Jagged Edge

Synopsis: San Francisco heiress Page Forrester is brutally murdered in her remote beach house. Her husband Jack is devastated by the crime but soon finds himself accused of her murder. He hires lawyer Teddy Barnes to defend him, despite the fact she hasn't handled a criminal case for many years. There's a certain chemistry between them and Teddy soon finds herself defending the man she loves.
Director(s): Richard Marquand
Production: Columbia Pictures
  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.5
Rotten Tomatoes:
82%
R
Year:
1985
108 min
750 Views


No!

No!

Details of the brutal slaying

of Page Forrester...

...at the Forresters' Baker Beach

weekend retreat, are still sketchy.

Her husband, John C. Forrester,

has been rushed to St. Paul's Clinic.

The Times-Lofton publishing empire,

founded by her grandfather in 1876....

- I'm District Attorney Krasny.

- Yes, sir, Mr. Krasny.

- What are you doing outside?

- I needed air.

You got a lot of headlines in there.

It's a forced rear entry.

Window at the back. We're upstairs.

It's the maid.

Consuela Martinez.

And that's Page Forrester.

Christ!

We've got multiple stab wounds.

The wounds are jagged.

The blade must have a kind of serration.

I'll know much more tomorrow.

The cause of death is obvious.

- Where was Forrester?

- Over here.

He comes in, he gets hit. He blacks out.

He comes to and goes upstairs

and finds them.

- And saw what?

- The bodies.

- Where is he now?

- St. Paul's Clinic.

- Mr. Krasny, was she raped?

- Is it a ritual killing?

We have no comment.

Do you have any leads?

We have no comment.

No sign of sperm.

No evidence of any real sexual pattern...

...apart from the specific wounds

we found on the wife.

The knife used was a heavy blade...

- ...six inches, with a serrated upper edge.

- I'm betting a hunting knife.

The rope you could buy at any Safeway.

No prints were found, except Forrester's,

his wife's and the maid's.

The blood on Forrester's clothes

was that of the wife but not the maid's.

What about his head wound?

No concussion, some bleeding.

Blunt object.

Come on, Hal,

you know what I'm asking you.

Possibly self-inflicted?

Got it! Everything was in her name.

The corporate stuff, personal, everything.

She owned the guy.

He was an employee, and you know what?

He gets it all.

Jack Forrester is the direct beneficiary...

...of all Page Forrester's corporate

and personal assets.

Do you really think

he could've done that to his own wife?

What the hell is "that"? You murder

your wife to take all the money?

"That" is the oldest crime in the world.

Only you're real smart...

...so you make it look like

some f***ing Charlie Manson did it.

You want people to say: "Do you think

he could've done that to his own wife?"

If I was gonna kill my wife,

that's the way I'd do it.

Mr. Forrester, why didn't you go out

to the beach house with your wife?

I had dinner at the Union Club

and then I went back to the paper.

- I checked on the Sunday editorials.

- You don't write those yourself, do you?

I didn't think editors

wrote their own editorial.

Sometimes they do.

Did you write the ones about me?

Yes. I insisted on writing all of those.

Is that relevant here?

- The editorials I wrote on Mr. Krasny?

- I was just going to object.

Objection sustained.

I was just curious, that's all.

Page was a woman

of great generosity and compassion.

I think the thing I'll miss

about my sister the most...

...is her great sense of resolve.

Page always did

whatever she set out to do.

I'll miss her more than I know how to say.

Thank you.

Nice service.

Krasny.

Now?

He's gonna ride my ass into the Senate.

He can't do that. You're innocent.

The f*** he can't.

You've been coming here for weeks now...

...putting the best apples

on top of the barrel. I don't buy it!

You say you were happy?

You ever argue? Any problems?

We've been over this and over this.

And we're gonna go over it again,

and again and again.

Frank, there's no need

to badger Mr. Forrester.

Right, Counsellor?

Mr. Forrester...

...I'm not trying to get you to admit

you whacked your wife around every day...

...but I wanna know if you ever argued.

I never said we didn't argue.

- So, you argued.

- What did you argue about?

I told you, we had the usual arguments.

- We were married!

- Arnold needs to speak to you, sir.

I thought you had the only perfect

marriage in the state of California.

That's fine, Mr. Fabrizi, but let's get back

to the bit about the lockers.

The club gives me a passkey, you know.

So, I go through them.

The members don't even know

I've been in there.

I've seen all their stuff.

Their rubbers and everything.

- That's when I saw it.

- The knife?

- Yeah, the knife.

- When did you see it?

When?

It was right after New Year's last year.

They like me to go in there

at the start of the year and clean them out.

Start the year off with clean a**holes.

Excuse me.

They let you clean out private lockers?

Sure, they trust me.

I been workin' for them for 20 years.

What kind of knife did you see?

A hunting knife, about 6 inches long

with a jag on the edge.

How'd you know it was Forrester's locker?

'Cause it was numbered 122

and that's his number.

Because right after I saw it,

I thought to myself:

"I didn't know Mr. Forrester was a hunter."

It kind of made me feel good, you know...

...that he was a hunter, you know?

Yeah. I know what you mean.

- I'm getting tired of this, Andrew.

- Look, admit it, she owned you.

- I'm getting tired of this.

- We're all getting tired of it.

We've been doing this too long.

I had no quarrel with the financial structure

of the company.

Do you hunt, Mr. Forrester?

What?

Have you ever been hunting?

No.

- Do you own a hunting knife?

- No.

What the f*** is going on?

Have you ever been in possession

of a hunting knife?

No.

I'm giving you a chance to cop a plea.

You think I killed my wife? Prove it.

You're under arrest for the murders

of Page Forrester and Consuela Martinez.

Frank, read him his rights.

You have the right to remain silent.

If you give up that right...

...anything you say can and will be used

against you in a court of law.

Mr. Forrester is the editor

of the "San Francisco Times..."

...and president of Times-Lofton Publishing.

He is, however,

charged with two capital offence felonies.

But, your Honour, the charges are based

purely on circumstantial evidence.

Mr. Forrester has no prior criminal record.

I don't expect him to flee the jurisdiction.

Fine. The set bail of $500,000 will stand.

I made some calls back east.

I'll get you a heavy hitter.

I don't want anyone from out of town.

I don't want to contribute

to the goddamn circus.

Your firm has got to handle it.

We're corporate lawyers.

We can barely handle a hearing.

- Jack, you got something for us?

- What do you think?

I'm innocent. That's all I can say.

- What do you think of Krasny?

- No further comment.

Come on!

Isn't this related to the Senate race?

No further comment.

My paper has been critical of Mr. Krasny's

conduct as district attorney.

That's no secret. He's an ambitious guy.

He's got big political aspirations...

...so you can draw

your own conclusions. Excuse me.

No comments at this time. Please, folks.

This will be a show trial, for God's sake.

We've only one person

who's had any criminal experience.

- Who is he?

- She.

And she hasn't practised criminal law

for four years.

Jack, give us a --

- Is she any good?

- Yes, she was a very good prosecutor.

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Joe Eszterhas

József A. "Joe" Eszterhas (; Hungarian: [ˈjoːʒɛf ˈɛstɛrhaːʃ]; born November 23, 1944) is a Hungarian-American writer. He wrote the screenplays for the films Flashdance, Jagged Edge, Basic Instinct and Showgirls. He has also written several books, including an autobiography entitled Hollywood Animal, American Rhapsody and Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "Jagged Edge" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Dec. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/jagged_edge_11139>.

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