Fatal Beauty is a 1987 American action comedy 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, of Top Gun fame. The film was marketed with the tagline "An earthquake is about to hit L.A. It's called Detective Rita Rizzoli."
Plot
Los Angeles Police Department narcotics detective Rita Rizzoli stages an undercover buy of a new strain of cocaine called "Fatal Beauty" with drug dealer Tito Delgadillo, but ruins the bust by leaving to save her informant Charlene from a beating by her pimp. Rizzoli saves Charlene and shoots the pimp, but 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 with a lethally high concentration of cocaine. 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 police standoff at Charlene's house in Hollywood. She rushes to the house as a man heavily intoxicated on Fatal Beauty emerges, fires at the police, and remains standing after getting shot twelves times 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 percent purity and is and cut with phencyclidine, causing its users to rapidly go insane and die. 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 they were given the drug by his mother Cecille. 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 an extended three-way gunfight Nova and Skinner kill most of Kroll's security guards, 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.
Cast
Whoopi Goldberg as Detective Rita Rizzoli
Sam Elliott as Mike Marshak
Rubén Blades as Detective Carl Jimenez
Harris Yulin as Conrad Kroll
John P. Ryan as Lieutenant Kellerman
Jennifer Warren as Cecile Jaeger
Brad Dourif as Leo Nova
Mike Jolly as Earl Skinner
Charles Hallahan as Sergeant Getz
M. C. Gainey as Detective Barndollar
James LeGros as Zack Jaeger
Celeste Yarnall as Laura
James Smith as Charlie
Mark Pellegrino as "Frankenstein" Neill Barry as Denny Miflin Clayton Landey as Jimmy Silver Ebbe Roe Smith as Marty Walter Robles as Clay Cathianne Blore as Charlene Steve Akahoshi as Detective Shigeta Larry Hankin as Jerry Murphy Bernie Hern as Mike Weinstein Cheech Marin as The Bartender David Harris as Raphael Fred Asparagus as Tito Delgadillo Gary Carlos Cervantes as Basquel Emilia Avarza as Candy Michael Delorenzo as "Flaco" Rick Telles as Epifanio Prince Hughes as Bubba "Big Bubba" Michael Champion as "Buzz"