PRIME SUSPECT
US, 1982, 96 minutes. Colour.
Mike Farrell, Teri Garr, Veronica Cartwright, Lane Smith, Barry Corbin, Nan Martin.
Directed by Noel Black.
Prime Suspect is a very interesting American telemovie of the 1980s. It takes up the theme of what Hitchcock described as the wrong man.
Mike Farrell plays a respectable businessman who has a reputation in his city, is happily married with children. Veronica Cartwright plays his wife. There has been a series of abductions in the city and Farrell, as a good citizen, has given the police information that he purchased cookies from the last victim. This leads to the police investigating him, a number of coincidences, and his being victimised by the police as they investigate. This is taken up by the media and he is hounded by reporters and by television coverage, ruining his good name. Teri Garr appears as the television journalist who, after more experience with the businessman and his family, tries to rectify the situation. Lane Smith and Barry Corbin are the zealous police.
While this theme is familiar from many television episodes, it is always interesting and audiences identify with the person who is wrongly accused, empathising with the suffering he endures along with his family.
The film was directed by Noel Black who, in the late 1960s, directed Pretty Poison and commentators thought that he would become a very significant independent film-maker. However, his career led to television and direction of many series and telemovies.
1. The impact of this television movie? Its themes? Audiences’ sympathy? Identifying with characters? The upset at sharing with someone falsely accused, hounded by media?
2. The film as a piece of Americana, the middle American city, ordinary citizens, family life? Serial crime? Police investigations? The role of television and information and sensationalising?
3. The justice issues, the role of the police, following leads, over-zealous? The role of the media, getting scoops, intruding into private lives, the insatiable appetite of the public? The personalities of the police? The personalities of the media journalists?
4. Frank Staplin and his situation? Businessman? His wife, children? The deaths, the grief of the parents? The police, the appeal for witnesses? His sincerely giving information about the cookies? The media taking up the situation?
5. Frank, respectability, the criticisms, the circumstantial evidence, the vague witness, the effect of the accusations on his family, on his work? Prison? The interrogations? The hostility of the police? Amy, her personality, intrusion? The media experts? His mother-in-law? The television clashes, Amy? Her change of heart, helping? the suffering, reputation? Vindication?
6. His wife and family? The television and the intrusion, the surveillance outside the house? Going away? The hurt?
7. TV reportage in the 1970s and 80s? In subsequent decades for comparisons? The role of the media and reporting for public interest? Reporters, interpretation, scoops, callous in their behaviour and attitudes? Editing reports?
8. Amy, her personality, her career, her being a typical journalist, on air? Her being with Frank and his family? Her change of heart, helping? The pursuit of justice?
9. The personality of the police, their characters, doing their work, conscientious? Interrogations, witnesses, the over-zealous attitudes?
10. A film of entertainment yet of justice issues, media issues, family, the threats of false accusations and the media?
