Murphy’s Law (1986)
MGM DVD (region 1)
d. J. Lee Thompson; pr. Pancho Kohner, Jill Ireland; scr. Gail Morgan Hickman; ph. Alex Phillips Jr.; m. Mark Donahue, Valentine McCallum; ed. Peter Lee Thompson, Charles Simmons; cast. Charles Bronson, Kathleen Wilhoite, Carrie Snodgress, Robert F. Lyons, Richard Romanus, Lawrence Tierney (100 mins)
In the early 1980s, actor Charles Bronson was enshrined as one of America’s popular stars, mainly due to the somewhat stereotyped vigilante role he had essayed in then three Death Wish films for director Michael Winner. These films, with increasingly cynical crass-ness examined the clash between institutionalized Patriarchal authority on the one hand and, on the other, individualized reactionary (self-) righteousness. This theme would be of interest to director J. Lee Thompson who had pioneered its film treatment in the original CapeFear. When Thompson became an in-house director at the disreputable Cannon films, he took advantage of their contractual working arrangement with Bronson to direct a series of lurid thrillers which used Bronson’s existing image to probe the social dilemma involved in the collapse of Patriarchal authority. These Cannon films – 10 to Midnight, The Evil That Men Do, Murphy’s Law, Death Wish 4: the Crackdown, Messenger of Death and Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects – form a remarkable body of work. Although they have been criticized for their right wing reactionary agenda, director Thompson was actually able to undercut that view with his forceful contextualization of Patriarchy in crisis. Whilst often solemn, a marvelous sense of feminist comedy was introduced into the works when Bronson and Thompson were teamed with a female scriptwriter, Gail Morgan Hickman, for Murphy’s Law.
In Murphy’s Law, Bronson stars as an aging policeman, a role he would have in three of the films he made with director Thompson. His marriage is over although he continues to hold an interest in his ex-wife, now a stripper. One night his car is stolen by a young woman delinquent (a marvelous Kathleen Wilhoite) who crashes it. He gives chase and arrests her but she escapes. Meanwhile, an older woman (Carrie Snodgress) has been released from a mental institution and has hired a private detective to locate the whereabouts of several men. She gets a list of information and then sets about a systematic revenge plan against these men. Bronson at home receives a phone call from her wherein she says that she is going to kill him but first she is going to put him through hell. Bronson meanwhile finds Wilhoite and arrests her, taking her to the police station. Bronson one night is knocked unconscious by Snodgress who drives his car to his ex-wife’s residence and shoots both her and her lover with Bronson’s gun. When he awakes next morning, Bronson is blamed for the crimes and is arrested by his fellow officers, one of whom carries a grudge against him. As he is being charged and the case laid out, Bronson realizes he is framed. He is led out of interrogation into a holding room and handcuffed to a young prisoner – Wilhoite. Bronson soon escapes in the hope of clearing his name, but with Wilhoite in tow. read more