This film, also released as SHATTERED PROMISES, is a gripping TV movie about the corrupt police force of South Chicago. Brian Dennehy plays the honest cop, and what a struggle he has! Everyone, from the police chief to the judges, is being bribed by a mobster named Scalesi, whose right hand man is slickster lawyer Alan Masters, played with sinister undertones by Treat Williams. Masters is married to a beautiful woman named Dianne, played by Embeth Davidtz. Davidtz was in the first eight episodes of MAD MEN and was brilliant in JUNEBUG (2005, see my review). She is a very underrated actress, perhaps because her name is rather difficult to spell. Masters murders his wife because she discovers that he is corrupt as well as being a psycho. This film is said to be based on a true story, and that is not at all hard to believe, as Chicago has been notorious for a century or more as the most corrupt city in America. Isn't it interesting that Barack Obama is a product of the Chicago political machine? No one ever satisfactorily explained how he afforded that huge house in Chicago when he wasn't earning very much. But maybe Brian Dennehy can tell us.
Review of Deadly Matrimony
