Search - The Spanish Prisoner on DVD

MPAA Rating: PG Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations Movie Release: 1997 DVD Release: 10/07/1998 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English, French, Spanish Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 50 mins Studio: Columbia TriStar Members Wishing: 20 Genres: Thriller, Post-Noir (Modern Noir), Crime Thriller

Writer-director David Mamet crafted this unusual, Hitchcockian thriller in which no one is who they appear to be. Campbell Scott is Joe Ross, who has just created a "process" that stands to make his company and his boss, Klein (Ben Gazzara), millions of dollars. At a clandestine meeting in the Caribbean, Ross discusses the details of the process with company executives. There, purely by chance, or so he believes, he meets the wealthy, enigmatic Jimmy Dell (Steve Martin), and the two strike up an unusual friendship. Dell informs Ross that he's naïve to believe that his company will fairly compensate him for his valuable work. Upon returning home, Ross becomes paranoid that Dell is right, and he takes steps to protect his invention, becoming unsure if he can trust Klein or even his own love-struck assistant (Rebecca Pidgeon). When Ross discovers that Dell has lied to him about his identity, he contacts the FBI -- he then finds himself set up as a murder suspect who learns, almost too late, to trust no one. The title of the film refers not to any of the characters but to a classic con artist's scam. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Campbell Scott - Joe Ross
Rebecca Pidgeon - Susan Ricci
Steve Martin - Jimmy Dell
Ricky Jay - George Lang
Ben Gazzara - Klein
Sandy Martin

David Mamet's con game drama The Spanish Prisoner comes to DVD with a pair of transfers. The widescreen transfer preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and is preferable in every way to the standard full-frame transfer. English, Spanish, and French soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital Surround. Subtitles are accessible in all three of those languages as well. Supplemental materials are limited to a theatrical trailer. Fans of the film will enjoy this disc from Columbia/TriStar, but there is little here to entice the average DVD consumer. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide