There are very few Sidney Lumet movies I haven’t seen–and that’s saying a lot since he made so many movies. One is something called ‘Lovin’ Molly’ which he squeezed in between ‘Serpico’ and “Murder On The Orient Express’. (In his book ‘Making Movies’ he mentions in passing that he did one movie because he needed the money to buy a house. I sense that it was ‘Lovin’ Molly’). There’s also the much-derided remake of ‘Gloria’, starring Sharon Stone, which nobody has really seen. And then there’s an obscure cop drama made in England in 1973 just prior to the very un-obscure cop drama ‘Serpico’ called ‘The Offence’. Apparently this was a ‘love project’ of Connery’s and the studio that had made a fortune of the Bond movies allowed him to make any movie of his choosing on a low-budget. He and Lumet had already worked together on ‘The Anderson Tapes’ and would make another two films with each other, one of which was called ‘Family Business’ and the other of which I can’t remember right now and don’t have time to look up since I’m on my way to the airport shortly. Anyway, above is a little making-of doc about ‘The Offence’. It’s fun to see the goofily self-serious executives congratulating themselves on their cleverness in keeping Sean happy (and thus Bond–though he wouldn’t play the role for much longer) and it’s really fun to see Lumet’s haircut. Sidney is, as always, constantly moving, always in action, and we see a good deal of his rehearsal process which seems refreshingly practical and un-heady. Below is the trailer of the film. The full film is available on Youtube and if my flight is delayed I’m thinking giving it a watch…or at least scrubbing through it.