Under Suspicion (1991 film)
| Under Suspicion | |
|---|---|
_Film_Poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Simon Moore |
| Written by | Simon Moore |
| Produced by | Brian Eastman |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Vernon Layton |
| Edited by | Tariq Anwar |
| Music by | Christopher Gunning |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6 million[1] |
| Box office | $221,295[2] |
Under Suspicion is a 1991 neo noir erotic thriller film directed by Simon Moore and starring Liam Neeson and Laura San Giacomo. Neeson won best actor at the 1992 Festival du Film Policier de Cognac for his performance.
Plot
[edit]Tony Aaron (Liam Neeson) is a police investigator living in Brighton on the south coast of Great Britain at the end of the 1950's. He has been assigned to watch the house of a Powers (Talbot), a local criminal, along with Frank (Kenneth Cranham), his colleague and friend. Tony leaves Frank to go inside the house and continue an affair with Hazel (O’Neill), Powers’s wife. When Powers returns home early and discovers the pair, he retrieves his shotgun to shoot the lovers but is disturbed by Frank and in the ensuing chaos shoots another police officer Colin (Grace) killing him.
Two years later over Christmas 1959, Tony has left the force and is working as an unsuccessful private detective who is heavily in debt. His specialty is faking evidence of adultery for use in divorce cases, a common trick to obtain a divorce in England and Wales at the time. He collects a customer from the station and runs through his routine of extorting more money by claiming that he has to use a more expensive hotel and substitutes his wife in place of an obvious prostitute.
A few days later, Tony is seen collecting a new customer and running through the same routine. When he goes to the hotel room to photograph the customer and his wife in bed, Tony finds they have both been shot dead. In the investigation, it is revealed that Tony’s customer was Stasio (Almaz), a famous painter who was seeking a divorce from his wife Selina (Emmanuel) to enable him to marry another woman named Angeline (Laura San Giacomo). Following the murder, Stasio’s thumb had been cut off. Both Tony and Frank start to investigate the crime, separately visiting Angeline and Selina. Stasio’s will reveals that he left everything to Angeline and nothing to Selina.
Tony and Angeline become lovers, and he discovers that Stasio had imprinted his thumb on his paintings to prove their authenticity. Tony uses his time in the house to search Stasio’s studio for evidence. As the investigation continues, suspicion falls on Tony when the gun used is found in the hotel’s furnace and it is traced back to him. In an attempt to prove Tony's innocence, Frank puts pressure on Roscoe (Stephen Moore) to reveal evidence that Tony is innocent after discovering Roscoe is engaging rent boys but Roscoe commits suicide and leaves an incriminating note alleging Tony's guilt. Tony is arrested and put on trial where he is found guilty of murdering the pair when it is revealed that he married for her money and wished to leave her. Angeline is a surprise prosecution witness and testifies that she saw a man climbing over the roof of the hotel before the shooting and when the man stopped for a cigarette, she witnessed him bang the lighter twice on his hand then shaking it twice before it would light - a unique sequence that Tony uses. Tony is sentenced to be hanged.
On the night before the hanging, Frank returns to Stasio’s house where he finds Stasio’s thumb inside Angeline’s paint box. He returns to the prison just in time to stop Tony's hanging. Meanwhile, Angeline is arrested trying to leave the country and is tried for Stasio’s murder. Tony makes plans to leave the country and visits Angeline in prison where she deduces that Tony and Selina worked together to frame her. Tony whispers in Angeline's ear whether he was responsible for Stasio and Hazel's murder.
Tony meets Selina in Miami, who tells him that she has started releasing Stasio’s paintings onto the open market while writing him a cheque for services unknown. She chides Tony for having fallen in love with Angeline which led to him delaying the planting of the thumb in Angeline's paint box. In the film’s closing moments, a dejected Tony is seen using his lighter in the manner described by Angeline in court.
Cast
[edit]- Liam Neeson as Tony Aaron
- Laura San Giacomo as Angeline
- Kenneth Cranham as Frank
- Maggie O'Neill as Hazel Aaron
- Stephen Moore as Roscoe
- Alphonsia Emmanuel as Selina
- Alex Norton as Prosecuting Attorney
- Kevin Moore as Barrister
- Alan Talbot as Powers
- Malcolm Storry as Waterston
- Martin Grace as Colin
- Stephen Oxley as Hotel Deskman
- Colin Dudley as Hotel Waiter
- Richard Graham as Denny
- Alison Ruffelle as 1st Chambermaid
- Michael Almaz as Stasio
Release
[edit]Reception
[edit]On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 25% based on reviews from 8 critics.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ "Under Suspicion (1992)". American Film Institute. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
- ^ "Under Suspicion". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
- ^ "Under Suspicion". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 19 January 2020.