Under Suspicion

Tony Aaron (Neeson) is a private investigator with a seedy line in divorce work and dogged charm fraying with desperation. Then the bottom drops out of his low-rent world: his wife and a wealthy client are slaughtered in a bloody double murder, and naturally Aaron is the prime suspect. Cannily set in downtown Brighton on the very brink of the '60s, Under Suspicion is the sort of polished British crime melodrama that might have been made in the '50s with Richard Todd and some circumspection. Modern audiences may have doubts about the enterprise: the denouement hinges on a series of shameless contrivances and a last gasp race against the gallows. More damagingly, perhaps, Aaron's relationship with an American femme fatale (San Giacomo) smacks less of amour fou than an affair of convenience. Nevertheless, it's an engrossing mystery, snappily written and smartly directed by Moore in a promising debut.