In the comfort and affluence of his office after the tragic death of his wife and daughter, psychoanalyst Dr Judd Stevens (Roger Moore) finds his world falling apart when he becomes the main suspect after a series of horrific murders.
First, one of his patients – a guilt-ridden homosexual – is murdered while wearing Judd’s coat.
Then, it is the turn of Judd’s beautiful (and pregnant) secretary, who is brutally butchered in his own consulting room.
Is the murderer a patient with a psychopathic streak and a grudge? Why does the wealthy and troubled Ann Blake (Anne Archer) visit his consulting room seeking counsel for a friend rather than herself? Does Judd owe money, or is there something much more sinister that he won’t admit?
Hounded by the police and fearful for his own life, Judd looks up private investigators in the Yellow Pages and comes up with Morgens (Art Carney), an ageing, wheezing, short-sighted, hard-of-hearing and quite brilliant veteran gumshoe who lives in cosy squalor with a tortoiseshell cat and a lot of antique clocks.
Moore is in fine form here, visibly relaxed with the shackles of 007 removed, and he delivers an erudite performance.
Directed with a sure hand by Bryan Forbes (who also adapted the Sidney Sheldon book for the screen) and with a cast including Elliott Gould and Rod Steiger, this stylish film never quite caught fire.
Moore maintained that this was due to his character, the gentlemanly Dr Stevens, being comprehensively beaten up by various mobsters in the last act, but a feeble marketing campaign by the Cannon Group is a more likely culprit.
Dr Judd Stevens
Roger Moore Lt. McGreavy
Rod Steiger Detective Angeli
Elliott Gould Morgens
Art Carney Ann Blake
Anne Archer Dr Peter Hadley
David Hedison Mrs Hadley
Deanna Dunagan Cortini
Ron Parady Captain Bertelli
Dick Sollenberger Prison Supervisor
James Spinks Frank
John Kapelos Teri Goldman
Cynthia Baker Schuyler Rose Graham
Virginia Smith Boyd
Joe D. Lauck Fallon
Jimmie F. Skaggs Carol
Frankie Hill Betty
Nancy Serlin Eddie
Jerry Tullos Charlie
Edward L. Burba Nick
Will Zahrn
Director
Bryan Forbes
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First, one of his patients – a guilt-ridden homosexual – is murdered while wearing Judd’s coat.
Moore is in fine form here, visibly relaxed with the shackles of 007 removed, and he delivers an erudite performance.
