Produced by Chartoff-Winkler Productions, it is adapted from the novel of the same name by John Gregory Dunne, loosely based on the Black Dahlia murder case of 1947.

He sometimes cuts a corner, overlooking the shady side of construction mogul Jack Amsterdam, a lay Catholic who uses his ties to Des for the congregation's benefit but mainly for his own.

One day, Lois Fazenda, a young woman, is found murdered, her body cut in two in a vacant lot.

Tom was acquainted with Brenda years earlier while working as a bagman for Amsterdam, whose corruption extends to the local prostitution ring.

Des organizes a Catholic "layman of the year" banquet for Amsterdam as a gesture of appreciation before ending the church's relationship with him.

Furious, Tom walks up to Amsterdam at the banquet and pulls off his sash while shouting: "Were you wearing this when you were banging Lois Fazenda?"

Amsterdam's lawyer, Dan Campion, warns the Monsignor that Tom better lay off unless they want it revealed publicly that Des, too, knew Fazenda.

His rising career curtailed, Des asks to be relocated to a remote parish in the desert, the same place to which his mentor in the diocese was exiled.

Basil's parish at the time, was brought in to coach De Niro on the sung Latin responses of the Mass and to conduct choral segments for the film.

By October 1978, Dunne and his wife, screenwriter Joan Didion, had completed a script, and Paul Schrader was originally intended to revise the screenplay and direct.

[1] Filming took place around Los Angeles in 1979, including at Echo Park, Union Station, and Alverno High School.

[7] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

[8] New York Times critic Vincent Canby declared the film "a reminder of just how good commercial American movies can be when the right people come together."

It's frustrating to sit through a movie filled with clues and leads and motivations, only to discover at the end that the filmmakers can't be bothered with finishing the story."