Klute

Klute is a 1971 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alan J. Pakula, and starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi and Roy Scheider. Its plot follows a high-priced New York City call girl who assists a detective from Pennsylvania in solving the missing person case of a john who may be stalking her. It is the first installment of what has informally come to be known as Pakula's "paranoia trilogy", followed by The Parallax View (1974) and All the President's Men (1976), all films dealing with themes of paranoia, conspiracies and surveillance. The original screenplay for Klute was written by brothers Andy and Dave Lewis, with Andy drawing inspiration from a serial he read as a child about a man attempting to solve his brother's murder in a city. Principal photography took place in late 1970 and early 1971 in New York City. Klute was theatrically released in the United States on June 23, 1971 by Warner Bros. to critical and commercial success. Reviewers praised the film's direction, screenplay and most notably Fonda's performance, while the film grossed over $12 million against a $2.5 million budget. It received two nominations at the 44th Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress, which Fonda won. Plot After Pennsylvania chemical company executive Tom Gruneman disappears, the police find an obscene letter in Gruneman's office addressed to a New York City call girl named Bree Daniels, who had received several such letters. After six months of fruitless police work, Peter Cable, a fellow executive at Gruneman's company, hires family friend and detective John Klute to investigate Gruneman's disappearance.