Suspect + Rumour

A double bill of thrillers: one rural, one set in the sleazy world of the gutter press.

Image: Rumour

Suspect

  • Director

    Mike Hodges

  • With

    Rachel Kempson, Bryan Marshall, George Sewell, Michael Coles

  • Playhouse. ITV 1968. 73min

This was the first of two feature-length films written, produced and directed by Mike Hodges that led directly to Get Carter. Shot on location in a Buckingham village, Suspect interweaves the disappearance of a young girl with the breakdown of a marriage. Its theme is murder – both physical and psychological.

+ Rumour

  • Director

    Mike Hodges

  • With

    Michael Coles, Ronald Clarke, Mary Baxter, Joyce Blair

  • Playhouse. ITV 1969. 81min

Hodges wrote, produced and directed this thriller, a very different creature from Suspect. Embracing the freewheeling style of the nouvelle vague, Rumour follows a sleazy, national newspaper gossip columnist as he pursues an unsubstantiated scandal. This autopsy of the gutter press is as relevant today as it was in 1969.