Mike's Murder is a 1984 film, written and directed by James Bridges

James Bridges

James Bridges was an American screenwriter and film director.Bridges was born in Paris, Arkansas. He got his start as a writer for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and one of his episodes, "An Unlocked Window", earned him a 1966 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Episode in a TV...

, and stars Debra Winger

Debra Winger

Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...

, Mark Keyloun and Paul Winfield

Paul Winfield

Paul Edward Winfield was an American television, film, and stage actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Winfield also portrayed Dr....

.

Synopsis

In Los Angeles, bank teller Betty Parrish has a one-night stand with a young tennis instructor named Mike, but then has only random contact with him over the course of the next two years.

He is a drug dealer. One day Mike calls to tell her he is being chased for encroaching on another criminal's territory. Later, a friend of his calls to say Mike is dead, brutally murdered.

Betty can't let go of him, not without understanding him better, and tries to find out more. It leads to her discovering Mike's hidden side, including a disturbed acquaintance of his named Pete and a record producer named Philip who apparently was involved with Mike in a gay relationship. Betty's own life is placed in peril by the story's end.

Cast

• Debra Winger
  Debra Winger
  Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
  
   as Betty Parrish
• Mark Keyloun as Mike
• Paul Winfield
  Paul Winfield
  Paul Edward Winfield was an American television, film, and stage actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder which earned him an Academy Award nomination. Winfield also portrayed Dr....
  
   as Philip
• Darrell Larson as Pete
• Brooke Alderson

Production

Warner Brothers reportedly was unhappy about the project because of its premise with the drug-fixated underpinnings of the L.A. entertainment world and refused to release it until Bridges made some cuts and changes.

Bridges wrote the film for Winger having worked with her on Urban Cowboy

Urban Cowboy

Released as a 2× vinyl record album, re-released on CD in 1995.Side A:#Hello Texas – Jimmy Buffett #All Night Long – Joe Walsh #Times Like These – Dan Fogelberg #Nine Tonight – Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band...

. Her performance in Mike's Murder led the critic Pauline Kael

Pauline Kael

Pauline Kael was an American film critic who wrote for The New Yorker magazine from 1968 to 1991. Earlier in her career, her work appeared in City Lights, McCall's and The New Republic....

to describe Winger as "a major reason to go on seeing movies in the 1980s."