Phil Spector (2013) on Netflix
TV-MA20131h 32mBiographyDramaMusic
Record producer Phil Spector is accused of murder in the death of Lana Clarkson at his California mansion. Defense attorney Bruce Cutler brings in Linda Kenney Baden to advise the team.
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- Netflix2.8/5
- IMDb6.2/108,660 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes51%
Trailer
Plot summary
Record producer, songwriter and musician Phil Spector stands accused of murder in the death of Lana Clarkson at his California mansion. Spector brings in Bruce Cutler as his defense attorney, and Cutler asks Linda Kenney Baden to come aboard as an adviser. Baden is ill with pneumonia while she works on the case. The prosecution's account meets facts that cut against it, but the circumstantial evidence against Spector carries weight, and how he looks counts against him too. Baden takes on a larger share of the defense as the case moves along, and she and Cutler have to answer what the state puts against Spector.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Phil Spector (2013)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bette Midler was originally to star as Linda Kenney Baden, but left two and a half weeks after filming began, having suffered a back injury and, according to Helen Mirren, having to be carried off the set. Mamet recalled that losing her put completion in jeopardy, and that Mirren's willingness to take the role at short notice saved the film.
- In a December 2002 interview with his biographer Mick Brown, Spector said that he had a lifelong dream that his favorite actor Al Pacino would one day portray him in a film about his life and career.
- Linda Kenney Baden served as a consultant on the film and Mamet said he discussed the Spector case with her at length to keep its legal thinking and procedures accurate, though she would not discuss her privileged conversations with Spector. Mamet also tried to visit Spector in prison before filming began, but Spector refused to see him.
- The film opens with the fictional Bruce Cutler asserting that a Telegraph magazine article, based on an interview Brown had with Spector in December 2002, had been faxed to Spector on the day of the shooting and had “set him off”. That is incorrect: the article was not published until after Clarkson's death.
- In the film the fictional Linda Kenney Baden declares she will not “attack the girl” in court. In fact the real Kenney Baden's defense did attack Clarkson, showing a video of her in blackface imitating Little Richard during the trial.
