Ooh, and some great breasts.
Which reminds me how smokin’ hot Marissa Tomei was in the movie.
I haven’t seen it used for Crim Pro, but I’ve seen the cross-examination portions used for Evidence classes at two different law schools.
I’d love to know if this movie was used in classes at Harvard or Yale law schools. The idea of such a popular, commercial movie being shown in such a prestigious setting really amuses me. I’m trying but failing to imagine Prof Kingsfield showing the movie (and yes, I remember that he taught contracts). On the other hand, somehow, I could see Alan Dershowitz using it in class.
Having commented on many REALLY REALLY bad southern accents in movies- and a few good ones (more often than not done by British or non-American actors), I have to give a shout out to the late great Fred Gwynne’s voice in this movie. He sounded “I-DENTICAL!” to many old Alabama patricians in politics, courtrooms, and other walks of life- that was perfect. The first time I saw it was almost eerie because of how much he sounded like my father in a couple of scenes (particularly the in-chambers scenes).
One of the great things about this movie was how the simplest lines could be funny. The judge telling Vinny “You’ a dead man”- no reason that should be funny, but it cracks me up (especially when it’s followed by the confuse-a-judge Gambini/Callo/Gallo ruse).
Something I wondered would be this (and it’s more of a GQ than a movie comment):
Obviously Vinny himself knew that the tracks were made by a 63 Cutlass (since that’s what he asks the sheriff to do a search for). If this were real life, and if there were no Mona Lisa he could bring to the stand to bring this out, is there any way he would be able to enter his own automotive knowledge into the record without bringing in an expert for the defense? (The best way I can think of it is that he could have cross-examined the FBI forensics expert who had testified about the tires, but let’s suppose that this man knows tire tracks but nothing about what models had split-differentials and positraction and the like- could Vinny have in any way entered the evidence himself.)
Well, let’s see…'55 Chevys did not in fact have 327 V8s, so it was indeed a bullshit question; '64 Skylarks had solid rear axles while the '63 Pontiac Tempest (at least some models) had independent rear supension; metallic mint green was a valid GM color of the era (I briefly had a '62 Buick in the same color).
The only open question is whether the tire tracks would have really looked like that. For me the photo was doctored, but 3 out of 4 ain’t bad.
Love the movie as well. I have it on DVD, but never need to watch it because my younger brother and sister have memorized almost every line, and eventually end up quoting bits of it at each other pretty much every time they’re in the same room.
Lynn addressed most of the things mentioned in this thread in the commentary incidentally. (It was way better than your standard “Now when we filmed this, the guy over there by the door… he was on the catering staff, and we had these potatoes with bacon bits and artechoke hearts… was it artechokes or avocado? I get 'em confused…” type Ben-Stein-quality-drone-on.)
The card trick: He said it took Pesci many many tries to get that down and he got extremely frustrated with it.
The nearsighted old lady: He said that they intentionally wanted him to be as sweet as Vinny could possibly be so that the audience would keep liking him. His line after the judge flubs the two fingers that “Mrs. Riley*… and ONLY Mrs. Riley… how many fingers am I holding up?” was an improv by Pesci. (*Riley may or may not be her character’s name, I can’t remember.)
Trotter’s “I- [hand clap] DENTICAL” was an improv by the actor that everybody loved, but his reference to the crime as “high-anus” (instead of heinous) was one of the things Lynn had heard in an actual Georgia courtroom and added into the script.
Judge Haller interviewing Vinny before giving him permission to try a case was one of the things that Lynn rewrote. Upon reading it he said “I don’t care if you’re Alan Dershowitz, you can’t just drive down to Alabama and try a case” so he re-wrote it to be realistic, explain this, and to introduce the character.
The prison scenes were shot at an actual prison. The other prisoners in the yard scenes were actual prisoners used as extras.
I must admit that I’m not that familiar with Yes, [Prime] Minister other than knowing it’s a Britcom and starred Nigel Hawthorne who’s one of my favorite character actors. If Lynn’s involvement with Vinny is indicative of quality I’ll have to check it out.
I dunno about Yale, but I understand Pesci’s 1994 With Honors is popular at Harvard, what with his performance as a homeless man who teaches a Harvard law professor a thing or two about life.
Here’s that scene for you or anyone who wants to remind themselves. It includes that magnificent “Dey wuh!” that corkboard mentioned.
Oooh, another funny fun movie that’s highly quotable (“GIVE THE BAG TO BOZO”) and very underrated (and with some of the best opening credits…posted to YouTube by Sally Cruikshank herself).
Oh. God. Yes. You have to. It’s… well, come to think of it, it winds up being surprisingly southern in character, despite being incredibly british. These people are… broken. In different ways. I honestly like it better than Fawlty Towers. (The badgers alone!) You’d adore it.
Random mid-season episode, and I think it covers things nicely. You should recognize things from your career in academia…
Watching that reminded me of another great moment: After Mona Lisa’s testimony when the judge says, “Miz Vito, you may stand down”. The way the Fred Gwynne delivered that line was priceless! The expression on his face, showing that he was now very smitten with her, was just perfect. Enough to make it clear, but not over the top or hitting the audience on the head with it. Just funny as hell. The man was a great actor.