosecuting attorney is on a four-trial losing streak over the course of his last two years. Secondly, the church has retained all-star defense attorney Ed Concannon (brilliantly played by James Mason, who garnered an Oscar nomination for his performance) and his 12 or so member staff of assistant attorneys. Third, all doctors and staff, including the two doctors Galvin is gunning to skin, are testifying for the defense. All Frank has is an "expert witness"... he's so expert that he's been paid to show up at 46 trials, 29 of which were malpractice suits. There's another nurse in the scenario, but she's not talking, for some reason. And so it goes.[/size].

[size=3]As Frank embarks on the case, he meets a beautiful woman named Laura (Charlotte Rampling) at one of his drinking haunts. She dances with him figuratively, displaying indifference to his advances, then leaves the bar with kind wishes whispered in his ear. It's not too long before he finally buys her a drink, and they connect from there. Laura becomes more of a mother figure to Frank as his insecurity about the case grows, to the point where she grows angry and tells him, "I will not attach myself to failure anymore, Frank."[/size].

[size=3]The final quarter or third of the film encompasses the courtroom scene. I'll not say anything except for this: look carefully into the court room audience, and you will see a then-fully-coiffed Bruce Willis, who is not listed in the credits. Two years after The Verdict (1982), he would star in the ABC hit series "Moonlighting."[/size].

[size=3]Personal points: as alluded to in the beginning of this write-up, Paul Newman's Frank Galvin is far beyond facially expressing a Lukey/Eddie grin. Galvin is a mess of a person whose morals have fallen into the cellar. He is seen on one morning at the bar sipping his bourbon from the shot glass like a dog from a dish because his hands are shaking too badly. As Galvin focuses on the case at hand, his drinking decreases and his faculties and determination return, yet he never manages to shake the cloud cover of doubt. Mickey tries to console him as the case draws near, saying to him "There'll be other cases", and Frank keeps repeating "this is the case." I really enjoyed the interaction between these two men; it had equal parts of caring and all-business toughness, without feeling contrived in the least.[/size].

[size=3]James Mason, as DA Ed Concannon: He is a bad-ass, though he doesn't raise his voice once throughout the film. His demeanor is quietly superior, slightly stuffy as more an afterthought than a personality pretense, and he pulling the strings beyond all shadow of doubt.[/size].

[size=3]Of all the fine supporting performances, the one that stands out for me is that of James Handy as Kevin Doneghy, who Galvin represents along with his wife Sally. The married couple discovers, from Concannon's office of all places, that Galvin has turned down the hospital's cash offer. Kevin goes ballistic on Frank, saying "You guys... you guys are all the same! The doctors at the hospital, you... it's always what I'M going to do for YOU. And then you screw up, and it's, 'Ah, we did the best that we could, I'm dreadfully sorry.' And people like us live with your mistakes the rest of our lives." He is all-Boston blue-collar and is really pissed off in that scene. [/size].

[size=3]About that particular plot development... a couple of sources state inauthenticity in that a real-life lawyer who pulled a stunt like going against his client's wishes for a settlement would have been disbarred. Not being a lawyer, I couldn't say one way or the other. What I saw was this married couple who had little knowledge of legal matters displaying anger, powerlessness, and grief. I could also see Ed Concannon muttering to his staff, "Galvin... that crazy drunk actually turned down the offer... well, no matter, we'll blast him to smithereens when he shows up in court." So in essence I pose a gripe that I don't even OWN, and say "pshaw". David Mamet wrote the screenplay, and there was not one second of the film that I felt like I was being fed screenwritten lines by an actor. Might have been funny to see Bruce Willis-as-extra diving through the court in mid-air, screaming a slow-motion "nnnooooo....." as the actual verdict was being read, though. But that's just the little Pootie Tang within talking.[/size].