SUSPECT (AKA THE RISK) On Blu-ray From Severin

 

The 1960 film SUSPECT (also known as THE RISK) is included on Severin's CUSHING CURIOSITIES Blu-ray box set. The movie shares the same disc with THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED. 

SUSPECT is a very effective low-budget realistic espionage tale produced and directed by the Boulting Brothers. A research team of British scientists led by a Professor Sewell (Peter Cushing) is working on a way to end plague epidemics. Sewell desperately wants to share the team's findings, in hopes that it will serve humanity, but a government minister (Raymond Huntley) fears the information may be used to produce a biological weapon. Sewell and his team are ordered by the government not to share or discuss their results, and this leads the younger members of the research group to take matters in their own hands and get involved with some shady characters. 

When it comes to espionage, SUSPECT is more in the way of John le Carre than Ian Fleming. The story (adapted from a novel by Nigel Balchin) is still an intriguing one, with the ensemble of characters each reacting a different way to the situation at hand. The conflict between those trying to help the public and government officials who believe they are trying to protect the public is still very relevant today--SUSPECT could easily be remade and updated to the 21st Century. The movie succeeds in giving each side of the discussion its viewpoint without making one appear good or bad. 

Peter Cushing doesn't have a lot of screen time in SUSPECT, but he gets across the idea that Professor Sewell is a quietly determined man who truly wants to help society. Cushing doesn't play the Professor as an eccentric--when Sewell finds out about the government's decision on his work, he's not happy about it at all, but he accepts the situation and deals with it the best he can. Cushing is playing a man older than what he was at the time, and Sewell, with his grey hair and mustache, very much resembles Cushing's personal appearance in the early 1970s. SUSPECT was made right near the end of Cushing's first great Hammer horror period, and one assumes that the actor was glad to play a "normal" role in a contemporary story, and  get a chance to work with the Boultings. 

In SUSPECT Cushing is surrounded by an esteemed group of British character actors, most of whom he had worked with or would work with in the future. The cast includes many people familiar to Cushing fans, such as Raymond Huntley, Thorley Walters, Donald Pleasence, Sam Kydd, Kenneth Griffith, and Geoffrey Bayldon. Spike Milligan even has a comic relief role. It is the overall cast that really elevates SUSPECT from other low-budget British films made during the same period--most major English features didn't have an ensemble like this. 

Severin presents SUSPECT in a 1.66:1 widescreen aspect ratio, and the black & white picture quality is very crisp. The only extra for this movie is a brand new audio commentary by Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons. It's an excellent one, as the two men are quite enthusiastic throughout, discussing various details of the film and how the Boultings, while making this picture, tried to elevate what was essentially the British version of a "B" movie. The disc that contains SUSPECT and THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED is Region A. 

SUSPECT was one of the few Peter Cushing films I had never seen, and I was very impressed with it. It's a nice little film, a thinking person's Cold War spy story, and it's enlivened by a very notable cast. Peter Cushing doesn't have a huge role in it, but I'm sure his fans will appreciate seeing him in a realistic portrayal as opposed to the many English Gothic characters he was playing during this period.