The Debt Collector

An excellent film, though what a bleak view of human nature. Connolly's character is trying to live a good life and the psychotic policeman is determined that it won't happen.

Real Shakespearian tragedy, the wilful misunderstanding of the others characters motives by virtually everyone in the film made the outcome inevitable. The fight in Edinburgh Castle was a wee bit on the unbelievable side, but definitely fitted into the dramatic tradition.

At the end you were left wondering who had actually benefited from the whole sordid mess?

I really enjoyed this movie. The acting was excellent throughout and the storyline gritty and lifelike. This is life at the raw end of the spectrum. The violence was visceral and essential to the plot. Some good sights of Edinburgh and the iconic Forth Rail Bridge.

A tale of a violent man struggling to shake off his past, though it seems far behind him. When a contemporary from that past makes it all the more difficult to forget the haunting truth of 'another' life. Nick Dryden ,convicted gangster and man of violence emerges from prison a respected sculptor and marries a middle class journalist.

Francesca Annis for me took the acting honours though all the male roles were almost equally well performed.Stott and Connolly both excel.

As someone said already 'a debt well worth collecting', see it soon if you haven't already

I really can't believe how highly rated this film is on these pages. The plot seemed to be unnecessarily full of very obvious twists (who actually thought that the policeman had killed Dryden's son?) The climactic stabbing scene was too awful to watch apart from on fast forward, and the attempt at a happy ending just lodged in the throat. All the male participants were mentally unstable which ment that there was no sympathy for any of them. I can't believe that my local paper described it as "funny", surely some mistake?

Ken Stott who is the policeman who just keeps on hounding Billy Connolly an ex-con, even after the latter has served his sentence, puts in a really brilliant performance. Francesca Annis as Connolly's wife is very good as well. Well paced and riveting throughout this film is well worth seeing when one is sick of all the bang-wham of the big American movies.

The Debt Collector is a brilliant study of one man's attempt to escape his past without fully paying for his sins and one man's obsession which eventually takes over his life. Nicky Dryden (Billy Connelly) is the man with the past, a vicious debt collector. Keltie (Ken Stott) is the cop who ensnares him and puts him away. When Dryden is released he starts to make a name for himself as an artist and marries a beautiful reporter. Keltie cannot bear to see a man like Dryden living a lifestyle like that after all the horror he created. Dryden of course is a reformed man but is haunted by his past. His wife Val (Francesca Annis) seems to be the only one who understands. All Keltie had is his mother (Annette Crosbie) who is starting to suffer from dementia. When Keltie seeks revenge on Dryden on behalf of all his victims it becomes an obsession. Then Flipper (Iain Robertson) a young thug who hero-worships Dryden, becomes the catalyst for tragic events to unfold and nobodies life is untouched. You will never see a more intense study of obsession. The closest film comparison would be TAXI DRIVER, but that is the story of a loner. The men in Debt Collector both have responsibilities toward family and that is the source of the tragedy in the film. The performances are brilliant, Connelly, Stott, Robertson and Annis are perfect, with Stott deserving a special mention for creating one of the most complicated characters in Scottish Screen History. The Direction is tight, Neilson never once showing his TV roots. This is a film well worth seeking out.