Pick a Movie That Features a Hoax

There is another thread that has caused many to say that a movie reminds them of the MJ hoax. Since joining this site, I am reminded of two movies that had a poorly planned hoaxes. One is a nail-biting thriller and the other is a realy silly comedy.

Dead Ringer (1964)
After the funeral of her brother-in-law, Edith Phillips learns that Margaret de Lorca, her rich twin sister, had tricked her way into marriage with the man she also loved. So she kills Margaret and assumes her identity and life-style. However, her life becomes complicated by her late sister's sleazy boyfriend, Tony Collins and Sgt. Jim Hobbson, a Los Angeles detective who loved the "dead" Edith.
In Los Angeles, after eighteen years without speaking to each other, Edith Phillips meets her twin sister Margaret de Lorca in the funeral of Maggie's husband and former love of Edith that died of heart attack. Maggie invites Edith to visit her mansion, and Edith finds through her sister's driver that Maggie used a fake pregnancy to trick her and marry her passion. When Edith arrives in her bar, she is evicted by her landlord. Edith calls Maggie, kills her and assumes her identity. The police, including her boyfriend Sergeant Jim Hobbson, believe that Edith committed suicide in an act of despair. Edith lures Maggie's servants and friends, but when Maggie's lover Tony Collins appears, the situation becomes complicated for her. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Spolier for those who have not seen the movie: Edith goes on trial and his punished for the crime that her dead sister committed. She should have maintained her life as a poor bar maid instead of viewing the grass as being greener on the other side.


Irma la Douce (1963)
The film version of Irma la Douce (which means "Irma the Sweet") tells the story of Nestor Patou (Jack Lemmon), an honest policeman who finds a street full of prostitutes in Paris and reports them. The police inspector has been aware of those prostitutes but let them off by accepting bribes, so he fires Nestor who is conveniently framed for bribery. Kicked off the force, Nestor finds himself drawn to the very neighborhood of Paris that ended his career with the Paris police - returning to Chez Moustache, a popular hangout for prostitutes and their pimps. Down on his luck, Nestor becomes close friends with Irma La Douce (Shirley MacLaine), a popular prostitute. He also reluctantly accepts as a confidante, the proprietor of Chez Moustache, a man known only as "Moustache". (In a running joke, Moustache (Lou Jacobi), a seemingly ordinary barkeep, suggests a storied prior life - claiming to have been, among other things, an attorney and a doctor, ending with the repeated line "but that's another story".) After Irma dumps her pimp boyfriend, Nestor moves in with her, and he soon finds himself as Irma's new pimp.
Jealous of the thought of Irma with other men, Nestor comes up with a plan to stop Irma's prostitution. But he soon finds out that it's not all that it's cracked up to be. Nestor invents an alter-ego he calls "Lord X", a British peer who becomes Irma's single client. Nestor's plans to keep Irma off the streets soon backfire and she becomes suspicious, since Nestor must work long and hard to earn the cash "Lord X" pays Irma. When Irma decides to leave Paris with the fictitious Lord X, Nestor decides to end the charade. Unaware that he's being tailed by Irma's former pimp, Nestor finds a secluded stretch along the river Seine and tosses his disguise into it. The pimp, missing Nestor change into his clothes, but also seeing Lord X's clothes floating in the water, concludes that Nestor murdered him. Arrested by the police, Nestor is advised by Moustache against revealing that Lord X was a fabrication. "The jails are full with innocent people because they told the truth" the barkeep claims. Following Moustache's advice, Nestor admits killing Lord X, but only because of his love for Irma.
Hauled off to jail, but with Irma in love with him, Nestor is sentenced to 15 years, hard labor. Learning that Irma is very pregnant, and with Moustache's help, Nestor escapes from prison and returns to Irma. Nestor narrowly avoids being recaptured when the police search for him in Irma's apartment - donning his old uniform, Nestor simply blends in with the other policemen. With the help of Irma's ex-pimp, Nestor arranges for the police to search for him along the Seine from which, dressed as Lord X, he emerges. Knowing he can't be rearrested for a murder that Police now know didn't occur, Nestor rushes to Church where he plans to marry Irma. They barely make it through the ceremony before Irma delivers their baby. While Nestor and everyone else is occupied with Irma, Moustache notices one of the guests sitting alone in the front row. Rising from his seat and walking past Moustache, the guest is none other than Lord X! A clearly baffled Moustache looks at Lord X, and then at the audience. "But that's another story", he says.

I know a movie that fetures a hoax Its called "Whensdays ash! Its with Elijah Wood, and I cant remmeber the other actors name... But thats about hoaxing a death.

Sleeping with the Enemy - from 1991 staring Julia Roberts.

Here is the plot from Wikipedia:

Laura Burney (Julia Roberts) presumably has everything any woman can ever want, a beautiful home, a handsome and wealthy investment counselor husband, and any material pleasure she could desire. However, her marriage is not all that it seems.

Her abusive, possessive husband Martin (Patrick Bergin), is a controlling man who one day interprets her interaction with a neighbor at their beach home as flirting and strikes her in the face and kicks her as she lies helpless on the floor. From further discussions in the course of the movie, we come to understand that the abuses are ongoing and began immediately after marriage.

Laura sees her way out by planning and faking her own death at sea in a storm off Cape Cod near the couple's luxurious ocean-view home. Martin attends her funeral when her body is not found.

In flashback, we see how she swims to safety, having taken swimming lessons at the YWCA. She secretly returns home, retrieves some clothing and cash she had hidden away in preparation, disguises herself and leaves home after flushing her wedding ring down the toilet.

Laura moves to Cedar Falls, Iowa. In preparation she has told her husband that her mother died, and pretended to attend the funeral, but secretly she had moved her to a nursing home in Iowa. She rents a modest house and adopts the name Sara Waters.

Picking apples from a neighbor's garden one day she is caught by the owner, Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), who teases her about stealing them. After a poor beginning, Ben asks Laura to dinner, where he tells her that he teaches drama at the local college, but Laura tells him nothing about herself.

Martin is enraged to learn from a chance phone call from a friend of Laura's from the YWCA that Laura had been taking swimming lessons. Martin believes that the friend is talking about someone else until the woman mentions the bruises on Laura's body, which Laura claimed to get from gymnastics. Martin heads off home to do detective work. He finds the ring in the toilet bowl where it failed to flush, and sets out to find her. From the Cape Cod nursing home, he finds out that Laura's mother isn't dead, and using a detective agency he traces her to her new nursing home in Iowa. He visits the blind woman, Chloe Williams (Elizabeth Lawrence), without revealing his identity.

Meanwhile Laura and Ben have a falling-out when he discovers that her real name is not Sara. They make up with a date at the college. Laura rejects a pass from Ben, and tearfully begs him to leave. The next day she confesses that she is on the run from an abusive husband.

Martin and Laura, who is in disguise, show up at the nursing home at the same time, but they do not see one another. Posing as a policeman warning Chloe about the dangerous Martin Burney, he learns from her that her daughter is seeing a college drama teacher in nearby Cedar Falls. Martin is about to smother her with a pillow, when a nurse arrives and unknowingly thwarts him.

Martin visits the wrong college drama teacher and threatens him with a gun. The man protests that he is gay, and Martin knocks him unconscious. Martin finds Laura and Ben and clandestinely follows them to the fair and back to her home. Laura first knows something is up through a series of seemingly random mishaps: her bath overflows, her toast burns, and the canned goods in her kitchen cupboard are lined up meticulously (one of Martin's idiosyncrasies). Then she hears the Symphonie fantastique, a musical piece Martin used to like to make love to. She then hears Ben at the door. As she makes her way to the door, she sees Martin's reflection. He pulls a gun and threatens to kill Ben if she doesn't get rid of him. She talks to him through the door's security chain and begs off from their date.

After closing the door, Martin resumes his conversation with Laura. Ben, hearing them, breaks down the door and struggles with Martin, who knocks him unconscious with the butt of his pistol. He aims the gun at Ben's head.

Laura, in an effort to keep Martin from killing the now-defenseless Ben, pretends to go along with Martin's plans to take her back. However, she takes him by surprise by fighting back when she knees him in the groin ^[1]. Martin drops the gun and she manages to take control of it. She fires a single shot at Martin, just missing his head. Martin, undaunted, dares her to call the police. She tells him to stop coming closer, but Martin walks forward slowly. She reaches for the phone and does so, stating, "Come quickly. I've just killed an intruder," aiming the gun at Martin with her trembling hand.

Martin's face turns to horror and Laura shoots him three times in the chest before dropping the pistol. As a sobbing Laura collapses, Martin grabs her by the hair and points the gun to her face. But when he pulls the trigger, the gun only clicks, as all the cartridges are gone. Martin sags lifelessly to the floor. As Ben slowly wakes up, Laura goes to him and they embrace. The movie ends with a closeup of Martin's body lying in the foreground with Laura's wedding ring inches from his hand.

It's an amazing film, but sad and Julia is AMAZING in it

This remindes me of a movie that someone told me about a few days ago. I havent see it, but I heard it is good. It is called Double Jeopardy (1999).

Double Jeopardy is about this couple who go out for a boat ride, and end up spending the night in the boat. When the wife, Libby, wakes the next morning, she finds her husband, Nick, gone and laying on the boat is a knife and tons of blood. She is convicted of the crime, but pleads innocence. She is sent to jail for about 7 yrs, and during her time in jail learns that her husband is actually alive. He had hoaxed his death because he was in financial debt and had a $2 million insurance policy.

spolier: Libby finds her husband and kills him. Due to the Double Jeopardy clause in the U.S. Consititution, she cannot be charged with the crime again, so she walks free.

Rach wrote:Sleeping with the Enemy - from 1991 staring Julia Roberts.

Here is the plot from Wikipedia:

Laura Burney (Julia Roberts) presumably has everything any woman can ever want, a beautiful home, a handsome and wealthy investment counselor husband, and any material pleasure she could desire. However, her marriage is not all that it seems.

Her abusive, possessive husband Martin (Patrick Bergin), is a controlling man who one day interprets her interaction with a neighbor at their beach home as flirting and strikes her in the face and kicks her as she lies helpless on the floor. From further discussions in the course of the movie, we come to understand that the abuses are ongoing and began immediately after marriage.

Laura sees her way out by planning and faking her own death at sea in a storm off Cape Cod near the couple's luxurious ocean-view home. Martin attends her funeral when her body is not found.

In flashback, we see how she swims to safety, having taken swimming lessons at the YWCA. She secretly returns home, retrieves some clothing and cash she had hidden away in preparation, disguises herself and leaves home after flushing her wedding ring down the toilet.

Laura moves to Cedar Falls, Iowa. In preparation she has told her husband that her mother died, and pretended to attend the funeral, but secretly she had moved her to a nursing home in Iowa. She rents a modest house and adopts the name Sara Waters.

Picking apples from a neighbor's garden one day she is caught by the owner, Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), who teases her about stealing them. After a poor beginning, Ben asks Laura to dinner, where he tells her that he teaches drama at the local college, but Laura tells him nothing about herself.

Martin is enraged to learn from a chance phone call from a friend of Laura's from the YWCA that Laura had been taking swimming lessons. Martin believes that the friend is talking about someone else until the woman mentions the bruises on Laura's body, which Laura claimed to get from gymnastics. Martin heads off home to do detective work. He finds the ring in the toilet bowl where it failed to flush, and sets out to find her. From the Cape Cod nursing home, he finds out that Laura's mother isn't dead, and using a detective agency he traces her to her new nursing home in Iowa. He visits the blind woman, Chloe Williams (Elizabeth Lawrence), without revealing his identity.

Meanwhile Laura and Ben have a falling-out when he discovers that her real name is not Sara. They make up with a date at the college. Laura rejects a pass from Ben, and tearfully begs him to leave. The next day she confesses that she is on the run from an abusive husband.

Martin and Laura, who is in disguise, show up at the nursing home at the same time, but they do not see one another. Posing as a policeman warning Chloe about the dangerous Martin Burney, he learns from her that her daughter is seeing a college drama teacher in nearby Cedar Falls. Martin is about to smother her with a pillow, when a nurse arrives and unknowingly thwarts him.

Martin visits the wrong college drama teacher and threatens him with a gun. The man protests that he is gay, and Martin knocks him unconscious. Martin finds Laura and Ben and clandestinely follows them to the fair and back to her home. Laura first knows something is up through a series of seemingly random mishaps: her bath overflows, her toast burns, and the canned goods in her kitchen cupboard are lined up meticulously (one of Martin's idiosyncrasies). Then she hears the Symphonie fantastique, a musical piece Martin used to like to make love to. She then hears Ben at the door. As she makes her way to the door, she sees Martin's reflection. He pulls a gun and threatens to kill Ben if she doesn't get rid of him. She talks to him through the door's security chain and begs off from their date.

After closing the door, Martin resumes his conversation with Laura. Ben, hearing them, breaks down the door and struggles with Martin, who knocks him unconscious with the butt of his pistol. He aims the gun at Ben's head.

Laura, in an effort to keep Martin from killing the now-defenseless Ben, pretends to go along with Martin's plans to take her back. However, she takes him by surprise by fighting back when she knees him in the groin ^[1]. Martin drops the gun and she manages to take control of it. She fires a single shot at Martin, just missing his head. Martin, undaunted, dares her to call the police. She tells him to stop coming closer, but Martin walks forward slowly. She reaches for the phone and does so, stating, "Come quickly. I've just killed an intruder," aiming the gun at Martin with her trembling hand.

Martin's face turns to horror and Laura shoots him three times in the chest before dropping the pistol. As a sobbing Laura collapses, Martin grabs her by the hair and points the gun to her face. But when he pulls the trigger, the gun only clicks, as all the cartridges are gone. Martin sags lifelessly to the floor. As Ben slowly wakes up, Laura goes to him and they embrace. The movie ends with a closeup of Martin's body lying in the foreground with Laura's wedding ring inches from his hand.

It's an amazing film, but sad and Julia is AMAZING in it

Watched this one just today

Beautiful mind! it's wonderful... hahaha! not sure if you would call it a Hoax though.

OR! Collateral, by Tom Cruise.