10 Things You Didn’t Know About Murphy’s Law

I am sure many of you out there familiar with the adage of Murphy’s law that states anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. I am sure many of you have probably experienced the feeling of Murphy’s law at some point in your lives.

But I’m also sure that many of you don’t know some of the behind the scenes information I’m going to share about another Murphy’s Law, the 1986 Cannon release starring Charles Bronson and Kathleen Wilhoite.

In Murphy’s Law, Bronson plays a cop named Jack Murphy.  Murphy is hitting a point in his life where he is experiencing Murphy’s law. His wife has left him, he’s drinking again and to top it all off a a psychopath he put away years ago gets out of prison and is looking for revenge against all those who were responsible for putting her behind bars. And wouldn’t you know this psycho has special plans for Jack Murphy. She wants to make his life pure hell BEFORE she kills him. Why did they let her out again?

After he is framed for murder, Murphy finds himself on the run with a young street punk he nabbed for being a thief named Arabella McGee (Kathleen Wilhoite). 30 plus years later, Kathleen Wilhoite found herself doing the audio commentary with film historian Nick Redman for Twilight Time’s Blu-ray release of Murphy’s Law.

Wilhoite shares her personal experiences with the cast and crew of Murphy’s Law and a few behind the scenes stories on the audio commentary. I’ve selected some of the highlights from the commentary track and now I present to you…

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Murhpy’s Law

1. Director J. Lee Thompson and producer Pancho Kohner sat down with Kathleen Wilhoite prior to shooting to discuss how to get along with her co-star Charles Bronson. Their advice worked and Bronson and Wilhoite got along splendidly on set.

2. Wilhoite, going back to her method acting training, felt the character of Arabella McGee should have dressed more like an actual homeless street urchin. With that said, she did not protest when she was able to keep Arabella’s designer clothes after the movie wrapped.

3. Appollonia (of Purple Rain fame) was one of the actresses  that was up for the role of Arabella McGee.

4. When there would be delays between takes, Charles Bronson would often get frustrated and could be heard saying “Let’s shoot! Let’s shoot!” causing the crew to scramble. One reason for this is that family man Charles Bronson liked to go home after shooting each day and have dinner with his family.

5. Speaking of Bronson’s family, Bronson’s two step-sons were involved in Murphy’s Law. Paul McCallum played Hog, one of the thugs that confront Murphy and McGee after their helicopter crashes into the thugs’ barn (where they are growing marijuana). Paul also had small roles in other Bronson films like 10 to Midnight and Death Wish II. Valentine McCallum (or just plain Val to his friends) was one of the composers on Murphy’s Law. Val also composed music for other Bronson films like Assassination and Death Wish 4: The Crackdown.

6. Charles Bronson and Robert F. Lyons (who plays Jack Murphy’s partner Art Penney) were not just on-screen allies in Murphy’s Law, they were real life friends.  Lyons also worked with Bronson in Death Wish II and 10 to Midnight.

7. Carrie Snodgress, who played Joan Freeman the maniacal killer looking for revenge, ended up becoming a mentor of sorts to Kathleen Wilhoite. Snodgress gave Wilhoite tips on how to organize her script and how to mentally prepare for a shoot.

8. Lisa Vice, the actress who played the blonde hooker that was helping Frank Vincenzo (Richard Romanus) “relax” in his sweet penthouse apartment, refused to be completely nude in her one and only scene in the movie. Director J. Lee Thompson reminded Vice that she did audition for the role of a hooker and was aware when she was cast that nudity would be required and was not happy with her last minute protest. A compromise was made and Vice appears in a thong, but she did her best to make sure her bare breasts were not shown on camera. Murphy’s Law would end up being her last acting gig.

9. Nobody could accuse the Arabella McGee character of being one of the most lady like characters in movie history. McGee has a way with words, but her colorful insults were actually even more explicit and vulgar in the first draft of the Murphy’s Law script. Without the rewrite the world may have never been given the gift of “snot-licking donkey fart”.

10. The film’s finale takes place in the historic Bradbury Building in Los Angeles. Many movies have shot in the Bradbury, with the most famous being Blade Runner. One of the rules that the production crew had to follow when working in the Bradbury was that no food or drink was permitted on set.