Liam Neeson is the reason for the season, or at least, the reason we watched UNDER SUSPICION (1991)!
Tis the Season! And what better to depict this time of the year than a story of greed, adultery and murder than Stephen Hop... I mean, Simon Moore's UNDER SUSPICION. Starring the inimitable Liam Neeson (even though Ryan tries) and the cream of the crop of British telly and film performers, this "whodunnit" about defrauding the strict divorce laws set in late 1950's Brighton, starts off with a BANG (quite literally) but.... um.... kinda just... well... continues... to play. Neeson is the reason to stay for this one. Aptly put in this episode, "he's a Gandalf in a Hobbit world".
Ryan: Wonder what it sounds like when I do my Liam, um, neeson voice screaming my Captain Bird's Eye voice.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Going out to get some fresh air.
Laura: I'm innocent.
Ryan: I know. I didn't kill them. I didn't kill them. I love my wife.
Laura: I love my wife. Well, hello there. Welcome to On the BiTTE the podcast that uncovers full frontal male nudity in cinema. My name is Laura and I am joined by my co host, Ryan.
Ryan: Oh, Christmas tree. Oh, Christmas tree.
Laura: It is a, uh, Christmas christmas tree.
Ryan: Oh, is it? Christmas tree. I was singing this song like I was actually going to sing this song.
Laura: Trying to change it.
Ryan: DA, DA DA DA christmas tree.
Laura: We're doing a movie podcast.
Ryan: Yes. The knobs are all covered in glitter and tinsel.
Laura: Whoa.
Ryan: And, uh, they got little bobbles hanging off them. We've come to Christmas, uh, uh, the once Christian tradition now the capitalist bloodbath that it has now turned itself into pagan tradition. But that's fine either way. Uh, that was absconded I thought it was Jesus'birthday. Right.
Laura: Uh, happy birthday, Jesus.
Ryan: Happy birthday, Jesus. How were you born? No one really knows. It's an unexplainable it's a miracle, as they say.
Laura: It's a lovely fictional tale, uh, that was written in a book. And now we get to give each other presents.
Ryan: Yes, there's a book full of moralistic tales to live your life by.
Laura: And because of this beautiful story, we get to look at wieners and Christmas movies this year. Our first of the 2022 Christmas season.
Ryan: Yeah. Did we do Christmas movies last year or did we just do movies?
Laura: I don't remember.
Ryan: Okay, well, I guess it's yeah, I guess it's really not that important, but, uh, yes.
Laura: And for this very first movie of the Christmas season, we are uncovering the 1991 thriller Under Suspicion, directed by Stephen Hopkins, starring Liam Neeson, Laura Sangiacomo, Kenneth Cranham, and Maggie O'Neill.
Ryan: Are you sure that's correct? It's Simon Moore who directed this.
Laura: Oh, God. I had act so funny. I actually wrote Stephen Hopkins because I was about to say this is not the Under Suspicion, directed by Stephen Hopkins.
Ryan: Yes, that movie.
Laura: This is the under suspicion. Uh directed by simon moore. Yeah, I messed that up. You did mess it up because I wanted to know this is not the Gene Hackman Morgan Freeman movie.
Ryan: Wow. Because we were all going to say that. Probably was talking about the other movie. Well, the other movie is also not widely available either, whether or not it's any good or not. I mean, this one's also not very good either.
Laura: No, we didn't do a double feature of Under Suspicion.
Ryan: No, we didn't feel the need to. Um, it was already quite, uh, torturous trying to, uh, watch this film a second time, of which I kind of came in and out of this film because I felt like I remembered, uh, it quite succinctly the first time around.
Laura: This is not true. So let me just drop the synopsis real quick. And then we'll obviously get into the film. But I didn't remember it very well. And then you proceeded when the movie began to tell me how it went. And it's a twisty turny thriller. Right? So you said, this is how it's going to happen. This is who we're in cahoots and this is how it ends.
Ryan: I was 90% spot on.
Laura: You weren't. You had the people wrong. So the whole movie I'm going, how is this possible?
Laura: Anyway, so the synopsis pulled from Letterboxd is in the late 1950s, British police officer Tony Aaron resigns from the force after sleeping with Hazel, wife of the man whose house he was supposed to guard. In his new job as a fake private investigator, he helps couples get divorces by photographing Hazel having, uh, affairs with the husband. When she is murdered during a job, tony begins having an affair with the dead man's mistress, Angeline, while trying to prove his.
Ryan: Mean. That's not too far removed from what I wrote down after not watching the movie that much today.
Laura: It's a whodunit. And I don't know if a lot of you know that I'm not a huge fan of whodunits. I find them a little bit annoying. Just trying to trick me. Tell me a story.
Ryan: You're not a Hercule poirot poirot. See? Yeah, I can't say that. I've never poirot poirot like petite pois poirot.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Poirot um, and it's also a thriller.
Ryan: Yeah, I don't yeah, well, I've got yeah, I mean, I guess I'm going to get into Stephen, uh hopkins. I mean, Simon Moore, obviously. Yeah.
Laura: Just to reiterate, this is the 1991 Under Suspicion, directed by Simon Moore. I'm going to keep messing that up.
Ryan: Yeah. I don't know why you keep on messing that up. We had a long discussion about this before we decided to do this to the point where I forgot we'd even watched this film. And I was like, this doesn't look the same as the other one. I'm like, what this one with Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman in it?
Laura: Which I would have been interested to watch because we would have had more to say about Stephen Hopkins because he directed Predator Two and Blown Away.
Ryan: He did? Yeah. I did start doing my research and I was like, fuck yeah. This guy, he's fucking been there.
Laura: And you get to talk about Predator.
Ryan: I get to talk about Predator, too, which I think is a good movie. I know people out there don't like it. But you know what? You're wrong. Anyway, I love Danny Glover. That's fine. He's getting too old for this shit. Uh, yeah. This is the Simon Moore 1991. Have it written down here as a neonoir erotic thriller.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: And it's his only film that he directed.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Which would make me kind of think he's primarily a writer, which is what he is. And we'll go into it but I feel like there was maybe someone else was probably expected to direct this. And because nobody else would do it, he just kind of ended up stepping into the director's chair.
Laura: But he also wrote this.
Ryan: He, uh, did, yeah.
Laura: Wrote it.
Ryan: And then I don't think he wrote it to make it. I think he wrote it to obviously pass it on to somebody else.
Laura: Interesting.
Ryan: It's not the worst film in the world. I just don't think it's particularly good.
Laura: No, obviously. And, uh, it's got a decent running time. It's about, what's, 99 minutes.
Ryan: It's very respectful of your time.
Laura: I appreciate that.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Especially after that last film we watched at play in the Fields of the Lord.
Ryan: Oh, I completely forgot about that one. Um, yeah, that was almost 4 hours long. But, uh, that film well, actually, no, unfortunately, At Play in the Fields of the Lord is actually a better film than this one, even. Uh, though it's a little bit longer. It kind of depends on what you like. What do you want? What do you want from a movie?
Laura: I want to hear Liam Neeson grunting and groaning while humping a woman in a shower.
Ryan: Well, that's what I want for Christmas.
Ryan: Let's cover Simon Moore first, because I feel like we give everyone else that dignity. Um, okay, so Simon Moore is a British screenwriter, director, and playwright, and he will be most widely known for writing the 1989 six part miniseries Traffic, which was the Traffic with a K, which was the UK. Version of what became the Steven. Soderberg traffic with a C?
Laura: Yes. Um, didn't that win an Academy Award?
Ryan: It was the biggest film of the year that year. So I think it won for screenplay, which Simon Moore also wrote the screenplay for, uh, the movie. Um, and I think Traffic is the best picture winner of that year, which I think is maybe 2001.
Laura: Okay.
Ryan: Um, it might not be. I'm probably, I can definitely as you go. Um, I really like the soderberg traffic. I think that movie is really good, other than the fact that it's got that really horrible plotline in the middle with the kids taking drugs. But anyway, who cares? Um, but also, yeah. Um, what followed Traffic with a C, um, was a three part US. Series as well, which I think he also wrote, or at least he has creator credit on as well.
Laura: It was 2000.
Ryan: I was really close again.
Laura: It won for best directing, best adapted screenplay, and best actor in a supporting role.
Ryan: Oh, uh, it didn't win best picture then. No, it won pretty big. It won pretty big. I don't know. I quite like that movie. Um, but anyway, uh, back to Simon Moore and his other accomplishments. Um, he won a primetime Emmy award for his script, uh, the Gulliver's Travels miniseries. If any of you out there have seen it. Um, he wrote that one. So good. For you. Um, he also adapted Misery for the stage, obviously, Misery being the Stephen King novel, uh, or novella, depending on its length, I can't really remember. Um, and obviously was adapted into a movie, uh, with Kathy Bates and, uh, James Kahn that we all know of and we all love, or at least I think we do.
Laura: Uh, I do.
Ryan: Yeah. I think it's a good movie. I think it's really uncomfortable to watch. But, um uh, was that Rob Reiner who directed that? Yeah, he was. I don't know why I'm questioning myself. I know the answer. Anyway, um, so, uh, he adapted it for the stage in 92, and he also revived it again in 2005. Uh, he also wrote an animated film, since this is obviously Christmas episode, he also wrote an animated film called The Star, which is about the donkeys, um, bearing witness to the birth of Christ and the beginning of Christmas.
Laura: Wow. Okay.
Ryan: Yeah, it didn't sound like it was particularly interesting, but there's a commonality there. It's set at Christmas. You might as well have looked at it from the perspective of a donkey watching the birth of Christ.
Laura: Why not? Just for fun?
Ryan: Why not? It's an animated movie. So it's there indoctrinating children into the ways of the world. Um, from a donkey's perspective. Everyone loves a good donkey animation, I suppose. So that's fine.
Ryan: And I guess one of the other more notable things is he wrote The Quick and the Dead that obviously was directed by Sam Raimi. And I won't go into kind of like because the Wikipedia was pretty dry. Um, did you know that The Quick and the Dead was inspired by Spaghetti, uh, Westerns?
Laura: Oh, wow.
Ryan: Yeah. You wouldn't have thought that, would you? Who would have thunk it? Um, yeah, they were really whoever was updating the Wikipedia page. And I don't know if anyone complains that we use Wikipedia as one of our main sources. I'm also like, where the fuck else am I meant to go other than IMDb to get, uh, my information?
Laura: I check my sources. If I go to Wikipedia, I use it as a reference point and then I check all of the sources. That's what I do.
Ryan: Okay. Because usually what I'm checking for is just straight up facts. Unless it's a piece of information that's just like, wild and out there, I'm looking for facts.
Laura: Wikipedia.com, yes.
Ryan: Simon Moore also directed 2001 A Space Odyssey. That's what also said in Wikipedia. Anyway, um, let's just say that. But, uh, yeah, um, speaking of 2001.
Laura: Uh, Best Picture winner was Gladiator that year.
Ryan: Oh, that's a good year. Yeah, that's a really good year.
Laura: Pretty decent.
Ryan: Yeah. Um, I'm not finished. There's still more Simon Moore trivia that I have to put out there. But, uh, here's the thing. Here's what he said about writing The Quick and the Dead. So he did say when you introduce women into that world, interesting things start to happen.
Laura: Like what?
Ryan: Um, I think it's a mostly I mean, you could actually say that about most times in history, that if you do insert women into them, then things start to get interesting. It's a male dominated world.
Laura: Gross.
Ryan: Uh, well, I mean, the Western world, like the Western as in the Western like the pew pew, men on horses, cowboys, sheriff sort of thing. Yeah, like that bullshit, that time in history. Um, when you insert women into there, it starts to get interesting. Because we've all watched Westerns, women aren't really doing anything other than cooking and cleaning and, um, just being damsels, or if it's a John Wayne, or if it's a John Wayne movie, getting over his lap and then spanked repeatedly. Because that's hilarious.
Laura: Oh, great.
Ryan: Or being punched and slapped. I mean, that's basically what happens to women in these anyway anyway, we've moved on. Maybe.
Laura: Um it's funny, I don't know if we talked about this in the Color of Night episode, but you were saying how going to Wikipedia and going to IMDb and kind of getting information well.
Ryan: They'Re user generated, right?
Laura: So, because of that and I've probably talked about this before, but it just reminded me of when I was doing research on Bruce Willis for Color of Night. And then I got into an argument with a guy, or I sent him messages because he wrote on IMDb. I think he wrote on IMDb. And then he also wrote an article stating that the director of the film used a stunt cock for Bruce Willis because Bruce Willis's penis was too small, which wasn't true. And so I hunted that guy down on the Internet and I sent him messages and I said, please show me your source for this information. And it took him months. And he finally messaged me back and he goes, I'm so sorry, I just saw it written somewhere.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Perpetuating lies about Bruno.
Ryan: Yeah. But, um, we also pointed out that, uh, that's modern journalism at its finest right there, though. That's kind of how it is.
Laura: Spreading false information about my boy.
Ryan: That's unfortunately the world that we live in now, where it's just full of misinformation. Or at least you can put a piece of information out there and then people digest it, and then almost completely unknown to the people who have finally digested that information, you can just retract it or just say, oh no, well, we were wrong there. Um, even though things like that now unfortunately lead to people m doing crazy things, and then tragic events happen. So, um, that's the harsh reality of what we're going through right now.
Laura: Well, this is a pretty insulated incident between me and that man on the Internet. So we squashed it, and I think we're both cool now. Uh, and he won't be spreading that lie anymore.
Ryan: Yeah, I don't think him HM.
Laura: It didn't incite too much violence on my part. No, but it was close.
Ryan: That's true. Him saying that particular piece of information about our boy Bruno didn't lead to a mass shooting.
Laura: No. And it didn't lead me to put like, a pooh prank. And that's violence for me.
Ryan: Yeah, well, I mean, that's true.
Laura: But I didn't do it. I didn't do it at everybody. We resolved it like adults and everything is fine.
Ryan: Yes. It's even better when you resolve those sorts of arguments in Instagram comment sections as well, because everyone's correct.
Laura: Yeah, we're all right.
Ryan: Everyone's right in their own way.
Laura: You just got to listen to both sides of the story.
Laura: So do you want to hear the tagline of this?
Ryan: Yes, you have to.
Laura: How close can you get to a killer before you're too close?
Ryan: What? That's stupid.
Laura: In Liam Neeson's case, it's probably in bed.
Ryan: Yeah, probably. I love you, everything I do. I love you.
Laura: His five star Liam Neeson impression. Everybody.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Hold on to your butts.
Ryan: It's like late era Liam Neeson where he's dissolved his Irish accent, uh, into something that's like Taken. It's like taken. And, uh what's the other movie where he's on a plane? Is it called, like, collider? I don't know what's it called.
Laura: Commuter.
Ryan: Commuter. Yeah. There you go.
Laura: I mean, probably both of them are Liam.
Ryan: Oh, wait, no, that's on a train. There's one on a plane as.
Laura: Like I believe it. What's the one with where he fights wolves?
Ryan: The gray. The gray, yeah.
Laura: Love it. You're just going to make me pull up Leon Neeson online.
Ryan: Yeah. He's not bad in this movie. He's probably the main highlight.
Ryan: There's a lot of, um, kind of cream of the crop, uh, British TV actors in this movie. Um, and I guess we'll get to them as we do.
Laura: Yeah, a lot of them, you know, with them.
Ryan: Yes. A lot of them I know personally.
Laura: Um lovely.
Ryan: No, that's not true.
Laura: Why didn't you get them on the show?
Ryan: Because, um, when you're growing up and all you have is a TV, um, and that's your best friend, it's kind of like being in prison. Um, you do think that people are your friends when they're obviously not.
Laura: That's pretty sad.
Ryan: We're in the season of make believe, so you might actually start to hear some things that aren't true. But anyway.
Laura: The first four minutes four to five minutes of this film are an absolute ride. It really starts off with shotgun, uh, bangs, um, right out of the gate.
Ryan: Yeah. But I mean, it starts off with a ah, fantastic title sequence. I think it's really good.
Laura: What do you mean by that?
Ryan: The title sequence.
Laura: Like the title cards?
Ryan: No, the title sequence.
Laura: Yeah, the first five minutes of the.
Ryan: Movie, as in, like, the Under Suspicion title. It looks like that glass you like so much.
Laura: Oh, block glass.
Ryan: Yeah, it looks like block glass through block glass.
Laura: I love block glass.
Ryan: Yeah. There's a lot of that in, uh, the pantheon of the on the Beat, uh, catalog is block glass.
Laura: Um, I'm a big fan of block glass.
Ryan: You are? Yes.
Laura: We can hearken back to several films that have little block glass statues.
Ryan: There's a lot. Yes, there's a few.
Laura: We already spoke about color of yes.
Ryan: Um, yeah.
Laura: Fisher King.
Ryan: But anyway, I was just referring to the Kaleidoscopic nature in which the title reveals itself. And I think the fonts like Gothic Bold or Impact or something. It's one of the least attractive looking fonts, um, out there. Um, so whoever's doing the typography, I don't think it's particularly good.
Laura: It's just a really nice juxtaposition between the ugliness of the titles and then the loveliness of Liam Neeson moaning and groaning.
Ryan: What?
Laura: They were trying to go.
Ryan: Kind of this story is based in some level of, uh, historical fact, right?
Laura: Yeah. I mean, you can use things that happen in history and then make a fictional tale.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Based in history.
Ryan: Yeah. Kind of like The Crying Game.
Laura: Yeah. You have a historical events happening around you, uh, but that happens after this beginning part, uh, where we have a long title sequence telling us exactly what's going on with the UK divorce laws.
Ryan: Yes. Let's not gloss over the first four minutes.
Laura: No.
Ryan: Because this is the dick scene.
Laura: It's the dick scene in the first four minutes of the film, pretty much. There's boobs at two minutes. It's really quite something.
Laura: So you kind of see basically our two main characters, really, at the very beginning of the film in kind of like a hidden car, like a cop car. And Liam Neeson's dressed up in his cop outfit.
Ryan: They're staking out.
Laura: Yeah. Well, they're meant to be watching this guy's house.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: So they're meant to be protecting the house.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: And the husband, apparently, um, who they're meant to be? I don't know. The guy that owns the house. Whoever this guy, the husband, he's not home.
Ryan: He's not home just now.
Laura: Just now. So Liam Neeson goes like, oh, I gotta go out for a breath of fresh air.
Ryan: Go to go out for a breath.
Laura: Of fresh air and leaves. And his partner's kind of like, dude, where are you going? Um, and pretty much the next thing you see is, uh, pretty much naked Liam Neeson going into the bathroom where this guy's wife is taking a shower.
Ryan: Yeah. He looks like Gandalf when he first goes into the Hobbit house in Fellowship.
Laura: Because he's so tall. I was just thinking of Gandalf naked. And I didn't want to do that.
Ryan: I mean, Ian McKellen naked. Well, I don't know, uh, if that's where your mind immediately goes to, that is the least of my thinking of it.
Laura: Like a naked Gandalf going into this lady's.
Ryan: I mean, little Frodo doesn't want to be there because he's at, uh, fucking eye level with his junk. Like, he doesn't want to see a wizard. He doesn't want a wizard sleeve. He doesn't want to see any of that.
Laura: No.
Ryan: So luckily they left that bit out of the movie.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: Even though it's in the book.
Laura: But I should call him Tony. His name's tony. He gets naked before he even gets into the bathroom, which I love. He just kind of crawls into the bathroom, got this lovely lady taking a shower. And immediately you kind of know this has been happening for a long time. These guys have been banging for ages.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: And the partner knows. He has to know.
Ryan: He's like, how do you know they've been banging for ages? Within the context of the film, I feel like you're grasping.
Laura: I'm not here because his partner huh. Kind of did an eye roll when he goes, oh, I'm going to take a walk. He goes, oh, come on. And he goes, well, the husband's not going to be back for hours. So it's like he knew what was going on. And then the wife it's not like, imagine if you weren't banging this dude and you're taking a shower and some gigantic cop just walks into your bathroom naked. Horrifying. They've been doing this for ages.
Ryan: That would be a much more interesting film, though.
Laura: No, it wouldn't.
Laura: Um, that's my worst nightmare.
Ryan: Come to see you?
Laura: No, my husband's coming home. I've been watching your house for months.
Ryan: I heard there's fresh air in this bathroom. Fresh sex. What happens? Well, at 230, you see some boobs. Um, there's a lot of moaning and groaning.
Laura: He does this. Liam neeson grunt uh, it's not, uh, sexy, but they're really going for it. Right out of the gate, right up.
Ryan: Against the bathroom door. So that's banging against the bathroom door.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: And lo and behold, what would happen toot.
Laura: Toot.
Ryan: The fucking husband comes home.
Laura: Here he is.
Ryan: Holy shit.
Laura: And that's where his partner sees the husband coming. And he goes, oh no. And so he goes to try and get his goes to try to get Tony, which is another reason why I think that they've been doing it for ages.
Ryan: Yeah. But he also has that silly look on his face like he's overacting much. You know what I mean? Where it's just like, I can't believe the husband came home. What a quandary. But, uh, yeah. The husband realizes that, uh, they're having sex in the bathroom. So he immediately goes for his shotgun, gets his shot, budy out of, uh, the drink cabinet.
Laura: Yeah. And you can see there's a bunch of old Western novels sitting on the table where he goes and gets the shells for the shotgun.
Ryan: He's a real, um, let's say enthusiast.
Laura: Because he's not a farmer.
Ryan: No. This is also in the UK as well. So it's not like know something? Copies of Guns and Ammo are sitting on his, uh, a little bit more traditional. He's a little bit more, uh a little bit more of a traditionalist with, uh, his Roy Rogers stories and stuff.
Laura: He's a rich guy. I don't know why I don't think they ever explained what was going on in that story anyway. Why they were watching the house, how he even met this woman, why they were banging, and why this guy has guns.
Ryan: I think what I was referring to earlier is that you do kind of feel like maybe you are clutching a little bit at straws because you're not really given a lot of information right off the bat. You're kind of just meant to piece it all together.
Laura: Which is another reason I don't like whodunits. And I feel like I'm getting the rug pulled out from under me.
Ryan: I mean, to be fair, this opening segment is kind of it's just character stuff. Yeah. None of this stuff really kind of comes into play, um, after it's all over. You could have actually have just cut into the movie without this bit. Really? But then if we didn't have this bit, then part of the movie yeah. But you could have just cut it out completely and then just truncate it all with dialogue and stuff like that. When you start on the train scene, this is the dick scene. If this thing didn't exist, we wouldn't be covering under suspicion. So in some way or another, it's the best scene. But in another way, it's the worst scene because it means that we have to cover under suspicion. Um, but anyway, carry on. He's got the shoddy.
Laura: He's got the shoddy.
Ryan: Yeah. And he's going to shoot someone with it.
Laura: He sure is. Well, he tries to the partner comes in, goes, oh, don't do it. Shoots at him, shoots through the bathroom door. I'm pretty sure that Liam Neeson climaxes at the moment the shotgun goes through the door.
Ryan: There's some nice cinematography with the groans. There's some nice cinematography with the gun stuff in this movie, I will say. It's kind of like he took a leaf out of, uh, Sam Peckinpah. And he just made sure that anything that the gun hits or makes impact with will shoot it in slow motion. So it looks a little bit more impactful because he blows a massive hole through the bathroom door.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Ryan: And obviously, Liam Neeson completely start bollock naked. Completely naked, yes. And his partners ran into the house to plead with, um, him. And he knows he's a copper. Right. He must know he's a copper.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Ryan: And he fucking shoots at the copper down the hallway.
Laura: He's mad.
Ryan: He is livid. He's a mad bedlam ensues mad dad. He's a mad dad. The dadness comes to call angry dad.
Laura: So this is at about three minutes and 53 seconds into this movie where Liam Neeson jumps out of the window, the upstairs window.
Ryan: It's not as action packed as we might be making out.
Laura: It's really good.
Ryan: He kind of climbs out. He's onto the small section of the roof. And then he's in the yard and he's running. He's naked. Naked, completely naked. Everything's wobbling around in a big wide.
Laura: I mean, you just see him up there, jumps off the roof, running through the tennis court. It's raining. The sprinklers are also on. For some reason.
Ryan: It's not raining. The sprinklers are just on.
Laura: Thought it was also raining because he felt like he was also extra wet when he was hiding in the bushes.
Ryan: Um, I mean, he might have been sweating. I mean, there could have been any of those. It's definitely not raining. If it's raining, it's like a light sprinkle, which is not cinematic at all. If it was Kurosawa, he'd be putting light black ink in the rain so he could show up a little bit more clearly.
Laura: All right.
Ryan: Um, but it's not that cool guy. It's not that well, all right. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm the kind of cinema guy that everyone hates, obviously. You know what I mean?
Laura: Uh, dropping Kurosawa knowledge on us.
Ryan: That's fine. Well, you should all instead of watching this movie. Because if you're watching this movie and it's your favorite film ever, grow up. Go watch something.
Laura: This is no one's favorite film. It's right down the middle, I think.
Ryan: Well, we were watching the new Scream last night. And there's a line in that movie. I think that movie's crap. But we were watching the movie. And there's someone, one of the characters in there who's like the Jamie Kennedy ripoff, um, who's like, obviously very knowledgeable about cinema and everything's like this. And everything's elevated. Um, they go on about, you know, you might not like the film equivalent of the screen movies in that universe is the Stab films, right? And she makes a very valid point where she's like, well, Stab might be someone's favorite film ever. So there's no point in trying to diminish it. So maybe Under Suspicion is someone's favorite film. This is the kind of film Mike Gran would have loved.
Laura: This is the type of film that I do love. So, uh, you know, I love erotic thrillers.
Ryan: So this is in your top four. Now.
Laura: I said this is the kind of film that I love. I do not love this film.
Laura: Okay, so more police show up. We're going to talk more about the first five minutes and then just gloss over the rest of the film.
Ryan: By the way. Yeah, we're not good. Yeah, it's all fairly kind of standard fare.
Laura: More cops show up. And the husband's still out there with the shotgun trying to get Liam Neeson, by the way. He climbs over a fence. I'm pretty sure there's barbed wire over the top, totally naked. And his partner's trying to help him. His partner gets caught on the barbed wire.
Ryan: And this guy is ready to shoot this effectively unarmed police officer stuck on the fence.
Laura: He's going to shoot anyone that comes near him. And. He's like, help me naked, Tony. Like, get me off the fence, Tony.
Ryan: Help. I'll come to your aid.
Laura: But one of the other cops that shows up gets caught, basically, by the husband and gets shot right in the belly. Right.
Ryan: So the cops come behind them. Um, they do the primary thing that you shouldn't do with anyone who's got a gun. And I know this because I wrote a cop show for a wee while. You make your presence known before you get close to them so that you can duck for cover if he does turn around and he does blow a shot. Because I think in the cop show I was writing, there are guns in the world. Obviously, we had done Blaine, but obviously that basically was like, well, we can't have that happen again. So they banned all guns. So the only people who could really have guns in the UK were farmers. And a lot of the crimes they used to go to most of the time were farmers blowing their heads off, uh, with their shotguns. But protocol would be you don't get right next to them, and obviously, out of shock, they will turn around. The gun is more likely to go off because a lot of these guns are really old. Because obviously, you can't get new guns in the UK. And certainly this is set in the 1960s, right?
Laura: This is, uh, the late, uh, 50s. Okay, well, this is actually 1957 right now.
Ryan: Yeah. So Dumb Lane wasn't until, like, the so there's still guns, obviously, in circulation. There are gangs and gangsters in the UK at this point. Um, but either way, yeah, protocol is that you make your presence known well before you get near the person with the gun, so that you prevent what happens in this particular moment.
Laura: Yeah, what happened was incredibly ill advised and stupid.
Ryan: Dumb, um, as fuck. The Bobby is the one that gets the one that gets I mean, he gets shot and he's on the ground, but no one goes to see to help him.
Laura: Well, the guy still has the gun.
Ryan: He does, but he's looking at the body on the floor that he's just created. And obviously the guy, the detective who we meet later on is there with the Bobby. But the Bobby's just lying there. I mean, I guess from afar, you can just look at him and go like, well, he's, you know, I mean.
Laura: That'S a close range shotgun wound to the torso.
Ryan: There's a better close range shotgun wound later on in the movie as well, which is is the only reason this film doesn't get half star. Um, it gets a single star just on its own for how fucking amazing it is.
Laura: So that's pretty much it.
Laura: I mean, Liam Neeson's running around naked for a solid two minutes, at least, in the beginning of this film. And it's really quite striking, I must say. That whole beginning sequence is pretty amazing. And if the film was a short film and that was it, I would probably give it five stars.
Ryan: No, I wouldn't because I'm still scratching. It's a bit of a head scratcher. The whole film is a head scratcher.
Laura: You're not wrong. I still don't understand this movie. But that's okay.
Laura: We're going to talk about a little bit.
Ryan: But I bet our audience is thinking, why is this a Christmas movie? You've not said anything about it being set at Christmas. Well, you know what, sunshine? I'm about to fucking tell you.
Laura: DA DA DA. Uh, two years later.
Ryan: And we're at the train station and there's Noel. Noel. Noel. Noel playing. Uh, there's carolers and there's Christmas trees all over the place. And, uh, there's a whole bunch of text.
Laura: There's a whole bunch of text. Basically, it's like a title exposition about divorce legality in England or in the UK. I guess, in the 1950s. So if you, uh, want a little bit of background on it, I have like two sentences.
Ryan: Yeah. Might as well just say it.
Laura: A little bit of history for you all. So the Matrimonial Clauses Act was, uh, enacted in 1923, which enabled either partner to petition for divorce only on the basis of their spouse's adultery. And before 1923, only the man had been able to do this. But at this point in 1923, now, women could also petition for divorce if their husbands were adulterating.
Ryan: So yeah, basically he seems to be working exclusively. Is he just working exclusively with men then?
Laura: I guess we only see him work for two different, uh, clients. Am I not wrong? So I mean, maybe women do it as well, but we just don't get to see that in particular. Um, but back just one more thing about divorce. In 1937, there were also new grounds for divorce, including cruelty, desertion, and incurable insanity. So by this point, there were other ways to get a divorce. And in Ireland it was way more strict. But we're in Brighton in this film. England, we're good old, a little bit more progressive. It's not as much of a Catholic hold on the entire country as it was in Ireland.
Ryan: Beach town. We're in beach town now. Yeah.
Laura: Uh, party time.
Ryan: Party well, it's not really party like Brighton.
Laura: Brighton, beach party time.
Ryan: I remember I used to speak to this lassie who lived in Hull and she used to call it Hell.
Laura: Yeah, of course.
Ryan: Yeah. She wasn't a fan. But, uh, as far as I'm aware, these beach towns, they are what they.
Laura: Are rife, uh, with seagull.
Ryan: Yes. Well, that was the thing. Within the context of the law, I guess, uh, if you got married, you were literally in it till death.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: It was going to be very it's not like you are now where you could have multiple marriages. If you want to remember reading a story a wee while ago about a guy who tried to break the, uh well, actually, he has the record for the most divorces ever. I think it's like 37 or 40 or something.
Laura: Wow.
Ryan: Um but, uh yeah. Uh, I think it was expensive. Yeah. Well, it does sound expensive, but also I think it was in another part of the world where maybe it is relatively inexpensive to get divorced. But then you also kind of have to think to yourself, if this wasn't his ploy, then you would just stop getting married and then just have girlfriends if that seemed to be the way that your life was going. His first marriage was at least 20 years, though. So he was sincere to a certain degree, at least for the first 20, uh, until the poor woman died.
Laura: Oh, dear.
Ryan: And then, obviously, the culmination of all the other relationships came into play. Anyway, it doesn't really matter. But, uh yeah. Um, basically title card comes up, um, because the film doesn't do a very good job of explaining to you exactly what's going on. You kind of piece it together as you're going around. But it is basically it's just you're defrauding the system.
Laura: Yeah. So if the only way you can get divorced is by having physical proof of your partner's adultery, that was his game. So he would set up, uh, a client with his wife in a compromising position, put them in a hotel. He would get whatever housekeeper or someone that worked in the hotel and say, oh, I forgot my key. Can you let me into my room? Boom. M. Get the camera out, kicks open the door. You should be ashamed of yourselves. And then snaps a photo. But it's all staged. And then they can use those photos as evidence in court to get a divorce. Yeah, because that was what they thought was the only way around.
Ryan: And the reason I felt he was more male centric around it, or at least he was dealing exclusively with males, was that one of the title cards basically reads, uh, all you needed was a woman, a photograph and a private detective. So otherwise, why would they say that? It seemed to be that the man had to be the adulterer as opposed to the woman being the adulterer. But also the men have the money as well. To be fair. Probably, um, the men hold the purse strings in this time. So, um yeah, let's carry on. Let's try and get through this.
Laura: So the whole kind of crux of the story comes in where I mean, this is regular day to day kind of business for this guy. This is what he does. Everyone knows about it. The police know. Um, and everyone's kind of annoyed. They don't like it. They know that he's faking these photos, but no one can prove it, I guess.
Ryan: Yeah. But he's also not in the police anymore because he was removed after he effectively caused the murder of one of the officers. I'm surprised.
Laura: I don't think they specifically did they specifically say that? I thought he kind of maybe just returned.
Ryan: He's not a copper.
Laura: No. I thought he just said, I don't want to be a cop anymore.
Ryan: I mean, to be fair, because I.
Laura: Did a bad thing.
Ryan: Yeah. But I mean, to be fair, he's not a cop probably specifically for that one reason. Yeah.
Laura: That whole event. And he also married that woman he was having an affair with.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: So the woman from the beginning of the film, she comes back marrying him. But she's part of his whole who's that woman?
Ryan: What's that woman's name? The actor's name?
Laura: The actress's actual name is Maggie O'Neill.
Ryan: Yeah. Because she's in a bunch of stuff. If you've ever watched Shameless or EastEnders, uh, she's a staple, uh, of British, uh, television history.
Laura: She has a memorable face.
Ryan: Memorable face. And she's also got a very memorable voice. As far as I'm aware. She's quite a character.
Laura: But anyway, they didn't really let her speak a lot in this film.
Ryan: No. Because they only show two instances of him performing, um, uh, this duty, I guess. One success and one is an unmitigated disaster. And for whatever reason, because, uh, one of the other clients, uh, that comes back he comes back later on in the movie. He's like a barrister who's just desperate to get rid of his fucking wife. God knows. But yeah, he's just desperate to fucking get rid of her. And he's not particularly I think, for whatever reason, I think Liam Neeson, I think Tony uses, like, prostitutes. And he wasn't particularly comfortable with obviously having sex with an actual prostitute because it sells guess, you know, obviously a photo of him deep dicking some poor woman that he's met off the street. But what he does is he brings in, uh, Tony brings in his wife, who's an actress, um, to basically pose in these photos. Nothing illicit or anything like that. There's no genitalia. But what we're seeing, obviously, is it seems to be proof positive enough that, uh, that's what he's looking to do when it's a little bit tamer. But bringing his wife in is a horrific mistake.
Laura: Yeah. So during this massive disaster, the same thing happens. Get the housekeeper to open up the room so we can kick it open and go, you two should be ashamed of yourselves, and take a photo. But what he ends up taking a photo of is a, uh massacre.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: Bloody massacre.
Ryan: They've all been shot.
Laura: They're murdered.
Ryan: They're shot. The man's thumb has been removed. There's blood everywhere.
Laura: Blood everywhere.
Ryan: It is a ah, fucking massacre. And Liam Neeson just chews at the scenery and uh, just starts to break down. And he runs away. Yeah, he runs away. Then the police get involved.
Ryan: And then this is the moment where effectively we are, uh I guess this is kind of where the film effectively begins. This is where the who done it? Starts.
Laura: And this part of the film, the whole who done it? The mystery, the investigation goes on. The movie is just over an hour and a half. But this whole part of the movie is about an hour and ten. An hour and 15 minutes long.
Ryan: Like an hour 20.
Laura: The whole movie?
Ryan: Yeah, it's the whole film.
Laura: And it's all oh, uh, how could this have happened? Who did it? It must be you, Tony. No, it must be the mistress.
Ryan: And it's just bit tiresome. It's also because obviously, I tried to explain it as the film was going on, as if I'd remembered it and then misremembering certain details aside, because I think I was pretty accurate. Um, it is a little bit.
Laura: You know, and I think this goes without saying, but I will say that if people are really interested in figuring out this who done it? And you haven't watched the movie, um, then go ahead and watch it. It is on Amazon Prime right now.
Ryan: Yeah. Completely free. If you have Amazon Prime, obviously.
Laura: But if you don't want it spoiled, then maybe go watch it first. But we're going to tell you the whole end of the movie. I'm sure we'll probably get there at some point. We might I don't know.
Ryan: We might spoil certain things.
Laura: We usually do.
Ryan: We usually spoil the whole here's the thing. It's all motivated by money. Um, so he's having trouble paying off his debts. Um, they find a piece of earwear in the bed after they finish that first job. And she's like, I can't believe what you do. And you're bringing clients back to the bed. Here his wife before she's murdered. Yes. The one from the beginning of the movie. Remember the one from the beginning of the film. And she's like, what are you doing? And he's like, whatever. He says something, mumbles something. Anyway, and then, obviously we're on track. And it's like, uh, who's done this? Who's got that? I, um mean, I guess I can just read what I've got. I kind of truncate it into, like, a paragraph.
Laura: I don't have anything written down, genuinely, until the lawyer shoots himself in the good. I also have written down so when he meets Laura Sangiocomo, who is I don't know, what is her character's name? Angeline.
Ryan: Right, angeline.
Laura: So when he meets Angeline, he gives her his business card, and it says Anthony Aaron Private Investigations, discreet, Professional, which I really liked. And then what does it say on the back of his, uh.
Ryan: Like, there's a lot of fantastic moments where we have these close ups on, like, notes yes. And business cards and stuff. And they have probably the most forced pieces of writing written on them. And I mean, on the back of the business card to try and I guess, like to entice her to have a conversation with them during the course of the investigation. But he, uh, wrote on the back in big block capital letters, my wife got killed as well. And it just doesn't so weird. Yeah, it just doesn't read particularly well.
Laura: She's like, that's just enough for me to want to have sex with you, sir.
Ryan: So obviously the man who died is a, uh, very successful artist. But what we soon come to realize is that he has a wife, but Angelina is his mistress, as far as I'm aware.
Laura: Uh, absolutely.
Ryan: Um, and I guess Liam Neeson is kind of seen as one of the suspects. Um, I think it's based off the fact that the gun that has gone missing, uh, from his office and they do eventually find the gun. But the gun matches, obviously, the bullets that were used during the course of the murder. So bum, bum, bum.
Laura: I mean, you need the murder weapon, otherwise you don't know who done it.
Ryan: Exactly. Yeah. It points towards Liam Neeson. He's just large and he's like, obviously doing the investigation as well. Um, but anyway, uh, all kind of comes to a head where he is intent that Angeline is the murderer. Because there's motive there. Um, so there's motive in the fact that they end up going to the lawyer's office, um, regarding the will, like the will and testament. And the wife's there and the mistress is there. Um, but what they find out is that the mistress has gotten all of the money and he had rewritten the will on the day that he whoa. So motive? The wife is pretty fucking pissed off.
Laura: Absolutely.
Ryan: Um, she doesn't get any of his art.
Laura: None of those arts which is all Angeline naked. Those are all the arts that he.
Ryan: Oh, so was Angeline his muse? Yeah, I guess. Um, okay.
Laura: That's why she there was this whole scene where when Angeline and Tony are, uh, like, getting busy in bed and there's candles and it's all getting hot and heavy.
Ryan: And she's sexy.
Laura: Yeah. Right. Basically, she's on top of him saying that all she wanted was to be somebody. And she's traveled to all these wonderful places in the world. And even when she dies, she'll be remembered because of the paintings. So because of the paintings, she will exist forever. And she'll always be somebody. She just wanted to be somebody. M so there.
Ryan: Who cares? Um, yeah. No one really gives a shit.
Laura: But what we really need, Ryan, is we need that thumb. That thumb will point to who the real murderer is.
Ryan: Yes. Someone out there has a thumb.
Laura: They got that man's thumb.
Ryan: Yes. They've got a thumb in their pocket somewhere. Um, I mean, we've glossed over did we gloss over the lawyer shotgun thing?
Laura: I'm just saying that they need the.
Ryan: Thumb, um, because they get the gun eventually. Right?
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: The coppers get the gun.
Laura: This is the worst this is the worst telling of this story.
Ryan: Yeah. We're not really painting a fantastic picture about what we're doing. I mean, if you let me read this paragraph. Go ahead, tell everything. Right. What I'd written down, like I said, is all motivated by money. Uh, the wife finds the earring. Um, we kind of understand that maybe he's been colluding with the wife widow mistress, um, during this time. Because obviously the mistress gets the money and she gets the paintings. Um, and obviously the lawyer who did the will is the guy that ends up killing himself later and writing another equally fucking idiotic note.
Laura: I have that note written down.
Ryan: Yeah. So they go to see the lawyer because the lawyer is going to, um.
Laura: Spill the beans, I guess.
Ryan: Spill the beans about what happened and stuff like that. But basically, as they walk into it, he's putting a shotgun in his mouth. And easily, probably one of the best looking pyrotechnic effects with obviously a puppet, like a model man is there. And he shoots himself in the mouth so fucking hard, the whole body rocks itself out of the chair. And it's all just like, uh, flare and pyrotechnic and stuff like that. He just blows up into a puff of smoke and then falls on the ground.
Laura: Amazing.
Ryan: And it looks awesome. But then there's that note, which I'm sure you'll tell us.
Laura: So there's a death note. And you go, okay, so this is going to be his confession. Uh, and we're going to learn a little bit something here. And the note says, I can't go to prison. Okay. And it just shows that.
Ryan: Yeah. And then you see slowly reveals it line by line. Yeah.
Laura: And then it goes back to the note. The note then says, Angelina had nothing to do with the murders. Back to Liam nathan's face. He's sweating, doesn't know what to do. Then it cuts back to the note again. And underlined in big black letters says, Tony Aaron killed them both.
Ryan: It's also, uh, in block capital letters, underlined scratch on notepaper.
Laura: Just so you know, you don't miss a thing because obviously the audience are complete idiots and we wouldn't know what was going on. So it has to spell it out real big for us.
Ryan: So basically, uh, as we come to realize, is that we think someone's trying to frame Tony.
Laura: Yes. Well, he's been saying it for days.
Ryan: Yeah. But also Tony is making the police think that he definitely did the murder, but that someone else is framing him.
Laura: Yes.
Ryan: Even though it becomes quite clear that he did commit the murder, the police were on the right track. Everything was going according to plan. Um, but again, it all comes down to this thumb.
Laura: The thumb.
Ryan: Because the thumb was taken basically, you know, major spoilers.
Ryan: Now Angeline's, um, about to leave. She's got her money, she's got her paintings. Neeson, uh, is in prison. There's a court case that we all see, and it's really long, and we've already kind of it's got the guy who plays new taggart, whether anyone from Scotland is aware of taggart, plays new taggart. He's the, uh, the he's the other lawyer. Um, there's this whole thing about the barrister. The first guy who frequents, uh, the services of, uh, Mr. Tony, um, is a barrister. And, uh, I think the first time we see him, he goes to his office, there's a break in. And he can corroborate the break in, but it doesn't fucking help neeson anything. Anyway. He ends up going to get hanged.
Laura: Um, no amount of evidence. And it's all circumstantial evidence anyway. But they're going to hang him.
Ryan: They're just going to get it done. Because that's how you close cases.
Laura: That's right.
Ryan: So you got to get those things in the books. You got to make sure you fucking hang that fucker and everything right away. All good to go? Yeah.
Laura: No time for appeals.
Ryan: Got to get it done. No, no, because he did, um, you know, his partner, he's like in prison. He's just like, I need you to find the thumb. And he's like he goes to his partner, who breaks in. Angeli's leaving. She's going to go to a fucking airport. She's going to go back to America, whatever.
Laura: Yeah. The partner just rips apart her house. Just rips it to shreds, ripping up, uh, couches and breaking all sorts of probably very expensive items to find this damn thumb. And the sun's coming up. You know, he's hanging at dawn, baby. You got no time.
Ryan: Yeah. So the partner finds the thumb and ends up being this, uh, mad dash. Yeah. The lever has been pressed. This was actively falling through the air.
Laura: Absolutely insane. I mean, this is the craziest. I've never seen such a last minute, like, pick up the phone, don't execute this guy type of moment where he's literally falling to his death. He's got the noose around his neck. That motherfucker is going down. His absolute treasure of a partner dives the fuck in and saves his life. It is wild.
Ryan: And Angeline is apprehended at the airport. She's then convicted of the murder.
Laura: Um, which is also a very strange thing.
Ryan: Very weird. Yes.
Laura: How can you convict someone? And why didn't they hang her? Because she's American.
Ryan: Well, they were under the pretense that the gun was stolen from the office. And I guess here's the thing.
Laura: Evidence to convict her at all.
Ryan: Well, I mean, they had the thumb. That's the thing. Her thumb was found within the art belongings of her stuff. But then she also kind of goes to point out later on it's like, well, you were looking through my stuff. You could have planted the evidence there, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Laura: There was no other police there to verify the facts of where he found it. He also broke into her house to get that evidence. So that would have been thrown out. I'm just saying.
Ryan: I'm also going to put it out there as well. We might be misrepresenting what, uh, we're being shown in the movie because our memories are also not fantastic either. I think when the film finishes, we're kind of left with an empty feeling of being like, well, I don't know. I don't feel like I got all the information. Which is also I feel like an issue with the writer and obviously director of this piece. Um, but also, it could come down to the fact that we were just fucking bored by the whole thing.
Laura: Um, maybe.
Ryan: Yeah. Um, but also, again, the plan doesn't really work without the will. The will is also in the name of obviously, who ends up being the convict is obviously Angeline. And the wife obviously gets nothing. But then eventually the wife does end up with everything. Um, it passes back on to her. Um, which is also kind of strange, even though they were already married and, uh, there would have been some kind of clause there. Um, but anyway, it doesn't really matter.
Laura: The more we talk about this, the more it falls so hard, it falls apart so badly.
Ryan: Which is also kind of another strange thing. And it kind of makes more sense near towards the end was that my understanding was that he was in cahoots with Angeline from before. But then what you find out is it's not Angeline, it's not the mistress, it's not the muse that you're in cahoots with. It's the actual wife of the husband.
Laura: Who'S just a money grubbing wife. She just wanted the money.
Ryan: Yes. I mean, that was the mistake I made from misremembering it from the first time. But, yeah, he does end up with the wife at the end. They go to Miami. So there's a nice little Florida connection there.
Laura: That's right.
Ryan: Um, and he's got his money issues all kind of sorted out and they kind of just drop it all down, uh, into a nice, convenient little monologue that they have a little conversation.
Ryan: But there's also this thing and there's a thing that, um, we completely glossed over is that Tony Neeson's character has a really weird way of lighting cigarettes.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: And it's a very particular way of lighting cigarettes where he kind of slaps it against his hand. He shakes the lighter a little bit because it's kind of like a Zippo. It's like a kind of small, miniature Zippo. Slaps it against his hand, he slaps it open, and then he lights his cigarette. And it's this very particular peculiar way of lighting a cigarette that's very kind of noticeable. And it's also something that goes, uh, to his detriment as well is that Angeline starts to realize the sort of by his behaviors that he's the killer as well.
Laura: Um, I do want to point out that it only looks like a miniature Zippo because Liam Neeson is gigantic.
Ryan: It's probably a full size Zippo, but he has got gigantic ah, you know, he's a Gandalf in a Hobit world.
Laura: That's right.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: It's it ends, you know, I love I love a Miami connection. I love a, uh, Miami ending Florida connection. But, yeah, it does fall a little bit sad because I think he's realizing, oh, wow, I murdered a bunch of people and put this innocent woman in jail, and I'm just out here on South Beach. And it's not for love, it's only for money.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: That's it.
Ryan: Yeah. Um, I mean, you say it falls sad, I'd say it falls flat.
Laura: It's just the flattest bit of both.
Ryan: Yeah. It's just a bit pancakey. The whole thing is kind of a little bit trite and tiresome. But, uh, that's just unfortunately, that's the peril of writing yourself a, uh, who done it. You know what I mean? There's not a lot of people who can write a good Hugh Done it. Hugh done it. Hugh done. Um know, there's not a lot of Agatha Christie's out there, obviously. Rian Johnson's kind of on a Whodunit strain right now after ruining the Star Wars franchise.
Laura: Yeah. But knives out, that was okay.
Ryan: And the new one coming out is Glass Onion. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, you did. Knives out was fine. It was enjoyable in the cinema.
Laura: Uh, and that's coming from someone who hates a Whodunit. I feel about who done it the same way I feel about Magic Tricks. I don't like to be tricked. Don't like yeah.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: I don't like to be made to feel a.
Ryan: I still like I still like that original version of, uh, Death on the Nile. Those Kenneth Branagh ones that he made. You throw them in the bin. They're a fucking waste of your time.
Laura: Agree.
Ryan: But, uh, yeah, I like that first. That original. Um death on the Nile. I think that film's pretty good. But obviously, if you've watched it once and you watch it again, you already know what's going to happen. Uh uh, you're taken out of the story. So, yeah, if you've listened to this whole thing, we have ruined the whole thing for you.
Laura: I have some fun facts about the film.
Ryan: Wow.
Laura: You ready for fun facts?
Ryan: I mean, I guess. I mean, how fun can they be?
Laura: I don't know. I've got some stuff. Whatever.
Laura: Okay, so Patrick Bergen was originally cast in Neeson's role, but dropped out due to what he called creative differences. And you might know him specifically. This is how I know him. He played Julia Roberts'crazy husband in Sleeping with the Enemy.
Ryan: Oh, okay. Yeah, I know who you're talking his like, in his defense, he probably just read the script.
Laura: Maybe he goes, I don't get it. Simon Moore goes. Get out.
Ryan: I wrote traffic.
Laura: Brian Cox and Sam Neal were also attached, but didn't remain on the film.
Ryan: Brian Cox would have made a fantastic the. I can't remember the guy's name. Um, who plays the partner? Unless you've got it. Um. Yeah. Brian Cox would have made a fantastic addition to the film as his partner, Kenneth Krenham. There you he's a he's also quite recognizable face, uh, in British cinema and British TV as well.
Laura: Yeah. So there was a few working titles for this film. The original working title was The Other Woman.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: And the two other titles they had were Prime Suspect.
Ryan: Well, that wouldn't have flown.
Laura: Nope. And the other one, which is very strange, the Dark Horizon.
Ryan: M. Yeah.
Laura: I don't get it.
Ryan: No. Well, Prime Suspect wouldn't have flown at all because if it was made in the UK, that's already taken by that Helen Mirren TV, uh, show. Um, so no, that wouldn't have worked.
Laura: So then obviously, they settled under suspicion. The filming took about seven weeks, mostly in Brighton. They spent one day in Miami and one week was spent at that villa in North Wales. So where Angeline lived at that big house on the water was in Wales.
Ryan: Okay. So they got a single day holiday in Miami, which is single day. It's also not a particularly sunny day in Miami either. So they kind of had to deal with what they got that day.
Laura: It seems like that's, uh, South Florida for you.
Ryan: Yeah, it does rain a lot.
Laura: The budget of the movie was $6 million.
Ryan: You can stretch that quite far back in, uh, 91.
Laura: And so I just have, like, a funny thing that Liam Neeson took Brooke Shields to the premiere. And I guess they started dating in, like, late 91, early 1992. But Brooke Shields wrote about Liam Neeson in her memoir, and she wrote about him as a tall Irish actor who was 13 years my senior. He wooed me with his brogue, his poetry, and his shitty choice of cheap Pinot Grigio wine.
Ryan: Huh. Well, there you go. Even Liam Neeson couldn't please Brooke Shields. So there's that. That's what that screams to me.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: She's ungrateful.
Laura: She's also a child.
Ryan: No. How old was she? She wasn't 13. What are we talking about here?
Laura: Well, you're going to make me check how old Brooke Shields is? Hold on.
Ryan: I mean, you can't just put that, uh, out there. She must have been in her 20s.
Laura: She was born in 65.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: She was like 25.
Ryan: So she wasn't a child.
Laura: Yeah, I guess that's not too bad.
Ryan: No.
Laura: 26 and he's like 39.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: That's okay.
Ryan: That's all right. Yeah, it's fine.
Laura: The film, as you could imagine, didn't win a ton of awards.
Ryan: None.
Laura: Um but Liam Neeson did win Best Actor at the 1992 Festival du film Policier de Cognac.
Ryan: Well, he was Mr. Ham at that point. He was hamming it up, making the most of what he was given.
Laura: So, uh, let's get our ratings, let's get out of here and let's not talk about this Christmas movie anymore.
Ryan: Well, hold on, I need to look at my phone because I didn't actually rate it this time.
Laura: Um, well, I can go first.
Ryan: You can just go.
Laura: I'll figure out in terms of visibility and context for this one, I'm going to give it a three and a half. A three and a half for distance. And just because it was such a wide shot in terms of context, I love the fact that he's in the bathroom, he's having sex with this woman, and he jumps out the window. He doesn't take the time to grab a towel, which you would see in other films in this type of situation, you see it tons of times where someone's getting caught having an affair and they have just enough time to grab their clothes, even if it's in a murdery situation like this one was. But he's like, nope, I'm obviously going to be shot if I don't jump out this window right now.
Ryan: Also, his clothes weren't in the bathroom.
Laura: Oh, right. They were outside the door.
Ryan: Well, they must have been outside the door because he walked into the bathroom, obviously.
Laura: Yeah, he just dipped in.
Ryan: Dipped in without his clothes. Yeah, you're right.
Laura: So they would be in the hallway. He could have grabbed a towel, but I'm glad that he didn't. So three and a half.
Ryan: Okay.
Laura: Um, and it could have been more. But when you really do think about it and you're not wrong, Ryan, that that whole scene doesn't really need to be there. He could basically just be a private eye.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: That whole who's friends with cops? That happens all the time.
Ryan: Yeah. I mean, it's inconsequential. You can write the other cop characters to just dislike him from the off for the fact that what he's doing is effectively fraud.
Laura: Yeah. He doesn't have to be in the force previously to make those type of connections of it doesn't need to be there. But it is fun and it is the best part of the movie. And you can tell they put a lot of work into that beginning part. They put a lot of money and they put a lot of time. You think the cinematography was really interesting. And it doesn't show as much further into the film, in my opinion. But that first part, I feel like they really wanted to go start the film with a bang and have it really action packed and interesting, which they did.
Ryan: Yeah. They give you a good hook in there. It's just a shame that nothing really kind of transport, like everything it doesn't need to be there. Like, it's kind of just tacked on, I felt like.
Laura: No, but I still, as always, appreciate it doing what it's doing.
Ryan: It's true. It would have got the film to, uh, a nice, even maybe 1 hour and a half if they did chop it out and they rewrote the kind of bulk of it anyway.
Ryan: Um, yeah, I guess, uh, are we just doing the ratings for visibility in context first, and then we're giving our ratings for the film.
Laura: I can give you my film rating. It's a 2.5.
Ryan: Okay. Straight down the middle.
Laura: Straight down the middle. I could take it or leave it.
Ryan: So I give don't need to kind of over explain what you've already kind of said. But I gave the visibility context like a three. Um, they could have covered him up, but they'd already set it up so that he so yeah. There you go. Thanks, Simon.
Laura: Thanks, Liam Neeson.
Ryan: But I mean, I give the film two stars because it's a fucking snore fest. Like after that first kind of five to ten minutes. Also, I'm just not a fan of the story. The only thing that's really interesting is I like, uh, the relationship between obviously Neeson and, uh, his ex partner. I like their relationship of her amount that rings true is like a genuine friendship, you know?
Laura: And you know, I love a friendship story. A story of true friendship. And that man goes to desperate lengths to prove his friend's innocence.
Ryan: And I seemingly breaks the law in order to help his friend who's definitely a murderer.
Laura: Yeah, he definitely did it.
Ryan: He definitely did the crime.
Laura: Liam Neeson is not a good friend.
Ryan: He's not a good friend. But also his partner is probably not a very good cop because all the evidence was leading toward the jury and the lawyer, like the prosecution were all.
Laura: And he the partner was taking him to the crime scenes and trying to get him to I don't know. He was just trying to see if he could be know and walking him through the crime scene, walking him through up and out the window to, uh, find the gun. And he had him along there the whole way. He shouldn't have been there. Liam Neeson should not have been involved in the investigation whatsoever.
Ryan: No, but Liam Neeson was already involved in he was already muddying. He manufactured it all anyway. All those notes he probably wrote. He planted the thumb. He did all this stuff. Him having sex with Angeline was all part of the all this was all that was going to happen because he'd already kind of figured, uh, it out with the wife widow before this all kind of happened. And also, Liam Neeson wasn't particularly fond of his current wife anyway. He says that in the course of the film. And then she's like, why have you got this earring here? And he was just quite happy to blow her. Um, I mean, what a good guy. Not a very nice man. Um, but yeah, I find the film is a bit of a snore fest. So eventually I kind of took my original rating from two and a half to two. It only gets one star for fucking Lawyer shotgun.
Laura: Yeah.
Ryan: And, uh, that shot is fucking sublime.
Laura: It's really crazy.
Ryan: Yeah. Absolutely hilarious. But yeah, for the rest of the film, uh, it's, uh, completely avoidable. You don't have to watch it other than for that first four minutes. And you can switch it off if you want.
Laura: Yeah. And that's fine.
Ryan: You have that power.
Laura: You can do that. And I would recommend that you do that. You don't have to watch the whole film. Just watch the beginning and just enjoy the rest of your day. Really? You can just enjoy the rest of your Christmas season and not have to deal with the whole film if you don't want to.
Ryan: Yeah, pretty much so.
Laura: Goodness gracious.
Laura: Anything else you want to add? I think we know whether or not we recommend the movie.
Ryan: We just said yeah, I wouldn't recommend the film. Uh, in terms of anything else I want to add. I think I said earlier on that I think Rian Johnson ruined the Star Wars franchise. I would like to see and add to that that Star Wars ruined the Star Wars franchise.
Laura: Oh, shit. Okay. Like, I just had some time to think about it. And I just want to let everyone know that Star Wars has ruined Star Wars.
Ryan: Yeah. It's probably not his fault specifically, even though I think that film's awful.
Laura: What's the first one? Force Awakens.
Ryan: Force Awakens. Which is equally I think it's really bad because it's just a remake of.
Laura: I liked that movie.
Ryan: Did you? I didn't. Yeah. I didn't like it at all.
Laura: Yeah. For what it is.
Ryan: Yeah. And I had the Han Solo thing spoiled for me when I went in. Um, because I thought I was going to enjoy it. And then I came out of it and I was like, yeah, I don't like this very much. Last Jedi. That was the second one. That's what that was. Yeah. Um, and then yeah, I remember us getting drunk and going to watch Rise of Skywalker. And it's easily one of the least enjoyable, uh, cinema going experiences I've ever had.
Laura: Oh, Ryan, I had fun with you watching that movie because we drank so much before the film. We had drinks inside the film. It was so crowded. And I think we just pissed off everyone around us from laughing so much. Force ghost and all that. Hilarious.
Ryan: Yeah, it's really, really bad.
Laura: I think we just knew at that point we didn't have to really.
Ryan: Uh, I don't think we pissed off the audience, though. I think the guy in front of us looked annoyed. Well, he was into it because he fucking liked himself a Star War. But the thing is that I had Babu frick. Babu Frick was in that movie. He just said his name. He was a little puppet. Little anime puppet. Uh, when they redid. C three. Anyway, I don't know why we're talking about.
Laura: I don't know either. And I don't remember that movie very much.
Ryan: M anyway. Babu Frick, if you're fan, you'll know who Babu Frick is. He was the only thing that was good in that movie.
Laura: Well, golly gee whiz. We should just turn off this podcast and go watch Disney Plus. And we can watch all of that crap on there. We're just inundated with content right now.
Ryan: Yeah. And they've got all that Marvel bullshit on there as no, no.
Laura: Well, goodness, we will.
Ryan: It's actually making me think maybe we should have rated Under Suspicion higher.
Laura: There's still time. You could put it on record right now. Compared to Star Wars, what would you rate under suspicion?
Ryan: I'd say compared to the last three Star Wars. The last trilogy of Star Wars movies, actually. No, I think it deserves its two. No, I'm fine. I'm all right. Yeah, I'm not overindulging in, uh that'd.
Laura: Be a weird one. That would be a weird way to compare this film.
Ryan: But to Star Wars. Yeah, he was in Star Wars in The Phantom Menace, which isn't also not Qui Gon jin. Qui gon, Jinn.
Laura: Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I know stuff.
Ryan: He also becomes a Force ghost. Lacer as ghosts. Yeah. Um, I mean, he was in yeah.
Laura: He'S also in Batman. He's in everything. He's liam neeson for crying out.
Ryan: Yeah, he's in a lot of.
Laura: Great. Are you good? Yeah. Are you okay?
Ryan: I'm just annoyed now because you have to bring up fucking Star Wars. I just remember that time sitting there, that Christmas long ago and just being like, oh, god, this is fucking terrible.
Laura: Okay.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: I'm really sorry.
Ryan: I'm not that sorry. I feel like we're just destined to burn.
Laura: And on that note, thank you so much for kicking off this Christmas season with me today. Ryan with Under Suspicion and everyone, make, uh, sure to get on the social medias because we put stuff up there sometimes. And it would be nice. You can send us a review. As long as it's good. That'd be nice, too.
Ryan: Yeah.
Laura: And we have one more Christmas movie coming up on the 23rd, right? Looks like it. You don't get to know what it is yet. We'll tell you.
Ryan: We're trying to set up a kind of nice Christmas party thing. Bring a bunch of ex guests in past guests, um, into the ex guests. Um, I think I was trying to say X amount of guests, we don't know yet. We only have four microphones. So if we're going to bring in more than two people, which I'm wanting to do, we're going to share microphones.
Laura: We're going to have a real Christmas jamboree with all of our friends to watch a genuine it's a good movie Christmas movie.
Ryan: And it's a new Christmas movie as well. It's more recent than other, uh, Christmas films.
Laura: There are so can I say this? There are so many penises in this movie.
Ryan: Yeah. It's insanity. I mean, we've probably gave it away now.
Laura: It's okay. If they know, they know. It's a classic Christmas film.
Ryan: Yes.
Laura: And it's going to be great. I'm really excited. Yeah. Uh, happy Christmas season, everybody. And stay tuned and we'll be back for more. And coming to you from the Tides Hotel in Miami Beach.
Ryan: I've been laura, what was the other hotel called? The Radler. Was it called the I don't remember.
Laura: I didn't write it down.
Ryan: The Radish.
Laura: The, uh, radish.
Ryan: Yeah. There you go. The Radish.
Laura: The old Radish Hotel in Brighton.
Ryan: Yeah. Good old Radler.
Laura: All right. And you're, Ryan?
Ryan: Uh, yeah, no, sorry, I am.
Laura: And, uh, see you next time. My God. Turn it off. I'm done.
Ryan: Uh, I am.