THE VERDICCH

THE VERDICT (1982)
dir: Sidney Lumet

THE VERDICCH
MAD #239, June 1983
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres

Frank Galvin (Paul Newman) is an alcoholic lawyer who hasn't won a case or been to trial for years, and turns it down in a malpractice settlement in favor of taking the suit to court out of pride and proving he can win.

The parody opens with references to other movies that were around at the time. Tootsie, which was also spoofed in MAD, starred Dustin Hoffman as an actor who appeared in drag to get a part in a soap, 48 Hrs was a good cop/bad cop comedy/action movie with Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, Six Weeks had Dudley Moore and Mary Tyler-Moore as the parents of a girl with cancer, Clint Eastwood had been in dozens of movies at that point, and Ben Kingsley did a biopic of Gandhi.

Frank Galvin goes to funeral homes to try and get clients, but gets kicked out. His former partner Mickey (Jack Warden) tries to help him with a settlement from a hospital he would get a percentage of. A young woman was given anaesthesia during childbirth at a Catholic hospital and choked on her own vomit which has rendered her comatose.

Her family has been given the settlement by the hospital, which Frank refuses despite the protests of her sister and brother-in-law (Roxanne Hart, James Handy) because he thinks the case should be tried. He's at great odds with the church. He meets Laura (Charlotte Rampling) at a bar and gets involved with her.

The hospital's attorney Ed Conannon (James Mason) is better prepared and has a bigger team behind him. The bishop (Edward Binns) wants to stop Frank.

The bishop's office has pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini, Menachem Begin, and Jerry Falwell.

While Mr. Concannon tries to butter up the judge (Milo O'Shea), Frank is confronted by the woman's family who would have taken the settlement and don't think he can win. Frank unsuccessfully tries to get witnesses and confides to Laura that he thinks he'll lose. He finally gets a doctor (Joe Seneca) to testify.

Frank tries to get more witnesses and finds out Laura has been giving inside information to Ed Concannon.

Jack Warden was also in another courtroom drama, And Justice for All, with Al Pacino.

Frank slaps Laura after finding out he's been betrayed. In the courtroom, he gets Kaitlin Costello (Lindsay Crouse), a nurse in the case, to testify that she had the patient eat an hour in advance and falsify the record. This wins the case.