"Not Guilty' (or 'The Next Scream You Hear') is another episode of the unusual anthology 'Thriller'. A production of ATV and ITC, it bears all the hallmarks of both companies. The budget conscious ATV and the lofty overly-ambitious ideas of ITC.
This episode is very theatrical. Because of the limited run-time (50 minutes), there's a lot of heavy-handed exposition played out at the office party at the beginning. The characters are introduced, the red herrings are well and truly tossed out there and the scene is set...
Bernard Pell is woken up after the office party by two detectives hammering on his front door. His wife turns up dead in the boot of his car and the poor bloke is marched off to the slammer. Of course, the police consider the case closed but a poncy private detective, Matthew Earp, shows up and starts uncovering the truth.
The heavyweight cast of British acting talent makes it all bearable. You can say what you like about the plausibility of this series of programs, but there's no doubt that it attracted some terrific actors.
The 'Yank' in this outing is cool Christopher George. All the stories had an American guest actor. It was (wrongly in my view) thought that this would help the marketing value across the pond. You'll almost certainly recognize his face if you have seen enough American TV from the 60s and 70s, but his most notable role was probably Sgt. Sam Troy in 'The Rat Patrol' in the late sixties.
The comedy fight scene in the gym at the end makes this very difficult not to laugh out loud at! But we shouldn't look back at this and take it too seriously. The familiar organ grindings of the 'Thriller' theme music indicate right away that this is going to be a lot more style than substance.
I can understand the negative reviews this has gotten but I enjoyed it despite its flaws.
This episode is very theatrical. Because of the limited run-time (50 minutes), there's a lot of heavy-handed exposition played out at the office party at the beginning. The characters are introduced, the red herrings are well and truly tossed out there and the scene is set...
Bernard Pell is woken up after the office party by two detectives hammering on his front door. His wife turns up dead in the boot of his car and the poor bloke is marched off to the slammer. Of course, the police consider the case closed but a poncy private detective, Matthew Earp, shows up and starts uncovering the truth.
The heavyweight cast of British acting talent makes it all bearable. You can say what you like about the plausibility of this series of programs, but there's no doubt that it attracted some terrific actors.
The 'Yank' in this outing is cool Christopher George. All the stories had an American guest actor. It was (wrongly in my view) thought that this would help the marketing value across the pond. You'll almost certainly recognize his face if you have seen enough American TV from the 60s and 70s, but his most notable role was probably Sgt. Sam Troy in 'The Rat Patrol' in the late sixties.
The comedy fight scene in the gym at the end makes this very difficult not to laugh out loud at! But we shouldn't look back at this and take it too seriously. The familiar organ grindings of the 'Thriller' theme music indicate right away that this is going to be a lot more style than substance.
I can understand the negative reviews this has gotten but I enjoyed it despite its flaws.