The Offence is regarded as a favourite of Sean Connery but hardly anyone saw it on its cinema release. It did find an audience on television where it was regularly repeated.
The film was made by American directing legend, Sidney Lumet. Yet the film is set in a new town outside of London.
It is an urban environment that is very British, more at home to an episode of the TV series The Bill and not likely to be made by the person who did 'Dog Day Afternoon' or '12 Angry Men.'
This town is under siege. There is a child attacker and parents are worried and the police are out in force protecting the streets.
Connery is a detective on the edge of sanity. He has seen a lot of horror in his work and it has got too him. His home life is a wreck and he has found the body of one of the girl's that was attacked but she is still alive.
When the police arrest a drunken suspect (Ian Bannen.) Connery thinks he has found the right man and interrogates him, brutally if necessary.
Connery who brought an animal swagger to his James Bond and was a former bodybuilder, hulks over Bannen in the police room scenes.
Yet there is a lot of psychological cat and mouse games between Bannen and Connery. Bannen is a little man who has always been bullied throughout his life by men like Connery. Somehow he came through such bullies and made a success of his life.
When the red mist gets the better of Connery, Bannen dies in custody. We never find out if he was the actual culprit although I always regarded Bannen as innocent. The wrong man at the wrong place.
We then see Connery getting interrogated by a superior office (Trevor Howard) and it is in these scenes we realise how out of control Connery is as we see the flashbacks.
The film is terrifically acted by Bannen and Connery. The film with its early 70s, British urban setting and a host of familiar British character actors gives it a unique as well as now a historic look.
It is still uncomfortable viewing but the film deserves your time.
The film was made by American directing legend, Sidney Lumet. Yet the film is set in a new town outside of London.
It is an urban environment that is very British, more at home to an episode of the TV series The Bill and not likely to be made by the person who did 'Dog Day Afternoon' or '12 Angry Men.'
This town is under siege. There is a child attacker and parents are worried and the police are out in force protecting the streets.
Connery is a detective on the edge of sanity. He has seen a lot of horror in his work and it has got too him. His home life is a wreck and he has found the body of one of the girl's that was attacked but she is still alive.
When the police arrest a drunken suspect (Ian Bannen.) Connery thinks he has found the right man and interrogates him, brutally if necessary.
Connery who brought an animal swagger to his James Bond and was a former bodybuilder, hulks over Bannen in the police room scenes.
Yet there is a lot of psychological cat and mouse games between Bannen and Connery. Bannen is a little man who has always been bullied throughout his life by men like Connery. Somehow he came through such bullies and made a success of his life.
When the red mist gets the better of Connery, Bannen dies in custody. We never find out if he was the actual culprit although I always regarded Bannen as innocent. The wrong man at the wrong place.
We then see Connery getting interrogated by a superior office (Trevor Howard) and it is in these scenes we realise how out of control Connery is as we see the flashbacks.
The film is terrifically acted by Bannen and Connery. The film with its early 70s, British urban setting and a host of familiar British character actors gives it a unique as well as now a historic look.
It is still uncomfortable viewing but the film deserves your time.