The Public Eye on VHS video. Movie starring Joe Pesci and Barbara Hershey. With Richard Riehle, Stanley Tucci, Jerry Adler, Jared Harris. Directed by Howard Franklin. 1992.
Murder. Scandal. Crime. No matter what he was hooting, “The Great Bernzini” never took sides, he only took pictures… Except one.
Academy Award winner Joe Pesci is a brash, 1940’s tabloid photographer whose camera leads him into a shadowy underworld of mob violence, unlikely romance and dangerous corruption in this atmospheric mystery-thriller.
New York, 1942. Prowling the crime-ridden, midnight streets of the city, freelance shutterbug Leon “Bernzy” Bernstein (Pesci) captures life’s seamy side in his lens — and dreams of the day his pictures will be recognized as works of art. Then, ravishing nightclub owner Kay Levitz (Barbara Hershey) lures Bernzy into investigating the thugs trying to muscle in on her business. Before he knows it, he falls for the unattainable Kay — and plunges camera first into a treacherous realm of black market scams and mafia gang war. Now, Bernzy’s either going to take the fall or take the one-in-a-million shot that could change his life forever.
