Um… Sharon Stone… Basic Instinct… perhaps the most well known and iconic police interview/interrogation scene ever.
I am not showing that to my daughter. What is wrong with you.
Detective Story (1951) is a movie that should be watched for its own sake, directed by William Wyler. Wyler directed movies like (Dreiser’s) Carrie, The Heiress, The Best Years of Our Lives, etc. that take great consideration for the humanity of their characters, events the baddies. Something you don’t get in the hyper-stylized Nolan, Cohens, Wes Anderson.
Besides some great small moments with Joseph Wiseman and Lee Grant, Detective Story has an impromptu interrogation scene where Elenor Parker, the detective’s wife keeping a secret, piques the policeman’s instinct of her husband’s lieutenant played by Horace McMahon. McMahon usually played thugs, but here he’s a kindly uncle who persistently gets her to open up everything.
She can play the Wayne Knight part if it makes you more comfortable.
Season 2 Episode 1, Maigret and the Night Club Dancer (taken from Maigret at Picratt’s) has a pretty representative interrogation scene about halfway through (I’m watching it now). Good cast in this episode, Minnie Driver, Brenda Blethyn, and Michael Sheen getting interrogated.
Not police but the interview scenes with the arsonist in Backdraft should be of interest.
Came in to suggest this.
Another one from The Wire, Bunk and McNulty interrogate D’Angelo.
What this clip doesn’t show at the end is that they get D’Angelo to write an apology to the dead man’s family. Dumb move on D’s part.
And this classic.
You might find this interesting. It’s the real thing that happened as a result of one of our (Canadian) senior air force officers (then-Colonel Russell Williams) who sexually assaulted and murdered two people several years ago. In addition I believe that there were some other sexual assaults. This has excerpts of the interrogation so I believe that a lot of awful stuff is omitted. There are two hour versions that have a lot more really disturbing stuff.
What’s interesting about this is that it has none of the histrionics and overt drama of something like a CSI Miami interrogation. Don’t be fooled by the calmness and near-boring nature of it; it’s absolutely fascinating. He basically accepts an invite to the Ottawa Police Service main station for an interview, probably assuming that he’ll leave shortly thereafter. He’s quite arrogant at the start.
In youtube: The Interrogation of Col. Russell Williams
I would post the link but I keep getting this message: “An error occurred: Sorry, you can’t embed media items in a post.”
You have to hit Reply before Discourse loads the preview image. I made the same mistake in another thread today; I got the video to show by appending &t=0 to the end of the url and replying before the link is loaded.
That was a good episode. I miss that show.
That movie is hot garbage. I’m not a stickler for details, but even I was rolling my eyes at the shoddy police work.
Came in here to mention the Dutch “Cuddle R*****” interrogation. I actually forgot about the season 1 serial killer (I didn’t really start watching the show regularly until season 3.)
The Netflix series Mindhunter maybe/kinda fits in here (well done, worth watching).
It is more after-the-fact though. They talking to serial killers and interview them to learn what makes them tick.
But, I think, interrogation techniques are still part of that even if they already caught the person.
The novel The Big Nowhere has at least 2 or 3 one-on-one interrogation scenes every bit as intense as LA Confidential, no surprise since both books were written by James Ellroy. You’ll probably want to read it first before letting your daughter see it.
The Prisoner (1955) – Not technically a policier, but an interrogation-based film with state inquisitor Jack Hawkins trying to break Cardinal Alec Guinness. Based on/inspired by the case of József Mindszenty - Wikipedia.
The Big Combo (1955) – In one scene, cop Cornel Wilde gives crook Richard Conte a lie detector test, leading to some heated give-and-take. Worthwhile just for Conte’s staccato delivery which might (or might not) translate well into le français.
The Offense (1973) – Interrogation-based film with police detective Sean Connery going at it with a suspected child molester. Not graphic, but perhaps not appropriate, either.
Marathon Man (1976) – Not a policier, but an iconic interrogation scene between Dustin Hoffman (in the dentist’s chair) and Sir Larry.
Lastly, I leave you with Best French Film Noir - films policiers francais - polars. I haven’t seen them all, and most I have seen do not have interrogations scenes (that I recall), but I do remember some such scenes in Le Deuxième Soufflé featuring cop Paul Meurisse.
Ooo, a Melville I haven’t seen. Worth checking out for that alone.
Can’t forget this classic:
Excellent! Thanks for the recommendation
The episode in Scott and Bailey where Scott is interviewing the farmer played by Ellie Haddington. Wonderful scene. Beautifully played.
ETA: Season 4, Episode 8
An even better interrogation by Police Squad:
(Jump to 0:40 in the video)
