Harry Mitchell is a successful Los Angeles manufacturer whose wife is running for city council. His life is turned upside down when three blackmailers confront him with a videotape of him with his young mistress and demand $100,000. Fearing that the story will hurt his wife's political campaign if he goes to the police, Harry pretends that he will pay the men, but does not follow through.
Direction
Frankenheimer's sleazy precision in the porn warehouse scene
Acting
John Glover's twitchy, pathetic blackmailer steals every frame
Editing
The cold open that drops you mid-extortion
Director
John Frankenheimer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Frankenheimer made this for Cannon Films between his commercial renaissance—he later disowned it, though critics now call it his most underrated.
The film was shot in actual 1986 LA porn warehouses; Scheider reportedly hated the sleaze so much he barely spoke to Vanity between takes, which accidentally fuels their on-screen distance.
US
