Crazy in Alabama is a 1999 comedy-drama

Comedy-drama

Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 film directed by Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas

José Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...

, written by Mark Childress

Mark Childress

Mark Childress is an American novelist and southern writer.He has written the novels A World Made of Fire, V for Victor, Tender, Crazy in Alabama, Gone for Good, One Mississippi, and Georgia Bottoms.-Life:Childress grew up in Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, and Louisiana.He graduated from The...

 (based on his own 1993 novel of the same name), and starring Melanie Griffith

Melanie Griffith

Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...

 as an abused wife who heads to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 to become a movie star while her nephew back in Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 has to deal with a racially-motivated murder involving a corrupt sheriff.

Plot summary

In 1965, Peter Joseph Bullis (also known as Peejoe) lives in a small town in Alabama, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. He becomes involved with a group of black students protesting the town's racially segregated municipal swimming pool, leading to a protest that explodes into deadly violence. The young black boy, Taylor Jackson, is killed by the town sheriff; and Peejoe, the only witness, is pressured by the sheriff to keep it quiet. But Peejoe has gotten a crash course in standing your ground and following your path from his free-spirited Aunt Lucille Vinson, who has killed her abusive husband and is headed for Hollywood, where she is convinced that television stardom awaits her.

Lucille takes her husband's head everywhere she goes in a black hat box (in the film; lettuce crisper in the book), and looks forward to the future Hollywood promises. When the head is discovered by the hostess of a party, Lucille tries to get rid of the head by throwing it off the Golden Gate Bridge. Two policemen, thinking she is about to jump over herself, open the hat box and discover the head inside. She is arrested and escorted back to Alabama for her trial, where she is given a warm welcome by her town. After being convicted of first-degree murder, Lucille is sentenced to twenty years in prison.

However, the sentence is suspended, and she is put on a five-year probation with the condition that she seeks psychiatric help. Lucille, her children, and all her friends joyfully exit the courtroom while the sheriff (through Peejoe's testimony) is put under arrest for Taylor's murder.

Cast

Actor	Role
Melanie Griffith Melanie Griffith Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...	Lucille Vinson
David Morse David Morse (actor) David Bowditch Morse is an American stage, television, and film actor. He first came to national attention as Dr. Jack Morrison in the medical drama St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988...	Dove Bullis
Lucas Black Lucas Black Lucas York Black is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the CBS television series American Gothic as well as roles in films such as Sling Blade, Jarhead, Friday Night Lights, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Legion, Get Low, and All the Pretty Horses.-Personal...	Peter Joseph Bullis
Cathy Moriarty Cathy Moriarty -Career:Her first film credit was Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull in 1980, as Vikki LaMotta, the wife of Robert De Niro's lead character. Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also appeared opposite Andrew Dice Clay in the short-lived CBS...	Earlene Bullis
Meat Loaf Meat Loaf Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...	Sheriff John Doggett
Rod Steiger Rod Steiger Rodney Stephen "Rod" Steiger was an Academy Award-winning American actor known for his performances in such films as On the Waterfront, The Big Knife, Oklahoma!, The Harder They Fall, Across the Bridge, The Pawnbroker, Doctor Zhivago, In the Heat of the Night, and Waterloo as well as the...	Judge Louis Mead
Richard Schiff Richard Schiff Richard Schiff is an American actor. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on the NBC television drama The West Wing, a role for which he received an Emmy Award...	Norman
John Beasley John Beasley (actor) John Beasley is an American actor known for his role as Irv Harper on the TV series Everwood and recurring roles on CSI, Millennium and The Pretender. He also portrayed General Lasseter in The Sum of All Fears and Rev. C. Charles Blackwell in The Apostle. In 1992 he played Jesse Hall's dad in the...	Nehemiah Jackson
Robert Wagner Robert Wagner Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...	Harry Hall
Noah Emmerich Noah Emmerich Noah Nicholas Emmerich is an American film actor who first broke out in the film Beautiful Girls. He was later seen in movies like The Truman Show, Cop Land, Frequency, Love & Sex, Windtalkers, Miracle, Super 8 and Little Children.-Early life:Emmerich was born in New York City to a Jewish family,...	Sheriff Raymond
Paul Ben-Victor Paul Ben-Victor Paul Ben-Victor is an American actor.Ben-Victor was born Paul Friedman, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Leah Kornfeld, a playwright, and Victor Friedman. Ben-Victor debuted on the small screen in 1987 in the made-for-TV movie Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife and on an episode of Cagney &...	D.A. Mackie
Brad Beyer Brad Beyer Bradford G. Beyer, Jr. is an American actor.A native of Waukesha, Wisconsin and a graduate of Catholic Memorial High School, Beyer briefly attended the University of Minnesota before moving to New York to pursue an acting career, on the advice of a professor.Beyer's roles include guest appearances...	Jack
Fannie Flagg Fannie Flagg Patricia Neal , known professionally as Fannie Flagg, is an American actress, comedienne and author. She is perhaps best-known for the 1988 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which was adapted into the 1991 movie Fried Green Tomatoes; Flagg was nominated for an Academy Award for...	Sally
Elizabeth Perkins Elizabeth Perkins Elizabeth Ann Perkins is an American actress. Her film roles have included Big, The Flintstones, Miracle on 34th Street, About Last Night..., and Avalon...	Joan Blake
Linda Hart Linda Hart Linda Hart is an American singer, musician, and actress, mainly appearing in musical theatre.- Biography :As a child, Hart sang in her church choir; at age seven, she joined her father and the rest of the family in The Harts, a weekly gospel television series. Hart attended Los Angeles City...	Madelyn
Paul Mazursky Paul Mazursky Paul Mazursky is an American film director, screenwriter and actor.-Personal life:He was born Irwin Mazursky in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jean , a piano player for dance classes, and David Mazursky, a laborer. Mazursky was born to a Jewish family; his grandfather was an immigrant from...	Walter Schwegmann
Holmes Osborne Holmes Osborne Holmes Osborne is an American actor, best known for starring in Richard Kelly's films - Donnie Darko , Southland Tales and The Box . He's also played the father of Guy Patterson in the movie That Thing You Do!, and starred in the movie Bring it On. He has made appearances in TV shows such as...	Attorney Larry Russell