Johnny Handsome (1989) on Netflix
John Sedley, born disfigured and mocked as Johnny Handsome, plans a robbery with his friend Mikey Chalmette and two accomplices, Sunny Boyd and Rafe Garrett. Sunny and Rafe turn on them.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.1/1012,111 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes60%
Trailer
Plot summary
A career criminal in New Orleans, John Sedley has been disfigured since birth and is mocked as Johnny Handsome. He and his friend Mikey Chalmette plan a robbery with Sunny Boyd and Rafe Garrett, who turn on them during the heist; Mikey is killed and a judge sends Johnny to prison. There a surgeon looking for a patient for an extensive reconstructive procedure offers him a place in a rehabilitation program and gives him a new, normal-looking face, unrecognizable to anyone who knew him, and helps him win parole. Johnny has sworn to get even with Sunny and Rafe once he is free.
Cast
- Yvonne Brycelandas Sister Luke
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Johnny Handsome (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Richard Gere was going to star in 1987 with Harold Becker directing, then Al Pacino signed for the lead; by February 1988 Becker was out, replaced by Walter Hill, Pacino dropped out, and Mickey Rourke was cast instead.
- Walter Hill said Mickey Rourke spent hours getting into make-up each day, calling it "a hell of a hardship on him", and that Rourke worked with a speech therapist to learn the speech impediment caused by Johnny's cleft palate and harelip.
- The novel was set among the small-time New Jersey Mafia, but Walter Hill moved it to New Orleans, where he had shot Hard Times, saying the small-time Mafia thing had been seen an awful lot and a look at Southern crime might be different.
