Reversal of Fortune
All actors and roles (10)
All team (27)
Short description
Reversal of Fortune dramatizes the real case of Claus von Bülow, a European aristocrat accused of giving his wealthy wife, Sunny, an insulin injection that left her in a coma from which she never recovered. Convicted at his first trial, Claus insists he is innocent and turns to Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor known for taking on difficult appeals. Working with a team of his students, Dershowitz rebuilds the case from the ground up, sifting through the evidence and the couple's troubled past while his abrasive manner clashes with his client's detached elegance. Sunny herself, in a coma, narrates.
Barbet Schroeder directed from a screenplay by Nicholas Kazan, with Oliver Stone and Edward R. Pressman producing. It followed Schroeder's Barfly and sits second in the run of features he made between 1987 and 2015. Jeremy Irons plays Claus, Glenn Close plays Sunny, and Ron Silver plays Dershowitz, among a credited cast of 52.
Released in October 1990, the film took in about 15 million dollars worldwide. It holds a 7.2 rating on IMDb from roughly 18,000 votes and a 6.7 on TMDB from far fewer, while its critics' rating stands at 7.9 from 53 reviews, so critics rated it noticeably higher than the general audience did.
What's left behind the scenes
- One of the law students mentions sending a fax. Fax machines were not yet in common use in 1983, when the events of the film take place.
- The story of two brothers whom Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) tries to save from a death sentence is based on the case of the Tyson brothers in Arizona in 1980. They helped their father escape from prison, after which he killed four people. Both brothers were charged with murder.
- Jeremy Irons did meet the real Klaus von Bülow, although it was several years after the film's release. Irons commented on the situation: “He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.”
- Screenwriter Alan M. Dershowitz, whose book the film is based on, played a cameo role in the film: one of the appellate judges.
- The ring worn by Von Bülow is sometimes on his right hand and sometimes on his left.
- When the intern wants to abandon the project and heads for the door, the hand holding the books changes after a cut.
- According to assistant director Howard Feuer, actress Glenn Close was paid "a fortune" for three weeks of work. While the leading actors Jeremy Irons and Ron Silver were well compensated, actors in supporting roles – Julie Hagerty, Fisher Stevens, and Uta Hagen – had to settle for standard salaries and 10% for their agent.
- Von Bülow abruptly switches hands while eating in the restaurant.
- At the beginning of the film, in the shots showing the estates in Newport, visitors can be seen at some of the mansions. Since the film is set in 1983, some of the mansions may have been open to the public, such as 'The Breakers' and 'Marble House'.
- Martha von Bülow, who spent the last 28 years of her life in a coma, died on December 6, 2008, at the age of 76. Her husband was twice accused of attempting to kill her.
- The wristwatch that Jeremy Irons wears in his office is a Swatch Burglar.
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