Mrs. Soffel

1984 • 111 minutes

About this movie

No one thought death row inmate Ed Biddle would escape the hangman’s noose. Most of all, no one in 1901 Pittsburgh imagined his accomplice in a daring jailbreak would be Kate Soffel, the warden’s wife. Directed by Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career, 1994’s Little Women), Mrs. Soffel is the astonishing true story of two people, two prisons. One inmate is handsome, desperate Ed (Mel Gibson), who, along with his brother Jack (Matthew Modine), restlessly awaits his fate. The other is Kate (Diane Keaton), who’s only vaguely aware of the iron bars her personal life has shuttered around her. Love becomes the power that lifts them out of their cages – and emboldens their hopeless dash for freedom.