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| “ | I will not be destroyed by this neurotic woman. | „ |
| ~ Judah deciding to have Dolores killed |
| “ | And after the awful deed is done, he finds that he's plagued by deep-rooted guilt. Little sparks of his religious background which he'd rejected are suddenly stirred up. He hears his father's voice. He imagines that God is watching his every move. Suddenly, it's not an empty universe at all, but a just and moral one, and he's violated it. Now, he's panic-stricken. He's on the verge of a mental collapse-an inch away from confessing the whole thing to the police. And then one morning, he awakens. The sun is shining, his family is around him and mysteriously, the crisis has lifted. He takes his family on a vacation to Europe and as the months pass, he finds he's not punished. In fact, he prospers. The killing gets attributed to another person-a drifter who has a number of other murders to his credit, so I mean, what the hell? One more doesn't even matter. Now he's scot free. His life is completely back to normal. Back to his protected world of wealth and privilege. | „ |
| ~ Judah talking about the murder he committed as "an idea for a movie" |
Judah Rosenthal is the villain protagonist of the 1989 comedy-drama film Crimes and Misdemeanors. He is a wealthy doctor who arranges the murder of his mistress and gets away with it.
He was portrayed by the late Martin Landau, who also portrayed Leonard in North by Northwest.
Early life[]
He and his younger brother Jack were raised in a devout Jewish household in New York City, with their father teaching them that the universe was just and moral and that God was always watching them. Both Judah and Jack rejected their father's beliefs, however; Judah grew up to be a skeptic who prized science and reason over spirituality, while Jack became a gangster, making a living from theft, racketeering, and murder.
Judah, meanwhile, became an ophthalmologist with a successful practice, beloved by his patients and well-respected by his colleagues. He married a woman named Miriam, with whom he had two children, Chris and Sharon. While he loved Miriam, however, he eventually grew bored with their marriage and began an affair with flight attendant Dolores Paley, who fell deeply in love with him.
In the film[]
After attending a dinner in his honor held by his fellow ophthalmologists, Judah discovers a message on his answering machine from Dolores, threatening to tell Miriam about the affair unless he ends the marriage to be with her; he erases it seconds before Miriam walks through the door. He tries to break up with Dolores gently, but she refuses to let him go and threatens not only to tell Miriam the truth but to reveal "questionable" financial decisions he has recently made, which would not only end his marriage but destroy his reputation and his career. He confides in his patient Ben, a rabbi who is losing his vision, and who advises him to confess his infidelity to Miriam.
Panicked, he calls Jack, from whom he has been estranged for many years, and asks for help. Jack suggests that he could hire someone to "talk to her", which Judah instantly realizes is a euphemism for having her killed. Horrified, Judah refuses Jack's offer, but he starts to reconsider when Dolores keeps calling his house. He has an imaginary conversation with Ben in which the latter pleads with him to spare Dolores' life. Judah ultimately decides that his marriage and career are more important than Dolores' life, however, and calls Jack to tell him to go through with the murder.
A few days later, Judah gets a call from Jack telling him that the job is done. Suddenly stricken with guilt, Judah runs to Dolores' apartment, where he finds her dead body. He leaves before the police arrive and manages to avoid becoming a suspect, but he is overcome with remorse and falls into a deep depression, withdrawing from his family. He visits the house he grew up in and recalls his father's religious teachings, his depression worsening as he becomes obsessed with the idea that God is watching and judging him. He even toys with the idea of confessing to the police, but Jack implicitly threatens to kill him, too, if he reveals their guilt.
Over the next few months, Judah overcomes his depression by learning to ignore his guilt and simply move on as if nothing happened. A drifter and serial killer is arrested for Dolores' murder, and Judah celebrates his freedom by taking his family on vacation to Europe.
After returning to New York, Judah and Miriam attend the wedding of Ben's daughter; when Ben, now completely blind, asks how his marital problems worked out, he replies that they "solved themselves". He also meets Ben's brother-in-law Cliff Stern, the film's other protagonist. He strikes up a conversation with Stern, a documentary filmmaker, and suggests an idea for a movie - the story of a successful doctor who murders his mistress, gets away with it, and escapes his guilt, albeit with "a bad moment once and awhile". Stern says that it would not be believable that the movie's protagonist could live with a murder on his conscience, but Judah insists that, in the real world, people get through life by denying and rationalizing their misdeeds. He then parts company with Stern and happily tells Miriam that they should start planning their children's weddings.
Trivia[]
- Landau was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
- Allen would revisit the idea of a person committing murder and having to live with it in his 2005 film Match Point, with protagonist Chris Wilton killing his mistress and "sweeping the guilt under the rug".