After airline mechanic James Rainwood is framed by two corrupt police officers, he begins plotting his revenge against them.After airline mechanic James Rainwood is framed by two corrupt police officers, he begins plotting his revenge against them.After airline mechanic James Rainwood is framed by two corrupt police officers, he begins plotting his revenge against them.
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Featured reviews
Guilty Until Proved Innocent
Excellent
Very compelling
Tense, Suspenseful - A Great Find
New Rules for survival
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.
Did you know
- TriviaMany 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.
- GoofsAt 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: They admitted to me that they framed Jimmie! What more do you want?
Detective John Fitzgerald, Internal Affairs LBPD: Secondhand conversations, Mrs. Rainwood, mean nothing. I told you that.
Kate Rainwood: All right... they threatened me. Parnell said that your department was shit, and that you're a...
[pauses]
Detective John Fitzgerald, Internal Affairs LBPD: A what?
Kate Rainwood: A punk nigger with his nose up the brass's ass.
- Alternate versionsNetwork television version used several alternate takes of scenes, with milder language.
- SoundtracksWhen 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
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Hard Rain
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $20,047,604
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,700,000
- Oct 9, 1989
- Gross worldwide
- $20,047,604
- Runtime
- 1h 53m(113 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1






