The third collaboration between Sean Connery and the director Sidney Lumet is an unsettling glimpse into the toxic mind of a policeman who has been polluted by the horrors witnessed over the course of his career.

Lumet's direction strives to give to material that is neither edifying nor suspenseful a fake profundity, stretching it to unconscionable lengths.

There's a powerful confrontation of authority and accused between police sergeant Sean Connery and suspected child molester Ian Bannen in Sidney Lumet's The Offence. A brilliant scene, however, does not in itself make for a brilliant overall feature.

…Sidney Lumet's The Offence is a fearless, no-holds barred drama that must have shocked at the time, and is still strong meat today, featuring a career-best performance from Sean Connery as a tortured cop exhausted by dealing with endless sexual offences…