Under Suspicion

If you have a taste for the British type of whodunit, this is one of the better ones, although it is now nearly forgotten. There's lots of unique atmosphere, because the film takes place in Brighton during the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, 1959. There is nothing quite so seedy and desolate as Brighton in the off-season, with its deserted beaches and spooky run-down Art Nouveau buildings.

NUDITY REPORT

Laura San Giocomo showed most of her right breast.
Maggie O'Neill provided frontal nudity.
Liam Neeson (or his body double) provided complete frontal and rear nudity.
Stephen Moore and Lee Whitlock also did full-frontal male nudity.

Under Suspicion wasn't an important movie, and it generated almost no box office in the USA, but it was quite an entertaining one, and one of the very few movies in which the surprise ending is actually worth waiting for.

Liam Neeson plays a disgraced cop who has been reduced to an impoverished and sleazy life as a scamming private detective working on divorce cases. He and his wife set up a romantic rendezvous with various men. The wife gets in bed with the guys, Neeson photographs them. One day, Neeson barges into a hotel room as usual, only to find out that his wife and a rich guy have been brutally murdered. Whudunit? Was it the rich guy's wife who was cut out of the will on the day the rich man died? The mistress who stood to inherit everything as a result of the death? The cop whose partner died because of the actions of Neeson and his wife? Or someone else altogether?

DVD info from Amazon

widescreen anamorphic
no major features

There was something fairly creepy and vaguely pedophilic about the relationship between Liam Neeson and Laura San Giacomo, even though San Giacomo was 30 years old at the time. For one thing, the chemistry between them wasn't very convincing at all. Neither of them is the type to ignite a scene with fiery passion or unguarded emotions. Neeson makes Mr Spock's father seem like a nutty, impulsive, life-of-the-party kind of guy.

But that wasn't the creepy part, which would be the size difference between them. It looked like Neeson was trying to seduce a second grader (picture above). Neeson is 6'4" and looks taller. San Giacomo is generously listed at 5'2".

The Critics Vote

Rotten Tomatoes summary. Not enough reviews for a score.

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.2/10

Virtually unreleased in the USA, it grossed less than a quarter of a million dollars. Within two years, Neeson made Schindler's List and Rob Roy, and had migrated to the A list.

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, this film is a C. If you like sexy film noir whodunits dripping with atmosphere, this is a very solid one. Strong on plot, strong on atmosphere, but weaker on characterization and erotic passion.