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Probable Cause

In Hal Salwen's script for "Probable Cause," someone is killing some of Edmonton's finest, one by one, with a matching set of steak knives. Detective Gary Yanuck (Michael Ironside) is assigned to find the cop killer, but has his own problem with a sexual harassment rap brought by his partner (Michele Miller).

In Hal Salwen’s script for “Probable Cause,” someone is killing some of Edmonton’s finest, one by one, with a matching set of steak knives. Detective Gary Yanuck (Michael Ironside) is assigned to find the cop killer, but has his own problem with a sexual harassment rap brought by his partner (Michele Miller).

When his superior (Craig T. Nelson) assigns him a new female partner, Lynn Riley (Kate Vernon), he has further cause for unease. Riley, it turns out, is occasionally given to sleepwalking, and her affliction seems to have spread.

Whether confronted with a colleague’s blood or with Riley’s alluring presence at the foreseeable bedding-down time, Ironside’s reaction is that of bleary-eyed disinterest.

Perhaps it’s the drab Alberta setting (accurately if not agreeably depicted in composer George Blondheim’s uncommonly unattractive, obsessive four-note theme), but director Paul Ziller (working from his own story), seems unable to move his pic out of its basically slogging, glacial pace.

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As the profile of the murderer gradually fills in, flashbacks intended to clarify motivation seem instead arbitrarily tacked on to fill out the timeslot. By that time any large child should have figured out the plot and wandered off in search of livelier fare.

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Probable Cause

(Sun. (20), 8-9:35 p.m., Showtime)

  • Production: Filmed in Edmonton, Alberta, by Wilmont Prods. for Showtime Entertainment. Executive producers, Michael Ironside, Philip Swift. Producers, Richard Davis, Bruce Harvey. Director, Paul Ziller; writer, Hal Salwen, from a story by Ziller.
  • Crew: Camera, Danny Novack; editor, Doug Forbes; production designer, John Blackie; sound, Peter Wugalter; music, George Blondheim.
  • Cast: Cast: Michael Ironside, Kate Vernon, James Downing, David Sivertsen, David McNally, Kirk Baltz, Paul Coeur, Craig T. Nelson, Tom Eirikson, Candice Elzinga, Michelle Thorne, Rick Ash, Michele Miller, Wes Tritter, Lisa McIntosh, Dennis Robinson, Orest Kinasewich, Gord Marriott, Raul Tome, Christine Macinnis, Colleen Tillotson, Shaun Johnston, Larry Reese, Stephen Sparks, M. Emmet Walsh, Nola Augustson, Marshall Bell, John Hudson.

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