An Unsuitable Job For a Woman
– After the suicide of her friend and employer, who has been teaching her to be a detective, Cordelia ..
After the suicide of her friend and employer, who has been teaching her to be a detective, Cordelia Gray (Pippa Guard) takes over his business and begins an investigation of the apparent suicide of the son of a businessman. When the suicide turns out to be murder, what she discovers disrupts the entire family and puts Cordelia's life in danger. This off-beat British film is a moody, entertaining thriller, much in the tradition of film noir, but with an unusual and determined female detective. Nicely directed by Christopher Petit, and based on the wonderful novel of the same name by the acclaimed British mystery writer P. J. James, this film gives a fresh approach to the detective-film genre and introduces an intelligent and resourceful woman to a profession usually dominated by men.
26 Apr 1985
English
Christopher Petit
P.D. James (novel), Elizabeth McKay (screenplay), Christopher Petit (screenplay), Brian Scobie (screenplay)
Billie Whitelaw, Paul Freeman, Pippa Guard, Dominic Guard
A rather loose adaptation of the P. D. James novel. Cordelia Gray, the survivor of a partnership in a detective agency, is asked by the assistant of James Calendar to investigate the suicide of his son, Mark. About the same age as Mark, Cordelia is resourceful in her investigation, but smitten with the dead son and becomes obsessed with his memory and his increasingly suspicious death. She interviews his friend, Andrew, and his girlfriend, Isobel. She is also interested in James Calendar's assistant, Elizabeth Leaming, who seems to have a more than natural interest in Mark. She is thrown down an abandoned well and later chases her assailant, Andrew...
1 win & 2 nominations.