I love a good courtroom drama film. In 1987 Murphy’s War, Year of the Comet, and Krull director Peter Yates brought together a great cast including Cher, Dennis Quaid, John Mahoney, Joe Mantegnae and Liam Neeson for the film Suspect. Now the film has made its way onto Blu-ray for the first time from Alliance Entertainment.

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Suspect follows a homeless deaf-mute man, Carl Anderson who is arrested after a judge commits suicide, and his secretary is found murdered. Public defender Kathleen is assigned by the court as his lawyer. She sets to find the real killer, and gets help from the congressional advisor, Eddie Sanger who is called to be on the jury panel. Together they discover a dangerous circle of corruption in high places.

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This is a pretty by the numbers film mixing all the mystery and courtroom drama you can expect. It doesn’t do anything all that original to stand out, but with a compelling story and good performances it still delivers. The story offers up just enough twists and turns to keep you guessing but would have worked better had there been more doubt of his innocence to get you more invested.

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The thin like walked between lawyer and juror is an interesting direction, but also one that would have no doubt been figured out quickly and got them both in trouble. This element while far-fetched on some levels does give it a more noir feel as they both fight to find the truth. While visually dated to the time it still manages to work and made for a decent return to see this cast in an early film that will likely entertain all over again.

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Decide for yourself and grab your copy of Suspect available now on Blu-ray from Alliance Entertainment.