Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (film)

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a 1997 American mystery thriller 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 an antiques dealer on trial for the murder of a male prostitute. The multiple trials depicted in Berendt's book are combined into one trial for the film.
Several real-life locals appear in the movie, notably in the party scene at Mercer House, including Williams' sister, Dorothy, and nieces, Susan and Amanda. Filming was permitted inside Mercer House, but action scenes were done 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' lawyers in the book, plays Judge Samuel L. White. Danny Hansford, the shooting victim in the book, is renamed Billy Hanson in the film.
The film was shot entirely in Savannah, Georgia.
Plot.
The panoramic tale of Savannah's eccentricities focuses on a murder and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey), a self-made man, art collector, antiques dealer, bon vivant, and semi-closeted homosexual. John Kelso (John Cusack), a magazine reporter with one book — "Before the Fall" — to his name, finds himself in Savannah, amid the beautiful architecture and odd doings, to write a feature for "Town & Country" on one of Williams' famous Christmas parties.
Kelso is intrigued by Williams from the start, but his curiosity is piqued when he meets the violent, young Billy Hanson (Jude Law), Williams' lover. Later that night, Hanson is dead, and Kelso stays on to cover the murder trial. Along the way he encounters the irrepressible The Lady Chablis, a transgender entertainer; Sonny Seiler, lawyer to Williams, whose dog, Uga IV, is the official mascot of the Georgia Bulldogs; a man who keeps flies attached to mini leashes on his lapels and threatens daily to poison the water supply; Serena Dawes, a former silent-film actress; the Married Ladies Card Club; and Minerva, a spiritualist and voodoo practitioner.
Between becoming Williams' friend, cuddling up to a torch singer, meeting every eccentric in Savannah, participating in midnight graveyard rituals, and helping solve the mysteries surrounding Hanson's murder, Kelso has his hands full. The judge and jury later find Williams not guilty, much to the pleasure of Kelso and the witnesses. Williams congratulates Kelso on proving his innocence.
As depicted in the book, Williams suffers a heart attack and dies a week after the trial concludes. As he dies on the floor near where Hanson died from his wounds, Williams sees an apparition of the hustler in death, then momentarily alive. The camera cuts away from the scene, showing both Hanson and Williams dead and only a few feet from each other, before Hanson fades out of picture. Following the funeral and visiting Hanson's grave once more with Minerva, Kelso, Mandy and the Lady Chablis go off together for a picnic with Uga.
Cast.
Clint Eastwood permitted The Lady Chablis to ad-lib some of her lines. He gave her the nickname the "one-take wonder". "We kind of hit the script in a roundabout way," confirmed John Cusack. "[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."
Gary Anthony Williams played the tour-bus driver at the beginning of the movie. 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."
James Gandolfini made a cameo appearance as the cook in the two scenes filmed at Clary's.
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." 
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: "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.
The multiple trials were combined into one on-screen trial. Williams' real life attorney, Sonny Seiler, played Samuel L. White, the presiding judge of the trial. Seiler was originally cast as a juror, but Eastwood persuaded him to take on the role of the judge. "I said, 'I'm not an actor,' and Clint said, 'Of course you are. All lawyers are actors, and you are one of the best. If you do this for me, I won’t have to hire a dialect coach.'" Seiler's daughter, Bess Thompson, appears in the movie as the "pretty girl" in Forsyth Park who asks if she can have her picture taken with Uga.
Advertising.
Advertising for the film became a source of controversy when Warner Bros. used elements of Jack Leigh's famous photograph in the posters without permission, infringing copyright law.
Filming locations.
While entertaining the role of being the film's director, Clint Eastwood visited Savannah, Georgia, where the entire film would be shot, in 1996. "I didn't get to know too many people at that time — mostly places — but I did meet some people who knew about the Jim Williams episode. And I met the attorney, Sonny Seiler, who was very, very helpful in making everyone understand what the attitude and atmosphere was in Savannah in the 1980s," he said. Principal photography began in spring the following year.
"[John Berendt and I] spoke a lot about the novel and he took us on a tour of Savannah — The John Berendt Tour — which is a great tour of Savannah," John Cusack said in 1997. "We talked about the screenplay. He was very helpful." As for Savannah itself: "I'd definitely go back and hang out. It's a fun place. It's terrific being in a place that isn't interested in being modern. It's not interested in the fast-paced, kinetic lifestyle that we all lead. It's very relaxed; it's got a slow rhythm. All the squares that are in the middle of the town are made so that you can't speed through in traffic; you have to go leisurely around. Cocktail parties and parties are a big deal. It's interested in preserving its past; it's not interested in moving towards the future. It's interested in the way it is. It's very lush and exotic and mysterious."
Several scenes were filmed in and around Monterey Square. Jim Williams' Mercer House is located in the southwestern tything block of the square, at 429 Bull Street. Williams' sister, Dorothy Kingery, became the owner of the house after her brother's death. After initially agreeing to permit filming to take place inside the home, she developed cold feet. "Clint Eastwood came from California the next day," Kingery said. "We talked about my concerns, and he addressed those." While most of the scenes were filmed inside the home, the fight and shooting scenes were done in a California studio. When it came to the Christmas party scenes, the house contained so many valuable pieces of art and furniture that it presented a security problem. Eastwood decided, therefore, not to use extras. He instead sent out engraved invitations to the same locals that Williams used to invite to his parties.
John Kelso is shown being welcomed by Mrs. Baxter to the Italianate house at 2 East Taylor Street — the 1880-built former home of Hugh Comer (1842–1900), president of Central of Georgia Railroad, on the square's northeastern ward. Kelso does not stay there in the movie, however; his carriage-house apartment was built on a soundstage in Burbank, California. Window shots from inside the carriage house were filmed across from 115 East Jones Street, which Joe Odom was looking after for its owner, who was in New York. (Odom's house, constructed by Eliza Jewett in 1847, was at 16 East Jones.) Kelso's six-month rental, shown at the end of the film, is 218 West Jones Street, which is now valued at over $1.15 million.
The scenes at Sonny Seiler's offices were filmed at the Armstrong House, 447 Bull Street, south of Monterey Square and close to the northern edge of Forsyth Park. John Bouhan was one of the partners of Bouhan, Williams & Levy, which moved into Armstrong House in 1970. Bouhan died the following year, but it is his dog, Patrick, that was continued to be walked by the law firm's porter, William Glover (James Moody), long after Bouhan's death. In 2017, Bouhan Falligant LLP moved to One West Park Avenue after developer Richard C. Kessler bought Armstrong House. Seiler retired just before the move.
The courthouse scenes were filmed at the Tomochichi Federal Building and United States Courthouse, in the western trust lot of Wright Square. Dixie's Flowers, the flower shop Mandy works at, is in the northeastern tything lot of the square, at 6 East State Street.
The residence used as The Lady Chablis' home is 418 East Liberty Street. The Myra Bishop Family Clinic she walks to is at 311 Habersham Street, about 500 feet away.
Kelso has breakfast at Clary's Cafe, at 404 Abercorn Street. Photos of the cast taken during down time from filming are hung by the door to the diner.
The Married Women's Card Club is at 126 East Gaston Street.
Churchill's Pub was located at 9 Drayton Street at the time of filming, but it was damaged in a fire six years later and closed.
The Debutante Ball was filmed at the Savannah Inn and Country Club. (It later became Wilmington Island Club but was renamed back to Savannah Inn and Country Club in 2018.)
Bonaventure Cemetery, on the city's eastern edge, is featured on several occasions, although Minerva performs her mysterious incantations at the "colored cemetery" just beyond it in the movie. (In the book, said cemetery is in Beaufort, South Carolina, within walking distance of Minerva's home.)
Forsyth Park is the venue for the dog-walking scenes, including the cameo appearance of Uga V, the English bulldog live mascot of the University of Georgia, playing his father, Uga IV. Uga V died two years after filming. The Uga mascots live in Savannah between football games.
Candler Hospital is misspelled "Chandler Hospital" throughout the film. 
After location filming ended in June 1997, a fundraiser was held at and for Savannah's Lucas Theatre, which was built in 1921. Spacey donated $200,000 in Williams' honor to assist in the $7.6-million renovation of the theatre. "I love Savannah. I had a great time here," said Spacey, an Oscar winner in 1996 for his role in "The Usual Suspects". "I plan to visit again. And once this (theater) gets done, I'll bring a play here." It was hoped that the movie's premiere would take place at the Lucas, but it was instead held on November 17 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. Its Savannah premiere occurred on November 20 at the Johnny Mercer Theater. It opened nationwide the following day.
Soundtrack.
The soundtrack for the film was released in 1997. It is also dedicated to Johnny Mercer. The CD includes versions of songs heard in the film.
Reception.
The film was a box office failure, grossing $25.1 million to an estimated $30 million budget. It also received mixed reviews, with a score of 50% on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, based on 36 reviews with an average rating of 5.98/10. The site's consensus states: "Clint Eastwood's spare directorial style proves an ill fit for this Southern potboiler, which dutifully trudges through its mystery while remaining disinterested in the cultural flourishes that gave its source material its sense of intrigue." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.
"Kevin Spacey played Jim Williams -- badly," John Berendt said in a 2015 interview. "He didn't even come close. I had offered [Spacey] recordings so he could to listen to Jim Williams talking to me, regaling me with stories while sitting in his living room in Mercer House. [Spacey] said he'd already heard Williams on tape talking during one of his trials. But when I saw the movie, I was perplexed by the way Spacey portrayed Williams, because he did it as if he were asleep. He talked as if he were in a fog or sleepwalking. Then I realized what had happened, and I thought it was hilariously funny." Berendt believes Spacey listened to tapes of Williams during the third trial, when he had taken Valium.