"It's an interesting setup, Mr. Ross. It is the oldest confidence game on the books. The Spanish Prisoner... Fellow says, him and his sister, wealthy refugees, left a fortune in the Home Country, he got out, girl and the money stuck in Spain. Here is her most beautiful portrait. And he needs money to get her and the fortune out. Man who supplies the money gets the fortune and the girl. Oldest con in the world."
Like David Mamet's debut feature "House of Games," "The Spanish Prisoner" centers on an elaborate confidence game, and its labyrinthine plot is laden with twists and reversals. Reminiscent of "The Usual Suspects" and Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and "North by Northwest," "The Spanish Prisoner" is a film that will keep audiences guessing until the very end.
Meet Joe Ross (Campbell Scott), inventor of "The Process," a top-secret formula that's already got his boss Mr. Klein (Ben Gazzara) seeing dollar signs. But while he's flown Joe down to a secluded Caribbean island resort for a hush-hush meeting of big stockholders, Mr. Klein has only vague promises about cutting Joe in on some of the profits. Joe's a trusting guy, but he's starting to think that he might be getting shut out of the biggest thing that's ever happened to him. Taking a walk on the beach to mull things over, Joe encounters Jimmy Dell (Steve Martin), a mysterious, jet-setting businessman, and they make plans to meet in New York.
When, back in the city, Joe confides his troubles to Jimmy, Jimmy offers to help Joe fight to get what's his. But as his relationship with the company deteriorates, so does Joe's faith in the people around him--his colleague and confidant George (Ricky Jay), Klein, Jimmy, and even Susan (Rebecca Pidgeon), a secretary with a none-too-subtle crush on him. Are these people his friends, as they claim, or is there something darker underneath? As they all pledge to stand by him, Joe finds himself not knowing who to trust or where to turn, trapped in a world in which nothing and no one are what they seem.
