First Monday in October (1981)

First Monday in October movie storyline. The death of Stanley Moorehead, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, has created a vacancy on the high court. The president’s appointee turns out to be Ruth Loomis, a staunch conservative from Orange County, California, who is confirmed as the first female Associate Justice.

She and Associate Justice Daniel Snow, a committed liberal who is many years older than Loomis and with many years on the Supreme Court, clash intellectually on just about every judicial issue before them. One case involves a pornographic film and involves arguments about freedom of speech.

Another is a lawsuit, sent up from the lower court, brought by a company’s stockholders regarding the suppression of a possibly revolutionary new power source, a momentum engine. The patent is controlled by the board of directors of Omnitech International, and its CEO Donald Richards, who has not been seen in public for a decade and is unavailable by subpoena.

With time, the two judges develop a liking and respect for each other. They realize this while Snow is recovering in the hospital from a “heart episode” suffered while he and Loomis were debating the complexities of the momentum engine/Omnitech case, after hours, in the courthouse.

First Monday in October is a 1981 American comedy-drama film from Paramount Pictures, produced by Paul M. Heller and Martha Scott, directed by Ronald Neame, that is based on the 1978 play of the same name by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. The film stars Walter Matthau (for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy) and Jill Clayburgh (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy). The cast also co-stars Jan Sterling in her final feature film role.

First Monday in October was originally scheduled for a February 1982 release, but President Ronald Reagan’s appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female Supreme Court justice on July 7, 1981, forced the film’s release a month after the presidential nomination, in August 1981.

First Monday in October (1981)

Directed by: Ronald Neame
Starring: Walter Matthau, Jill Clayburgh, Barnard Hughes, Jan Sterling, James Stephens, Joshua Bryant, Wiley Harker, F.J. O’Neil, Charles Lampkin, Lew Palter, Richard McMurray, Herb Vigran
Screenplay by: Jerome Lawrence
Production Design by: Philip M. Jefferies
Cinematography by: Fred J. Koenekamp
Film Editing by: Peter E. Berger
Costume Design by: Ruth Myers
Set Decoration by: Ernie Bishop, Robert De Vestel
Art Direction by: John V. Cartwright
Music by: Ian Fraser
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: August 21, 1981