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{{Infobox film
{{Infobox film
| name = Under Suspicion
| name = Under Suspicion
| image = File:Under Suspicion (1991) Film Poster.jpg
| image = Under Suspicion (1991) Film Poster.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| caption = [[Film poster]]
| director = [[Simon Moore (writer)|Simon Moore]]
| director = [[Simon Moore (writer)|Simon Moore]]
| producer = [[Brian Eastman]]
| producer = [[Brian Eastman]]
| writer = [[Simon Moore (writer)|Simon Moore]]
| writer = [[Simon Moore (writer)|Simon Moore]]
| narrator =
| starring = {{Plain list |
| starring = {{Plain list |
* [[Liam Neeson]]
* [[Liam Neeson]]
Line 18: Line 16:
| cinematography = Vernon Layton
| cinematography = Vernon Layton
| editing = [[Tariq Anwar (film editor)|Tariq Anwar]]
| editing = [[Tariq Anwar (film editor)|Tariq Anwar]]
| studio = [[Carnival Films]]<br>[[London Weekend Television]]<br/>[[The Rank Organisation]]
| studio = {{plainlist|
* [[Carnival Films]]
* [[London Weekend Television]]
* [[The Rank Organisation]]
}}
| distributor = [[Rank Film Distributors]]
| distributor = [[Rank Film Distributors]]
| released = {{film date|df=y|1991|6|27|UK|}}
| released = {{film date|df=y|1991|6|27|United Kingdom}}
| runtime = 100 minutes
| runtime = 100 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| country = United Kingdom
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}}
}}


'''''Under Suspicion''''' is a 1991 [[neo noir]] [[erotic]] [[Thriller film|thriller]] film directed by [[Simon Moore (writer)|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.<ref name="Under Suspicion (1991) Awards">{{cite web |title=Under Suspicion (1991) Awards |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105691/awards |website=[[IMDb]] |access-date=19 January 2020}}</ref>
'''''Under Suspicion''''' is a 1991 [[neo noir]] [[erotic]] [[Thriller film|thriller]] film directed by [[Simon Moore (writer)|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==
==Plot==
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 ([[Maggie O'Neill|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.
The film is set in the late 1950s, when strict British divorce laws could be circumvented by manufacturing fake evidence of adultery, and in [[Brighton]], where such activities often occurred. An amoral private detective, who with the help of his wife provides phoney photographs and paid witnesses for divorce cases, becomes a prime suspect when his wife and a wealthy artist client are murdered.

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 ([[Alphonsia Emmanuel|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 (actor)|Stephen Moore]]) to reveal evidence that Tony is innocent after discovering Roscoe is engaging [[Male prostitution|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==
==Cast==
Line 42: Line 54:
* [[Alex Norton]] as Prosecuting Attorney
* [[Alex Norton]] as Prosecuting Attorney
* Kevin Moore as Barrister
* 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 (actor)|Richard Graham]] as Denny
* [[Alison Ruffelle]] as 1st Chambermaid
* [[Michael Almaz]] as Stasio


==Release==
==Release==
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==External links==
==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0105691|Under Suspicion}}
* {{IMDb title|0105691|Under Suspicion}}
* {{allMovie title|51}}
* {{TCMDb title|id=18882}}
* {{AFI film|59423}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|under_suspicion_1991}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes|under_suspicion_1991}}


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[[Category:1990s English-language films]]
[[Category:1990s English-language films]]
[[Category:1990s British films]]
[[Category:1990s British films]]
[[Category:English-language crime thriller films]]

Latest revision as of 19:02, 2 October 2024

Under Suspicion
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySimon Moore
Written bySimon Moore
Produced byBrian Eastman
Starring
CinematographyVernon Layton
Edited byTariq Anwar
Music byChristopher Gunning
Production
companies
Distributed byRank Film Distributors
Release date
  • 27 June 1991 (1991-06-27) (United Kingdom)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
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]

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]
  1. ^ "Under Suspicion (1992)". American Film Institute. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Under Suspicion". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Under Suspicion". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
[edit]
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