WHEN A MURDER CASE IS THIS SHOCKING, WHICH DO YOU TRUST? YOUR EMOTIONS OR YOUR EVIDENCE?

When a wealthy woman is brutally murdered, her husband (Jeff Bridges) becomes a suspect; his attorney (Glenn Close) doesn’t know what to believe about her client.

One of the earliest examples of writer Joe Eszterhas employing a thriller formula that he would keep coming back to in subsequent films.

Flawed in several ways, the writing is nevertheless propped up by fine directing and acting. The scenes where the masked killer strikes are effectively staged and watching Close as the lawyer with a dark past, Peter Coyote as the aggressive prosecutor and Robert Loggia as a rough investigator makes up for the weak love story.

1985-U.S. 108 min. Color. Directed by Richard Marquand. Screenplay: Joe Eszterhas. Cast: Jeff Bridges (Jack Forrester), Glenn Close (Teddy Barnes), Peter Coyote (Thomas Krasny), Robert Loggia, John Dehner, Leigh Taylor-Young, Lance Henriksen. 

Trivia: Originally written as a vehicle for Jane Fonda; Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner were also reportedly considered for the leads. Remade in India in 2001.