“Hold up your badge, so they’ll know you’re a policeman.”
Based on James Ellroy’s novel, the name comes from ‘Confidential’, a notorious 1950s era movie star tabloid, fictionally portrayed as ‘Hush-Hush’. Many of the plot lines are based on real events, including: the bloody Christmas scene where drunken police officers brutally beat Hispanic prisoners suspected of beating up two uniformed policemen; the story of real-life gangster Mickey Cohen’s arrest that touched off a gang war for control of the rackets; the LAPD Goon Squad which would kidnap out-of-town gangsters, beat them up then threaten to kill them if they returned; and Lana Turner dating gangster Johnny Stompanato. In real life, Turner’s daughter Cheryl Crane stabbed Stompanato to death after catching him hitting her mother. Twice the idea was pitched to television: first, producer David Wolper wanted to produce it as a mini-series. Then after the film’s success, an HBO TV pilot was made with Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Vincennes but it wasn’t picked up. At first studio executives were against casting two Australians (Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce) in an American period piece. The role of Bud White had been offered to Michael Madsen, but director Curtis Hanson wanted Crowe as White after seeing his performance in Romper Stomper (1992). Izabella Scorupco and Jennifer Jason Leigh were both offered the lead female role, but passed. Kim Basinger won the Oscar as Best Actress for it. The Brett Chase TV detective is based on Jack Webb in Dragnet. Kevin Spacey’s characterization of Detective Jack Vincennes is based on Dean Martin.
