October 30, 1987 (U.S.)
Fatal Beauty is a 1987 American action comedy crime thriller film directed by Tom Holland, and starring Whoopi Goldberg as Detective Rita Rizzoli, and Sam Elliott as Mike Marshak. The screenplay was written by Hilary Henkin and Dean Riesner. The original music score was composed by Harold Faltermeyer. The film was marketed with the tagline "An earthquake is about to hit L.A. It's called Detective Rita Rizzoli."
Storyline
LAPD detective Rita Rizzoli stages an undercover buy of a new strain of cocaine called "Fatal Beauty" with dealer Tito Delgadillo, but ruins it by leaving to save her informant Charlene from a beating by her pimp. Delgadillo steals her money and retreats to a warehouse in Chinatown where Fatal Beauty is manufactured. Two small-time hoods, Leo Nova and Earl Skinner, storm the warehouse and kill the entire gang, unknowingly stealing a botched batch of the drug. Rita later identifies Delgadillo's body and discovers another corpse in a van labeled "Kroll Enterprises." Rizzoli asks to investigate the company's owner, Conrad Kroll, but is rebuffed by her superior, Lt. Kellerman, due to Kroll's connections in Californian politics and Rizzoli's botching of her previous drug bust.
After Charlene tells Rizzoli that the owner of the warehouse drove a Rolls Royce, she sneaks into Kroll's Beverly Hills mansion, accusing him of drug dealing. After she is ordered to leave by Kellerman, Rizzoli hears a call for assistance over the scanner involving a standoff at Charlene's house in Hollywood. She rushes to the home as a man intoxicated on Fatal Beauty emerges, fires at the police, and remains standing after getting shot due to the potency of the drugs in his system. Rizzoli discovers Charlene dead from an overdose, and after failing to resuscitate her, she learns from her young son that she bought the drugs from her new pimp, Jimmy Silver. The LAPD discovers Fatal Beauty has a 50% purity and is cut with phencyclidine, causing its users to go insane and die rapidly. Rizzoli and her partner, Detective Jiminez, track down and arrest Jimmy and his supplier, Rafael. She gets into a shootout with Nova and Skinner, but is saved by Kroll's bodyguard, Mike Marshak.
After Rizzoli recovers from a gunshot wound, Marshak convinces her to let him drive her home as Jiminez gets in a shootout with Nova. Rizzoli and Marshak discover that numerous preteen children in Rizzoli's neighborhood are dying from taking Fatal Beauty, including ten of her neighbor Zach Yeager's friends, after his mother, Cecille, gave them the drug. Rizzoli admits to Marshak that she became addicted to drugs after having a child as a teenager, but recovered after her infant child got into her stash and died. However, she later discovers that Marshak was spying on her for Kroll.
After Zack attempts suicide, Cecille informs Rizzoli that her drug dealer, Denny Mifflin, will be buying Fatal Beauty from Nova and Skinner at Kroll Plaza that night. As Rizzoli prepares to arrest Mifflin, Kroll orders Marshak and the rest of his security guards to kill Nova, Skinner, and Rizzoli. However, Marshak alerts Rizzoli to their presence in time. In a gunfight, Nova and Skinner kill most of Kroll's security guards as well as Kroll, while Rizzoli and Marshak kill Nova and Skinner. As a wounded Marshak is taken aboard an ambulance, he tells her that he will likely go to prison for his involvement in Kroll's crimes, and she assures him that she will wait for his release and kisses him.
Movie Trailer
- Fatal Beauty (1987) (Trailers)