MovieChat Forums > The Verdict (1982) Discussion > "Kaitlin Costello Price" -- SPOILERS

"Kaitlin Costello Price" -- SPOILERS

posted a year ago by ecarle (14979)
8 replies | jump to latest

Let's go back in time. I offer you a report from a full house opening night theater for The Verdict in 1982.

Whatever over-melodramatic plot flaws may have been in the movie, it was deeply gripping given the power of Paul Newman's performance(he starts the film looking and acting like a scared rabbit, a broken man, a shell...and slowly gains redemptive power over the course of the film.)

And...in a tradition I would liken to Capra in "It's a Wonderful Life," the story keeps piling on unfair misfortunes and losses upon Newman as he tries to build his "David" case against a "Goliath" triad of law firm, hospital, and diocese. A key witness is "kidnapped"(bribed) away from him, and he can't find another, he is given no extensions to fix his case, the crooked Judge is in the pocket of the defendants and against him, his expert witness is wobbly, the other side has planted a spy on his team...it gets worse and worse and worse for the poor guy. He's bound not only to lose the case, but to lose the chance his clients had for ANY money.

And we in the audience are HURTING , badly, for this poor guy who, we find out from his good and great friend Jack Warden, had even WORSE things happen to him before this case -- set up and framed by crooked partners in a law firm, jailed, almost disbarred, divorced.

And then comes the moment.

The army of legal bad guys stacked against Newman(and led by the stately James Mason in a great late role) are sneeringly confident that they've won their case and obliterated Newman's puny team. But we know that Newman has FINALLY found the witness who can prove the hospital doctor botched the surgery and put the patient in a coma.

Its a former nurse named...Kaitlin Costello Price.

In the courtroom, the villainous doctor(not quite "evil," just a man out to cover up his crime) is eloquent on the stand and dismissed to walk back to his seat. Sidney Lumet's camera is behind the doctor, following the back of his head as he walks. And the words ring out:

"The plaintiffs call....Kaitlin Costello Price."

The doctor freezes. The back of his head turns and we see him worried, in profile, looking over to the former nurse. The witness has arrived who can prove he was criminally negligent.

And in 1982, in that packed house...the audience APPLAUDED, CHEERED, and in a few cases, stood to their feet.

It was one of the great movie audience moments of my life -- and it made The Verdict FEEL, perhaps, a bit better than it really was. But its still a very good movie, and Paul Newman should have won the Oscar for a combination of the performance itself and his life's work til then.

But wait, there's more. Once former nurse Kaitlin takes the stand and James Mason moves on viciously cross-examining her(and he IS evil - he paid a spy to seduce Paul Newman and get information)... the audience is totally AGAINST Mason and totally FOR nurse Caitlin and we get ANOTHER moment where the audience stood and cheered.

And we reach the moment where nurse Caitlin claims that the defendant doctor FORCED her to mark a form falsely to "cover up the crime" (the patient had eaten only 1 hour before childbirth; the doctor had the nurse mark 9 hours) Mason claims the woman is lying on the stand. She says she is not. She has proof of the original form with the "1 hour."

How so?

"I MADE A COPY!"

And AGAIN the audience applauds and cheers.

Those are the two roundhouse uppercuts in this juicy courtroom climax. "The plaintiffs call Caitlin Costello Price" and "I MADE A COPY!"

It is said that with certain movies -- and certain writers(David Mamet here, Aaron Sorkin A Few Good Men and others, and Tarantino lots of places) that great dialogue scenes can be like "action sequences with words" -- the punches are the surprise sentences.

So it was here, in The Verdict. A GREAT movie memory, those audience cheers and applause...

[–] ebhaynz (3559) a year ago

WOW what a fantastic way to see this movie..I certainly wished I had seen it first run. It's my favorite movie with Paul Newman, better even than Butch Cassidy or The Sting. I mean, he NAILS the role as the super sharp lawyer with bad luck and and even worse drinking problem. If I remember correctly Ben Kingsley won Best Actor as Ghandi, UGH! Newman got robbed/jobbed..thankfully the Academy semi made up for it by giving Newman the Best Actor for The Color of Money, that movie sucked but at least Newman wasn't forgotten.

This movie has so many small but powerful scenes.
1. Frank is in the local watering hole in the morning, reading the obits. A fellow barfly in the background is playing pinball. Frank can't hold on to his drink, so he dips his head down and takes a sip. He then is able to grab the drink, before it reaches his lips he stops, pauses, he has the 1,000 mile hazy stare. probably momentarily forgets where he is..the pinball machine isn't clanging anymore..slowly he finishes the drink.
2. Frank is telling a joke to a few bar patrons, after he delivers the punch line the bartender says "Hey!" rather loudly and lays down a drink for Frank..which pressures him to buy another round..
3. The one where Galvin takes Polaroids of the incapacitate woman(who's on life support 24/7)..while taking the pictures they start to develop and as they come into focus Frank realizes how despicable he is.
4. Later, Frank goes on a hunt for Kaitlin, he knocks on the door of a elder nurse who's not willing to help. He threatens to put her on the stand and she lashes out "You're all a bunch of whores! all of ya!".
5. In the final courtroom scene Franks closing statement is very moving, more of a cry of desperation as the defense attorney had maneuvered brilliantly to all but seal the case. Frank goes back to his seat, collapses and slumps down and his partner(Jack Warden)strongly reaches over to give him a sympathy grab.

[–] ecarle (14979) a year ago

WOW what a fantastic way to see this movie..I certainly wished I had seen it first run.

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Someone could watch The Verdict today on their big screen TV and I'm sure that they would find it gripping and moving and probably on that shot on the doctor's head as "Caitlin Costello Price" is said, the viewer would murmur, "All right...this is great." But to be in a movie theater with a full house and to feel the surge of energy as cheering and applause broke out -- this is how the movies USED to be a lot more than today. That said. I know that when the long roll of actors in "Avengers: End Game" rolled by on the screen when I saw it in a theater a few years ago....plenty of applause and cheers there, too. Its not like it has gone away totally, its just more rare and TV streaming has removed the thrill.

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It's my favorite movie with Paul Newman, better even than Butch Cassidy or The Sting.

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Well, he DID have to share those two with Mr. Redford -- that helped make them Number One/Number Two movies of the year, blockbusters.

But with The Verdict, Paul Newman got to re-claim his stardom for a new "final act" -- he still LOOKED great, but with now white hair and a certain "regal regular guy" manner. It was a great role, too, in a near-great movie. He kept working for a few more decades, but rarely got a role this good again (The Color of Money and Nobody's Fool lead THAT list.)

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CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) a year ago

I mean, he NAILS the role as the super sharp lawyer with bad luck and and even worse drinking problem.

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From the first time I saw this movie, I "locked in" my take on Newman's performance, at least in the first 2/3 of the film: he is a "scared rabbit." That's what I saw, that's what I FELT, and it hurt to watch. Worse: he starts out as a scared rabbit, grows confidence and swagger as his case looks good but then -- LOSES all his allies and he turns BACK into a scared rabbit -- trying to get back the money offer for his clients, practically crying to Charlotte Rampling about his surety that he's going to lose. Its very sad and very real...Galvin rises...and falls...and rises again. And he still looks pretty shook up at the end.

ONE

[–] ecarle (14979) a year ago

If I remember correctly Ben Kingsley won Best Actor as Ghandi, UGH! Newman got robbed/jobbed..

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Evidently, even Ben Kingsley thought so.

The 1982 Oscar Best Actor nominations were an incredible group:

Paul Newman
Dustin Hoffman Tootsie
Peter O'Toole My Favorite Year(HE hadn't ever won, and this was maybe his most loveable popular role)
Jack Lemmon Missing
Ben Kingsley Gandhi

Hoffman had gotten another Oscar only three years earlier, so it really seemed down to Newman and O'Toole and Newman had the harder part but -- Gandhi? Oh, that Academy. Gandhi for Best Picture also knocked off ET as Best Picture. It was a classic case of the Academy rejecting popular sentiment in favor of "take your medicine" movie making. (Yes Kingsley was fine as Gandhi but you'd think they would make him wait a few years for an Oscar.)

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) a year ago

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thankfully the Academy semi made up for it by giving Newman the Best Actor for The Color of Money,

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And what irony attended that. First of all, they gave Newman an "honorary Oscar" in 1985. He showed up to get it but it was one of those "sorry about that" Oscars that never quite feels right. And then, THE VERY NEXT YEAR, they finally had the nomination mix so he could win for The Color of Money. He did NOT show up that time(he DID for The Verdict) and he won.

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(The Color of Money) sucked but at least Newman wasn't forgotten.

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I'm not sure I would say that it sucked, but it was somewhat of a disappointment, a sequel to Paul Newman in The Hustler of 1961 -a much meaner, more grim, more POWERFUL take on the same character. Odder still: The Color of Money gave Newman Tom Cruise as a co-star(in the year of Top Gun) and Marty Scorsese as a director and it STILL wasn't considered all that great.

But Newman was great in the opening scene, in close-up, in which his aged, moustacheod liquor salesman is trying to at once sell a woman bar owner some liquor AND seduce her, even as the CLACK of Cruise's pool playing draws his attention. A grand old star.

You know what's better than "The Color of Money"? Martin Scorsese's MUSIC VIDEO for The Color of Money, cut to Eric Clapton's "Its in the Way that You Use it." Far more fun and exciting than the movie itself. On YouTube.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) a year ago

This movie has so many small but powerful scenes.
1. Frank is in the local watering hole in the morning, reading the obits. A fellow barfly in the background is playing pinball. Frank can't hold on to his drink, so he dips his head down and takes a sip. He then is able to grab the drink, before it reaches his lips he stops, pauses, he has the 1,000 mile hazy stare. probably momentarily forgets where he is..the pinball machine isn't clanging anymore..slowly he finishes the drink.

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Yep. Paul Newman inelegantly(as was his way) said that Frank Galvin metaphorically begins this movie "with his head in the toilet." But it is more deep than that, quite the study of an alcoholic trying to keep alive the intelligent and engaged man he used to be, as the booze just takes it away.

There is a great analysis post on this board somewhere about the difference between and among the various pinball scenes.

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2. Frank is telling a joke to a few bar patrons, after he delivers the punch line the bartender says "Hey!" rather loudly and lays down a drink for Frank..which pressures him to buy another round..

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"Trapped by his friends." Fellow drinkers. The barkeep. I mean to the barkeep, Galvin is probably at once a great moneymaker and really annoying to have around.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) a year ago

3. The one where Galvin takes Polaroids of the incapacitate woman(who's on life support 24/7)..while taking the pictures they start to develop and as they come into focus Frank realizes how despicable he is.

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Kudos -- at all times -- not only to Newman's acting, but to the directorial work of Sidney Lumet and the script by David Mamet. And -- I'm sure -- the the man who wrote the original novel, is this came from that. Such a wrenching scene as the photos come into focus -- and we are meant to never forget that poor woman as the power brokers scramble to make sure that she IS forgetten.

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4. Later, Frank goes on a hunt for Kaitlin, he knocks on the door of a elder nurse who's not willing to help. He threatens to put her on the stand and she lashes out "You're all a bunch of whores! all of ya!".

--
That's one of those scenes where the anger and power and conflict of it surprisingly rises out of nowhere and rather slaps us in the face. We CAN see it from the woman's side - she has no reason to trust Newman and he threatens her rather quickly and she KNOWS she can lose HER j ob over this. But still, she doesn't help. The actress has a "lived in" older, unattractive face which only makes it more real (she was Travolta's mother or grandmother in Saturday Night Fever?)

CONT
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[–] ecarle (14979) a year ago

5. In the final courtroom scene Franks closing statement is very moving, more of a cry of desperation as the defense attorney had maneuvered brilliantly to all but seal the case. Frank goes back to his seat, collapses and slumps down and his partner(Jack Warden)strongly reaches over to give him a sympathy grab.

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Much of it is in the character itself, but Jack Warden is SO great as the lawyer and friend who is doing his damndest to support his old friend. Warden was always one of our best character actors -- kind of gruff, but always with heart(unless he was playing a brutal villain, which he could do too) and here we see him as Galvin's protector and support at all times. There's that great moment when, as the male client starts beating up on Galvin for rejecting the settlement, Warden has to PHYSICALLY intervene to help his friend.

And in a great "murmured line" after the judge throws out Caitlin's testimony and the Xerox copy, Warden mumbles to Newman, "uh, legally, he's right." Ouch.

About that summation: there are some threads about it around here. I know when I first saw the film in 1982 , it seemed rather anticlimactic: why isn't Galvin talking about the FACTS of the case? Its more of a desperate, pleading , righteous speech. Well, in retrospect over the years: he CAN'T talk about Caitlin or the Xerox copy or the mistake on when the patient last ate a meal -- he has to go somewhere else. NOW I get it. Its also a great movie speech (see also: Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To KIll a Mockingbird.)