A strait-laced British banker hires an eccentric private detective to follow his free-spirited American wife, whom he suspects is cheating on him.
Acting
Topol's magnetic weirdness; Farrow's luminous mischief.
Direction
Reed's late-career gem—elegant, unhurried, deeply human.
Production
1972 London locations that feel like another planet now.
Director
Carol Reed
Mia Farrow
Belinda
Chaim Topol
Julian Cristoforou
Michael Jayston
Charles
Margaret Rawlings
Mrs. Sidley
Annette Crosbie
Miss Framer
Dudley Foster
Mr. Mayhew
Michael Aldridge
Sir Philip Crouch
Neil McCarthy
Parkinson
David Battley
Writer (uncredited)
James Cossins
Party Guest (uncredited)
Guy Standeven
Man at Concert (uncredited)
James Villiers
Dinner Guest (uncredited)
Douglas Wilmer
Party Guest (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released as 'The Public Eye' in the US, which completely misses the British title's playful ambiguity.
Carol Reed's final film reworks the 'private eye falls for subject' trope by making everyone complicit in their own deception.
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