Wrongfully Accused

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Wrongfully Accused

Directed by	Pat Proft
Produced by	Pat Proft James G. Robinson Bernd Eichinger
Written by	Pat Proft
Starring	Leslie Nielsen Richard Crenna Kelly LeBrock Melinda McGraw Michael York
Music by	Bill Conti
Cinematography	Glen MacPherson
Editing by	James R. Symons
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	August 21, 1998 (USA)
Running time	87 min.
Country	Germany / USA
Language	English
IMDb profile

Wrongfully Accused is a 1998 comedy movie starring Leslie Nielsen as Ryan Harrison, a violinist who's been framed in the murder of Hibbing Goodhue by Sean Leaughrea, a one-armed, one-legged, one-eyed man, and his sister, Cass Lake. As Harrison runs from the law, Sean and Cass embark on a terrorist plot to assassinate the UN Secretary-General. This film was written, produced, and directed by Pat Proft. The film pokes fun at movies such as The Fugitive, Volcano, and others.

[edit] Trivia

Many of the character names are based on names of actual places in Minnesota:
- Hibbing Goodhue — combination of Hibbing, Minnesota and Goodhue County, Minnesota
- Cass Lake — both a lake and city in Cass County, Minnesota
- Lt. Fergus Falls — Fergus Falls, Minnesota
- Sgt. Orono — Orono, Minnesota
- Dr. Fridley — Fridley, Minnesota
The poster for Ryan's concert "Lord of the Violin" is a parody of the 1996 poster for Lord of the Dance. ([1])
When losing his bow during the concert, Ryan professionally takes up another from a sheath on his back after the fashion of famous rock drummers. Nick Mason does exactly that during the famous Live at Pompeii concert with Pink Floyd.
Ryan Harrison's name is based on Jack Ryan, Harrison Ford's character in Clear and Present Danger, and Harrison Ford himself.
The picture on the box of the home video is a parody to the cover of The Fugitive.
In the The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, Nielsen's character Frank Drebin mentions how painful it is to land on a bicycle without a seat. In Wrongfully Accused, Nielsen's character does just that after escaping from a bus/train collision.
Filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The "Machine Gun Jig" scene was a takeoff on the highly successful show Riverdance.
The car Cass cut off the police officers in is a Cadillac, but the officers refer to it as a Mercedes.
A huge number of artificial limbs were used such as the antagonist and the train running scene.
The usher gesturing viewers of Ryan's concert to their seats with a lightsaber is presumably poking fun at the Star Wars series of films.
In one scene, he talks his way out of suspicion by referencing objects in view in a direct parody of The Usual Suspects.
While it film was a box office failure ($10 million), it has made quite a popular resurgence on home video and especially DVD.
The entire film is based around a plot called Hylander; the Hylander is the mascot of the high school that Pat Proft graduated from, Columbia Heights (also the setting of the film) High School.
One scene presenting Ryan dressed in kilt parodies the William Wallace character from the film Braveheart. This may also be a pun on Hylander/Highlander.