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Picture of a movie: 13 Days
Picture of a movie: Three Days of the Condor

2 Movies

Suspense

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Picture of a movie: Harper
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Harper

1966
Lew Harper is a Los Angeles based private investigator whose marriage to Susan Harper, who he still loves, is ending in imminent divorce since she can't stand being second fiddle to his work, which is always taking him away at the most inopportune of times. His latest client is tough talking and physically disabled Elaine Sampson, who wants him to find her wealthy husband, Ralph Sampson, missing now for twenty-four hours, ever since he disappeared at Van Nuys Airport after having just arrived from Vegas. No one seems to like Ralph, Elaine included. She believes he is cavorting with another woman. Harper got the case on the recommendation of the Sampsons' lawyer and Harper's personal friend, milquetoast Albert Graves, who is unrequitedly in love with Sampson's seductive daughter, Miranda Sampson. Miranda, whom Harper later states throws herself at anything "pretty in pants", also has a decidedly cold relationship with her stepmother, Elaine. As Harper begins his investigation, he is often joined by one or two new sidekicks, Miranda, and/or Allan Taggert, Ralph Sampson's private pilot who was the last person to see him before his disappearance. Living on the Sampson estate, Taggert is also Miranda's casual boyfriend, although his heart lies elsewhere. (Harper nicknames Taggert "Beauty" for the latter's preppy good looks.) It is finally confirmed that Sampson has been kidnapped after a ransom note is received. As Harper follows leads, he ends up in the underbelly of Los Angeles, which includes encounters with Betty Fraley (a junkie lounge singer), Fay Estabrook (an ex-movie ingénue now an overweight alcoholic), and Claude (a religious cult leader). At each of Harper's stops, people seem to want to beat him up and/or kill him. The case takes a turn after they decide to pay the $500,000 ransom to see where it leads.
Picture of a movie: Presumed Innocent
movies

Presumed Innocent

1990
Rozat Sabich - Rusty to most that know him, even in formal circumstances - is the Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Kindle County, Illinois. His wife, Barbara Sabich, has been struggling with focus on completing her Ph.D. dissertation in Mathemetics - a thus far ten year process - she who nonetheless is applying for a college teaching position. They are generally in a loving, supportive marriage, Barbara who seems to have gotten over Rusty's infidelity with his colleague Carolyn Polhemus, an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney. Carolyn is ambitious, she who, in part, used Rusty to try and climb up the ladder. Barbara will still throw the issue of Carolyn in his face whenever there are problems between the two. Rusty and Carolyn's affair is unknown to others in their personal and professional circles. Rusty is handed the most personal case of his career when his boss and mentor, Chief Prosecuting Attorney Raymond Horgan, assigns him the case to discover who killed Carolyn, her dead body found in her apartment in what looks initially to be a violent rape, with Carolyn eventually strangled and no sign of forced entry, leading to the belief her killer was whoever her lover or possibly someone she prosecuted. Raymond, who is in a difficult reelection campaign, wants a quick resolution to the investigation, as "finding the killer" will greatly increase his chances of getting reelected. Rusty tries to dissuade Raymond from giving him the case because of the affair of which Raymond is unaware, with Rusty eventually having no choice but to accept barring disclosure of the affair. As Rusty proceeds with the investigation, he takes steps to hide the affair largely to protect Barbara and their adolescent son, Nat Sabich. Those measures come back to bite him when they and other evidence collected by the police lead to him being charged for Carolyn's murder. Rusty hires Sandy Stern, one of his toughest adversaries in a number of previous cases. During the court proceedings, many involved do whatever they can protect their own interest regardless of the truth. Beyond Rusty being convicted or acquitted, a question thus becomes if the truth matters or if the murderer will ever be discovered.