Trial by Jury (film)
Encyclopedia
Trial by Jury is a 1994 American thriller film directed by Heywood Gould
and starring Joanne Whalley
, Gabriel Byrne
and Armand Assante
.
) is about to stand trial again and Daniel Graham (Gabriel Byrne
) of the district attorney's office is determined this time to put him behind bars.
Pirone sends one of his henchmen, a burned-out ex-cop named Tommy Vesey (William Hurt
), to threaten Valerie Alston (Joanne Whalley
), a juror. Unless she cooperates by finding Pirone innocent and deadlocking the jury, Vesey intends to do harm to Valerie's young son.
Eleven jurors vote guilty. Valerie incurs the wrath of the others, who feel Pirone's guilt is obvious. One by one, though, she begins to persuade others to vote her way.
Pirone goes free. Graham is furious and, when he discovers Valerie's role in the verdict, he begins to pressure her. Valerie is adamant that she has done nothing wrong and feels that she has protected her son, but Pirone won't leave it at that. He forces himself sexually on her and continues to make veiled threats against her life.
Vesey's conscience gets the better of him and he intervenes in an attempt by Pirone's jealous woman, Wanda, to have Valerie killed. Vesey dies in the act of saving Valerie's life.
With nowhere else to turn, Valerie decides to seduce Pirone at his home, then kill him herself.
Heywood Gould
Heywood Gould is an American screenwriter, journalist, novelist and film director. He has penned screenplays for such films as Rolling Thunder, The Boys from Brazil, Fort Apache the Bronx, Streets of Gold, Cocktail and directed such films as One Good Cop, Trial by Jury, Mistrial and Double...
and starring Joanne Whalley
Joanne Whalley
-Early life:Whalley was born in Salford but brought up in Stockport where she studied at the Braeside School of Speech and Drama, Marple.Whalley first appeared as a child in How We Used To Live and bit parts in soap operas, especially Coronation Street and Emmerdale...
, Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...
and Armand Assante
Armand Assante
-Personal life:Assante was born in New York City and raised in Cornwall, New York, the son of Katherine , a music teacher and poet, and Armand Anthony Assante, Sr., a painter and artist. His father was Italian and his mother was Irish, and was raised in a devoutly Roman Catholic family...
.
Tagline
For one juror, the question of guilt or innocence is a matter of life or death... her own.Plot
Crime boss Rusty Pirone (Armand AssanteArmand Assante
-Personal life:Assante was born in New York City and raised in Cornwall, New York, the son of Katherine , a music teacher and poet, and Armand Anthony Assante, Sr., a painter and artist. His father was Italian and his mother was Irish, and was raised in a devoutly Roman Catholic family...
) is about to stand trial again and Daniel Graham (Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...
) of the district attorney's office is determined this time to put him behind bars.
Pirone sends one of his henchmen, a burned-out ex-cop named Tommy Vesey (William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
), to threaten Valerie Alston (Joanne Whalley
Joanne Whalley
-Early life:Whalley was born in Salford but brought up in Stockport where she studied at the Braeside School of Speech and Drama, Marple.Whalley first appeared as a child in How We Used To Live and bit parts in soap operas, especially Coronation Street and Emmerdale...
), a juror. Unless she cooperates by finding Pirone innocent and deadlocking the jury, Vesey intends to do harm to Valerie's young son.
Eleven jurors vote guilty. Valerie incurs the wrath of the others, who feel Pirone's guilt is obvious. One by one, though, she begins to persuade others to vote her way.
Pirone goes free. Graham is furious and, when he discovers Valerie's role in the verdict, he begins to pressure her. Valerie is adamant that she has done nothing wrong and feels that she has protected her son, but Pirone won't leave it at that. He forces himself sexually on her and continues to make veiled threats against her life.
Vesey's conscience gets the better of him and he intervenes in an attempt by Pirone's jealous woman, Wanda, to have Valerie killed. Vesey dies in the act of saving Valerie's life.
With nowhere else to turn, Valerie decides to seduce Pirone at his home, then kill him herself.
Cast
- Joanne WhalleyJoanne Whalley-Early life:Whalley was born in Salford but brought up in Stockport where she studied at the Braeside School of Speech and Drama, Marple.Whalley first appeared as a child in How We Used To Live and bit parts in soap operas, especially Coronation Street and Emmerdale...
as Valerie Alston - Armand AssanteArmand Assante-Personal life:Assante was born in New York City and raised in Cornwall, New York, the son of Katherine , a music teacher and poet, and Armand Anthony Assante, Sr., a painter and artist. His father was Italian and his mother was Irish, and was raised in a devoutly Roman Catholic family...
as Rusty Pirone - Gabriel ByrneGabriel ByrneGabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...
as Daniel Graham - William HurtWilliam HurtWilliam McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
as Tommy Vesey - Kathleen QuinlanKathleen QuinlanKathleen Denise Quinlan is an Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated American actress, mostly seen on television and in motion pictures.-Personal life:...
as Wanda - Margaret WhittonMargaret WhittonMargaret Whitton is an American stage, film, and television actress, originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Whitton did her primary film work between 1986 and 1993. Her most visible roles were that of baseball team owner Rachel Phelps in Major League and its sequel Major League II, and as...
as Jane Lyle, Juror - Ed LauterEd LauterEdward Lauter is an American actor. He has appeared in numerous movies and was a stand up comic before getting into acting.Lauter was born in Long Beach, Long Island, New York...
as John Boyle - Richard PortnowRichard PortnowRichard Portnow is an American actor known for such films and television shows as Barton Fink, Se7en, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, The Spirit, Law Abiding Citizen, Private Parts, Fallen Arches, Double Down, Spring Break '83, The Sopranos, Hannah Montana and Boston Legal.-Life and career:A...
as Leo Greco - Lisa Arrindell Anderson as Eleanor Lyons
- Jack Gwaltney as Teddy Parnell
- Graham JarvisGraham JarvisGraham Jarvis was a Canadian character actor in US films and TV from the 1960s.Born in Toronto, Jarvis attended Williams College before moving to New York to pursue a career in theater...
as Mr. Duffy, Foreman - William R. MosesWilliam R. MosesWilliam Remington Moses is an American actor.-Early life:Moses was born in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of the late actress Marian McCargo and advertising executive Richard Cantrell Moses, Sr. who divorced in 1963. Marian remarried in 1970 to the late former Republican Congressman...
as Paul Baker, Juror - Joe SantosJoe SantosJoe Santos is an American film and television actor.-Biography:Santos was born Joseph Minieri in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Rose and Joseph Minieri. He began his film acting career in the mid-1960s, appearing in films directed by his cousin, Joseph W...
as Johnny Verona - Beau StarrBeau StarrBeau Starr is an American actor who has starred in movies and on television. He is known for his film role as Sheriff Ben Meeker in the 1988 hit horror movie Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers; he reprised his role in the 1989 sequel Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.Starr was born...
as Phillie - Bryan Shilowich as Robbie, Valerie's Son
- Stuart WhitmanStuart WhitmanStuart Maxwell Whitman is an American actor.Stuart Whitman is arguably best-known for playing Marshal Jim Crown in the western television series Cimarron Strip in 1967...
as Emmett, Valerie's Father - Kevin Ramsey as Edmund
- Fiona Gallagher as Camille, Juror
- Kay HawtreyKay HawtreyKay Hawtrey is a Canadian actress. She was born in Toronto.Full name Katharine Mary Craven Hawtrey, she is part of the Canadian branch of this very old English family, the Anglicized name having been derived from D'awtrey...
as Clara, Juror - Ardon BessArdon BessArdon Bess is a Canadian actor best known for appearing in a Heritage Moment television commercial about the 1958 Springhill mining disaster portraying survivor Maurice Ruddick...
as Albert, Juror - Karina ArroyaveKarina ArroyaveKarina Arroyave is a Colombian television and film actress, likely best known as Jamey Farrell in 24.She has appeared in a total of 3 "dedicated teacher" films where the teacher tries to get the inner city students to want to learn...
as Mercedes, Juror - Andrew SabistonAndrew SabistonAndrew Sabiston is a Canadian actor, theatre and television writer and lyricist. He went to St. Michaels University School in Victoria, British Columbia, graduating in 1982, the same year as classmate Leslie Hope. Both had been cast in their final year in the Paul Almond movie, Ups & Downs, which...
as Elliot, Juror - Paul SolesPaul SolesPaul Robert Soles is a Canadian actor and television personality.-Acting roles:He is best known as the voice of Hermie the misfit elf in Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1964....
as Mr. Kriegsberg, Juror - Jovanni Sy as Louis, Juror
- Damon D'Oliveira as Rafael, Juror
- Andrew MillerAndrew Miller (actor)Andrew Miller is a Canadian actor, writer, and director.- Career :Miller began his career as an actor at age 16 in Toronto, Canada. Early theater roles include Moritz Stiefel in Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening and Eugene Morris Jerome in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs...
as Krasny - Richard FitzpatrickRichard FitzPatrickGeneral Richard FitzPatrick , styled The Honourable from birth, was an Anglo-Irish soldier, wit, poet, Whig politician and ‘sworn brother’ of the illustrious statesman of Charles James Fox...
as Balsam - Robert BreulerRobert BreulerRobert Breuler is an American stage actor, primarily known as a longtime ensemble member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, in Chicago, Illinois, where he won a Joseph Jefferson Award for his role as a Russian negotiator in A Walk in the Woods....
as Judge Feld - Ron HaleRon HaleRon Hale is an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Roger Coleridge on the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope for its entire run...
as Bailiff - Gordon Welke as Hanson the Prisoner in shocking washroom scene with Joe Santos character Johnny Verona