The Offence (1972)

[Trevor]

I should actually put a   on this as this little seen Sidney Lumet film has an on the edge cop - Sean Connery - beat a suspect - Ian Bannen - to death during an interrogation after the brutal rape of a young girl. Connery cannot get a confession out of him so he uses his fists on the man.

Very good but very hard to watch, even if the bad guy deserves what he gets.  

[BoyScoutKevin]

I agree with the "hard to watch" part, but a very good film indeed. Made so by the direction of Sidney Lumet and the acting of Sean Connery, but Ian Bannen is the surprise here. I just think he's one of those actors you just underestimate how good they can be.

[zombie no.one]

thanks trev, never heard of this one.

my appreciation of connery as an actor goes higher the older I get, for some reason I never used to rate him much

had he already quit bond by this stage or was he moonlighting? 

[Trevor]

had he already quit bond by this stage or was he moonlighting? 

Apparently this film - based on a stage play - was one of the things that United Artists had to fund when he returned as Bond for Diamonds Are Forever. The other was an unproduced version of Macbeth of all things.

[BoyScoutKevin]

had he already quit bond by this stage or was he moonlighting? 

Apparently this film - based on a stage play - was one of the things that United Artists had to fund when he returned as Bond for Diamonds Are Forever. The other was an unproduced version of Macbeth of all things.

With all due respect, that doesn't strike me as that strange. A Scotsman (Connery) playing a Scottish king (Macbeth.) How many Scotsmen have played the king? I have seen Maurice Evans, Jon Finch, and Orson Welles play Macbeth, and none of them were Scots. Both Evans and Finch were English, and Welles was an American.

As a matter of historical note, there really was a Scottish king called Macbeth, and his portrait, I believe can be seen at Holyrood Palace, which I have visited, in Edinburgh, Scotland. And while the reign of Scottish kings at that time was extremely short, his was one of the longest ones at that time, which gives historians the belief, that he might not have been that bad of a king to survive and rule that long, especially not as bad as Shakespeare makes him out to be.

[Neville]

Of all the things Connery did to get rid of the shadow of James Bond, his collaborations with Sidney Lumet are easily some of his best work. "The Hill" is a personal favourite of mine.

[Trevor]

"The Hill" is a personal favourite of mine.

Mine too.