Under Suspicion (1991 film)

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
Tony Aaron (Neeson) is a policeman 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 (Cranham) his colleague and friend. He 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 policeman Colin (Grace) killing him.

Two years later over Christmas 1959 Tony has left the Police and is working as an unsuccessful private detective who is heavily in debt. His speciality 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 he 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 Angeline (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 (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.

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 Frank’s death. Angeline is arrested trying to leave the country and is tried for Stasio’s murder. Tony makes plans to leave the United Kingdom and visits Angeline in prison where he whispers in her ear whether he murdered Stasio and Hazel or not.

Selina meets Tony in Miami where she tells him that she has started releasing Stasio’s paintings onto the open market while writing him a cheque for services unknown.

Cast

 * 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

Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 25% based on reviews from 8 critics.