Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a 1997 American crime drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood and starring John Cusack and Kevin Spacey. The screenplay by John Lee Hancock was based on John Berendt's 1994 book of the same name and follows the story of antiques dealer Jim Williams, who was on trial for the killing of a male prostitute who was his lover. The multiple trials depicted in Berendt's book are combined into one trial for the film. John Kelso is introduced as the personification of Berendt.
The on-location scenes were shot in Savannah, Georgia. Several real-life locals appear in the movie, notably in the Christmas party scene at Mercer House,"Savananh Presents: 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'" – Savannah Morning News, YouTube, December 6, 2012 including Williams's sister, Dorothy Kingery, and nieces Susan and Amanda, as well as Georgia senator John R. "Jack" Riley (his wife was played by Mary Alice Hendrix). Filming was permitted inside Mercer House, but action scenes and those in the courtroom were filmed later on a soundstage at Warner Bros.
Three people—The Lady Chablis, Emma Kelly and Jerry Spence—play themselves, while Sonny Seiler, one of Williams's lawyers in the book, plays Judge Samuel L. White. Danny Hansford, the shooting victim in the book, is renamed Billy Hanson in the film and is portrayed by a 24-year-old Jude Law, in one of his early film roles. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was released by Warner Bros. on November 21, 1997. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office bomb, grossing $25.1 million against a $30 million budget.
Plot
The panoramic tale of Savannah's eccentricities focuses on a deadly shooting and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams, a self-made man, art collector, antiques dealer, bon vivant, and semi-closeted homosexual. John Kelso, a magazine reporter from New York with one book—Before the Fall—to his name, flies to Savannah, amid beautiful architecture and odd doings, to write a feature for Town & Country on one of Williams's acclaimed Christmas parties. Williams's parties, held at his Mercer House home, were the highlight of many people's social calendars."Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" – The Washington Post Williams had an "in" box and an "out" box for his invitations, depending on whether or not the person was in Williams's favor at the time.
En route to Savannah's Jones Street, via a tour of the city's tourist hotspots, Kelso alights at Forsyth Park. Making his way to his lodging in Monterey Square, he has a brief interaction with Billy Hanson in front of Mercer House. Kelso does not know who Hanson is, or that Mercer House is Williams's home.
Awoken by Mandy Nicholls, who is looking for some ice to take back to her partner Joe Odom's party, Kelso accompanies her back to the festivities. There, he meets hairdresser Jerry Spence and Odom, who is playing the piano.
Kelso is guest of honor at the Williams's party. During the course of the evening, Kelso meets Emma Kelly, named the "Lady of 6,000 Songs" by Savannah's own Johnny Mercer,"Emma Kelly, 82, 'Lady of 6,000 Songs'" - New York Times, January 29, 2001 Harry Cram, the former silent-film actress Serena Dawes and Williams's mother, Blanche. Williams shows Kelso his organ in the upstairs ballroom. It is there that Billy Hanson appears, having let himself in the servants' entrance. Hanson demands some money from Williams so that he can "get fucked up." Williams refuses, saying Hanson "gets paid on Friday like everyone else." Hanson responds by smashing a bottle and threatening both Williams and Kelso with it, before storming out. After explaining Hanson's situation to Kelso, Williams sits down and plays "Jeepers Creepers" on the organ, demonstrating that he uses it to drown out the sound of his neighbour Lorne Atwell's dog.
After the guests have left, Williams and Kelso wind down with a brandy in the Mercer House library, where Kelso discovers his book in Williams's bookcase. Kelso leaves shortly thereafter, stating he has an early flight home.
Kelso is again awoken, this time by the sound of sirens. He ventures out into Monterey Square to find out what is going on. It transpires that Hanson was shot dead by Williams in the Mercer House study after an argument between the two. Kelso lets himself, and Williams's cat, Sheldon,"'For Sale' Sign Goes Up in the Garden of Good and Evil" - New York Times, June 3, 1999 through the back door into what should have been a secured environment. Williams is being questioned by police in the drawing room. Sonny Seiler arrives a few seconds later and tries to defuse the situation.
Kelso stays on to cover the murder trial for a new book, with the blessing of Williams. Along the way, he meets some characters: the irrepressible The Lady Chablis, a transgender entertainer; Luther Driggers, a man who keeps flies attached to strings on his lapels and threatens daily to poison the water supply; the members of the Married Woman's Card Club; and Minerva, a spiritualist and root doctor, based on real-life Valerie Boles."Reclusive voodoo priestess of 'Midnight' fame dies" – Savannah Morning News, May 8, 2009
Between becoming Williams's friend, a love interest of Mandy (whom he discovers is a torch singer), meeting every eccentric in Savannah, participating in Minerva's midnight graveyard rituals, and helping solve the mysteries surrounding Hanson's death, Kelso has his hands full. Kelso discovers that the bagging of Hanson's hands was performed by a nurse at Candler Hospital, when it should have been done at the crime scene instead. When Williams becomes confident he can win his case on a matter of flawed police procedure, he falsely testifies to killing Hanson with return fire in self-defense. This disappoints Kelso, to whom Williams has confessed he executed Hanson in retaliation for attempting to shoot him with the gun's safety catch on. The judge and jury later find Williams not guilty.
As Kelso is leaving town, when saying goodbye to Williams in the Mercer House study, he asks one last question for the book: Does he want to tell him what really happened? Williams replies, "Truth, like art, is in the eye of the beholder. You believe what you choose, and I'll believe what I know." He watches from the window as Kelso walks away. Minutes later, Williams is stricken by a heart attack and falls face down on the carpet. His heartbeat slows. He imagines Hanson lying alongside him, as he was in death. Their eyes meet, Hanson raises his head, smiles, then resumes his position, lifeless. The heartbeat has stopped. An overhead shot shows the two dead men lying like mirror images, then Hanson fades away. After the funeral, Minerva tells Kelso he knows all he needs to know and warns him not to waste too much time on the dead. “I love you, boy, but I ain’t the only one. You know that, don't you?” Later, Kelso signs a six-month lease on an apartment. To celebrate, he, Mandy and Lady Chablis, who is walking Uga, stroll off together for a picnic. Minerva, who is feeding Flavis, a squirrel, in the park, laughs as they pass. Cut to the cemetery and shots of the two graves. The credits roll over film of the Bird Girl statue in Bonaventure Cemetery,The sculpture has since been moved from the cemetery to Telfair Museums' Telfair Academy. with k.d. lang singing "Skylark", as she does in the movie's opening.
Cast
John Cusack as John Kelso Kevin Spacey as Jim Williams Jack Thompson as Sonny Seiler Irma P. Hall as Minerva Jude Law as Billy Hanson Alison Eastwood as Mandy Nichols Paul Hipp as Joe Odom The Lady Chablis as Chablis Deveau Kim Hunter as Betty Harty Geoffrey Lewis as Luther Driggers Bob Gunton as Finley Largent Richard Herd as Henry Skerridge Leon Rippy as Detective Boone Sonny Seiler as Judge Samuel L. White Dorothy Loudon as Serena Dawes Patrika Darbo as Sara Warren Michael Rosenbaum as George Tucker Jerry Spence as himself James Moody as William Glover Georgia Allen as Lucille Wright Emma Kelly as herself Géza von Habsburg as himself
Clint Eastwood permitted The Lady Chablis to ad-lib some of her lines, but had to rein her in on occasion. He gave her the nickname the "one-take wonder"."De Alba on Chablis" - David-De-Alba.com "We kind of hit the script in a roundabout way," confirmed John Cusack.The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, November 18, 1997 "[During filming] they put me up at the Holiday Inn," explained Chablis in 2011. "So I told Clint: 'Y'all forgot. I am the Doll. I do not stay at the Holiday Inn.' There was not enough room there for my luggage. And Clint apologized. He said, 'I can't believe they did that to you, Doll.' He was so wonderful.""FILM: WAKE UP SAVANNAH, THE WORLD IS COMING TO TOWN" - The Independent, 23 October 2011
Gary Anthony Williams played the tour-bus driver at the beginning of the movie.Gary Anthony Williams - British Film Institute He did more than just load the tourists' bags into the bus, however: "They hired me for the job, and for some reason they thought I could a drive a big double-decker bus that was from England," Williams explained in 2021. "With the steering wheel and gas and clutch on the opposite side, I thought I was going to kill a bunch of background actors that day. But Clint Eastwood was so cool. He put me at ease."
Production "[My character] is based loosely on John [Berendt]," Cusack said in 1997. "John is a very funny, curious, mischievous, smart guy, so I was definitely able to pull those qualities that John actually has and put them into the John Kelso character."John Cusack "Midnight in The Garden Of Good And Evil" 1997 - Bobbie Wygant Archive - The Bobbie Wygant Archive, YouTube, July 15, 2020
Flavis, the squirrel Minerva talks to on the Forsyth Park bench at the beginning of the movie, was a trained animal.
Differences from the book Several changes were made in adapting the film from the book. Many unused characters were eliminated or combined into remaining ones. John Berendt states at the end of his book that all "the characters in this book are real, but it bears mentioning that I have used pseudonyms for a number of them in order to protect their privacy." To create further distance, several character names in the movie are different than in the book.
John Berendt is removed from the journalistic role; the fictional John Kelso is introduced in his place, and a love interest is added Danny Hansford is renamed Billy Hanson Betty Harty, who welcomes John Kelso to Savannah, is named Mary Harty in the book The Mercer House bachelor party happens the night before the main party in the movie, but is the night after in the book The line "Serena, how lovely to see you out of bed" is spoken by Jim Williams in the movie; Colonel James P. Atwood says it in the book Lee Adler, the former member of the Telfair Museums board, becomes Lorne Atwell George Oliver, the judge in Williams's trial, becomes Samuel L. White"Judge George Oliver Dies at 89" - WTOC, July 2, 2004 Spencer Lawton, the district attorney who prosecutes Williams, is renamed Finley Largent Greg Kerr, one of those called to witness, becomes George Tucker Prentiss Crowe's lines about the deceased being "a good time not yet had by all" are instead spoken by Serena Dawes Sonny Clarke, a member of The Oglethorpe Club, says the line, "They're saying he shot the best piece of ass in Savannah" in the book, but it is given to Joe Odom in the movie