I, The Jury (novel and films)

### I, The Jury (novel)

***I, the Jury*** is the 1947 debut novel of American crime-fiction writer Mickey Spillane, the first work to feature private investigator Mike Hammer. By the time the book was adapted into a film in 1953, it had sold 3,500,000 copies.

#### Plot Summary

Dr. Charlotte Manning is a young well-to-do psychiatrist motivated by greed. To increase her profit, she becomes involved with a crime syndicate with ties to both prostitution and drug-trafficking. The leader of the organisation is Hal Kines, who has had plastic surgery to make him look younger, and who recruits young women for the sex trade. Manning herself has upscale clientele, though her trade is not prostitution but coercing her patients into becoming dependent upon medications, primarily heroin, in order to extort money from them.

World War II veteran and New York police officer, Jack Williams, falls in love with Myrna Devlin when he stops her from committing suicide by jumping from a bridge. Williams lost an arm saving the life of his friend Mike Hammer. Williams asks Dr. Manning to admit Devlin to her clinic for psychotherapy. After Myrna has become clean, she and Williams become engaged, though the couple maintains a casual friendship with Manning.Williams becomes suspicious of Manning's business, and secretly investigates further. He realises that Kines is a criminal. When, at a party given by Williams in his apartment, Charlotte Manning finds old college yearbooks whose contents would expose Kines' criminal actions, she has to act fast. After the party, she returns to Williams' apartment and shoots him dead.

Hammer picks up Myrna Devlin and gives her a lift. They drive to the Bellemy twins' estate in the country for an all-day party. Charlotte Manning says she will be there in time for a tennis game due to take place that evening. Hammer spends all day in his room, fast asleep, with "old junior" — his gun — close to him. He is woken up just in time for dinner, during which Harmon Wilder, the Bellemys' lawyer, and Charles Sherman, Wilder's assistant, are pointed out to him. This is a fine — and the final — distractor in the novel: Wilder and Sherman are suddenly missing from the party after Myrna Devlin has been found shot. In fact they had illicit drugs on them and did not want to be found out. During the tennis game, Mary Bellemy leads Hammer into the woods where they have sex. They return to the party just as a maid discovers Myrna's body in an upstairs room. The police are called in, and the alibis of each guest is checked. Again Charlotte can convince everyone that she could not have done anything.

Back home, Hammer retreats into his apartment to think. Finally, he knows the identity of the killer. This is when he goes to Charlotte's place, recapitulates the whole crime and finally shoots her dead, despite her efforts to pull the trigger on him.

### I, The Jury (1953 film)

> *"Now! His first motion picture blasts you out of your seat with its naked fury!"*
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***I, the Jury*** is a 1953 American film noir crime film based on the novel *I, the Jury* by Mickey Spillane. It was directed by Harry Essex, and released through United Artists.

The film, released in US cinemas on August 14, 1953. is notable for being the first one based on a Mike Hammer novel. Biff Elliot stars as Hammer. It was filmed in 3-D and was available with stereophonic sound.

#### Plot Summary

It's nearly Christmas, but Mike Hammer (Elliot) is on the vengeance trail when Jack (Robert Swanger), his wartime buddy, is murdered. Hotheaded Hammer sets out to find the killer, working his way through an increasingly large pile of suspects (and corpses). Along the way, he meets a new love interest, psychologist Charlotte Manning (Peggie Castle), a treacherous Santa (Elisha Cook, Jr), a gangster named Kalecki (Alan Reed), and two weird sisters, the Bellamy twins (Tani Guthrie & Dran Hamilton, as Tani & Dran Seitz).

### I, The Jury (1982 film)

> *"He's charming, he's sexy, he's tough, and he's too hot to cool down. He's 'The Hammer'"*
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***I, the Jury*** is a 1982 film based on the best-selling detective novel of the same name by Mickey Spillane. The story was previously filmed in 3D in 1953. Larry Cohen wrote the screenplay and was hired to direct, but was replaced when the film's budget was already out of control after one week of shooting. He was replaced by Richard T. Heffron.

The film, released in US cinemas on October 9, 1982, begins with a James Bond-like teaser opening before the story begins. The plot involves two detectives: protagonist Mike Hammer (Armand Assante) and his one-armed friend, Jack Williams (Frederic Downs), who is discovered murdered. The plot also features a serial rapist, and a sex therapy clinic headed up by Dr. Charlotte Bennett (Barbara Carrera).

The plot contains elements not in the novel, such as government conspiracies and mind-control techniques by the CIA and the Mafia.