An Innocent Man

1989
R
1h 53m

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

7.8K

YOUR RATING

Tom Selleck and Laila Robins in An Innocent Man (1989)

A man is framed by two corrupt cops for drugs. After he gets out of prison, he comes after them.

Play trailer2:20

1 Video

81 Photos

Action Crime Drama Thriller

A man is framed by two corrupt cops for drugs. After he gets out of prison, he comes after them.A man is framed by two corrupt cops for drugs. After he gets out of prison, he comes after them.A man is framed by two corrupt cops for drugs. After he gets out of prison, he comes after them.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

7.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 2:20

Official Trailer

Photos81

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Many of the film's prison scenes were filmed at the old Hamilton County Jail in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Jail, also known as the "Cincinnati Workhouse", had been permanently closed prior to the location filming of the movie. It had been built during the Civil War to house enemy troops and was still in use by Hamilton county and Cincinnati area police agencies as a jail as late as the 1970s. It was closed due to being "inhumane, cruel and unusual" by modern jail standards.

Goofs
At the end of the film, one of the bad detectives goes to prison and is marched into the middle of the general population. No prison in the United States allows former police officers to be sent into the main prison; such persons are always sent directly to protective custody.

Quotes
Kate Rainwood: [Kate is visiting Virgil in prison] I'm here because we don't know what else to do. It's like they haunt Jimmie. And after they came to the house... we need your help. I mean, Jimmie's already introduced me to Malcolm, but he can only do so much.
Virgil Cane: Those assholes have been riding high so long they think the only thing that can take them down is kryptonite. Of course, they are peabrained, dickless shitheads.
[Kate laughs]
Virgil Cane: Which is definitely in our favor.
[laughs]
Virgil Cane: Definitely!
Kate Rainwood: You've been hoping for something like this, haven't you?
Virgil Cane: [smiling] Let's just say it makes my decade.
[turns serious]
Virgil Cane: I'll get exactly the information that you need and I'll reach out to you real soon.
Kate Rainwood: [impressed] You're just like Jimmie described you... a schemer and a charmer.
[Virgil smiles]
Kate Rainwood: Thanks for everything you did for him, Virgil.
[they stand up and shake hands]

Alternate versions
Network television version used several alternate takes of scenes, with milder language.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Johnny Handsome/War Party/Welcome Home/Queen of Hearts/Erik the Viking (1989)

Soundtracks
When the Night Comes
Written by Bryan Adams, Jim Vallance and Diane Warren
Performed by Joe Cocker
Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.
By Arrangement with CEMA Special Markets

User reviews54

Review

Featured review

8/10

New Rules for survival

I think An Innocent Man proved that whenever he decided to end his Magnum PI series, Tom Selleck was going to have no trouble in getting good parts. And not those that were a variation on his Thomas Magnum persona.

This is one really powerful film about An Innocent Man getting caught in the criminal justice machinery because of a pair of dirty cops, David Rasche and Richard Young. These two who are decorated heroes in the Long Beach PD for all the arrests they rack up are actually just putting out of business all the independents in the narcotics trade for the local organized crime boss and making a nice side living in the process.

They get an address wrong from an informant and they invade Selleck's home, shoot and wound Selleck, and then plant evidence to make Selleck out as a dealer. He gets convicted and sentenced to six years hard time and I do mean hard which it is for anyone who's not a professional in the criminal trade.

Fortunately he gets himself a mentor in old time con F. Murray Abraham who also has a score to settle with those two cops. Abraham teaches him all the new rules for survival in the joint, housed with men who are by nature incorrigible and don't play by civilized rules. Selleck does things that were against his old nature.

When he does get paroled from inside the joint Abraham quarterbacks a revenge scheme that Selleck participates in.

Besides those mentioned I should also single out Laila Robins who plays Selleck's wife who stands by him and Bruce Young who plays a violent convict that Selleck has to deal with in the joint.

An Innocent Man is one of the best made for television films done and should have gotten big screen theatrical release.