Traces of Red

Plot

Jack Dobson, a homicide detective from Palm Beach, lays flat on his back with a bullet in his chest. Flashbacks show the events that led him to this fate. Jack has been receiving threatening letters. He and his partner Steve Frayn conclude that the source must be Tony Garidi, a mob figure whom Jack is about to testify against in court. But another possibility is that someone could be causing trouble for Jack's brother, Michael, who is in an election campaign for public office.

Women begin turning up dead with lipstick traces left by the killer. A woman Jack has begun seeing, Ellen Schofield, could be involved. When Ellen sees Jack leave a restaurant with a woman who soon becomes a victim, suspicion is cast toward Jack himself as the killer. Jack eventually reveals that he was raped as a child by his former first grade teacher, Gloria Wurtz. While speaking with Michael, Steve learns that Jack was actually molested by their mother Louise.

Steve decides to go forward with his own investigation but, in the process, winds up having sex with Ellen, much to his wife Beth's (who he earlier celebrated his seventh wedding anniversary with) and Jack's (who now sees him as a traitor) dismay. After Ellen turns up dead, Jack decides to take Beth with him to a secluded getaway home, immediately following Steve confiding in Jack that he trusted him. After finding evidence that Jack is indeed the killer, Steve and Michael rush to the getaway home where Jack and Beth are.

Jack is holding Beth and is seemingly about to strangle her when Steve yells at Jack to freeze. Jack pushes Beth aside and draws his gun but is shot by Steve before he can get off a shot. Eventually, Michael is revealed to be the real killer. Jack's murder was faked, as he wanted to give Michael a false sense of security that he was dead. Michael is set up to seemingly be alone with Jack's friend Amanda in a hotel room. After he attempts to strangle Amanda, Steve bursts into the room with his gun drawn and tells Michael to freeze. It is then revealed that Jack is not dead, much to Michael's shock. Jack tells Steven and Amanda to leave the room so that he can talk to his brother alone. As they are embracing, Michael manages to take Jack's gun and commits suicide by shooting himself in the temple.

Cast

James Belushi as Detective Jack Dobson

Lorraine Bracco as Ellen Schofield

Tony Goldwyn as Detective Steve Frayn

Joe Lisi as Lieutenant J.C. Hooks

William Russ as Michael Dobson

Faye Grant as Beth Frayn

Michelle Joyner as Morgan Cassidy

Victoria Bass as Susan Dobson

Melanie Tomlin as Amanda

Jim Piddock as Mr. Martyn

Ed Amatrudo as Emilio

Danny Kamin as Prosecutor Dan Ayeroff

Harriet Grinnell as Louise Dobson

Lindsey Jayde Sapp as Nancy Frayn

Mario Ernesto Sánchez as Tony Garidi

Joe Hess as Rudy "Minnesota" Garidi

Will Knickerbocker as Tommy Hawkins

Edgar Allan Poe IV as Ian Wicks

Billy Garrigues as Phillip Norris

Katherine Culliver as Kimberly Davis

Renate Schlesinger as Ingrid

Production

Lorraine Bracco used a body double for her nude scene.

Reception

The film was released theatrically by The Samuel Goldwyn Company on November 13, 1992. After the limited theatrical release in the United States, the film became a surprise hit in the United States home video market; the film made 224.8% more revenue on home video than it did in theaters.

Bracco's performances in the film and Medicine Man earned her a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress at the 13th Golden Raspberry Awards.