My Cousin Vinny (1992) on Netflix
Two New York students driving through Alabama are arrested for murder. Bill Gambini calls his cousin Vinny, a Brooklyn lawyer who has never tried a case, to defend him and Stan Rothenstein.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.6/10161,789 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bill Gambini and Stan Rothenstein are friends from New York University driving south when they stop at an Alabama convenience store for snacks. Bill pockets a can of tuna without thinking, and after the two pull away the clerk is found robbed and killed. Police stop the pair and arrest them. At the station, Bill thinks he is answering for the shoplifting and gives a statement, so Bill faces a murder charge and Stan is accused as an accessory. With no money for a private attorney, Bill telephones his cousin Vinny Gambini, a Brooklyn personal injury lawyer who has only just passed the bar after many failed attempts and has no courtroom experience. Vinny heads to Alabama with Mona Lisa Vito, his fiancée.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about My Cousin Vinny (1992)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The studio originally wanted Andrew Dice Clay for Vinny, and also considered Danny DeVito, Peter Falk, Robert De Niro and Jim Belushi, before casting Joe Pesci, who had just finished Lethal Weapon 2 and was still filming Goodfellas.
- Ben Stiller and Will Smith were considered for the roles of Bill and Stan, but in both cases there was concern related to the incarceration of a Jewish and a Black person in the South, and Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield were hired instead.
- Austin Pendleton's role as a stuttering, ineffective public defender reminded him of his teenage years, and in 2022 he said the part had nearly ended his career; after receiving angry letters from stutterers, he regretted agreeing to perform it.
- Screenwriter Dale Launer came up with the idea as a college student, after hearing about a lawyer who had finally passed the bar on a 13th attempt; he thought it would be funny for someone traveling through the South to end up represented by that type of lawyer.
- In 2009, 20th Century Fox served legal notice on production company BR Films and director Ravi Chopra, alleging his film Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai blatantly plagiarised My Cousin Vinny; the lawsuit was settled for $200,000 and that film was never released theatrically.
- Launer took a road trip through the South where, in Butler, Alabama, he got stuck in the mud and had repairs done to his car, which became part of the script; there he met assistant district attorney John W. Thompson II, who became the basis of the character Jim Trotter.
- The prison scenes were shot in a real, working prison, Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto, Georgia, and the prisoners who appear as extras in them were actual convicts.
- One of the songs featured in the film, "Bible Belt", was originally about an adulterous assistant preacher and was sung by Travis Tritt, who rewrote the lyrics to reflect Pesci's title character.
