Dead Cert is a 1974 British crime thriller film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Scott Antony, Geoffrey Bateman and Judi Dench.

[5] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Dead Cert is rather revealing, as evidence of how a director experienced in other fields can take a toss on the deceptively simple terrain of a straightforward thriller.

What it needs is basically what Dick Francis' heavily adapted original provided: robust action, a rising curve of suspense and a professional background accurate and interesting enough to ease the plot over its implausibilities.

But Tony Richardson's film is all stop-start, never building real momentum, or even much sense of urgency around the doings of its oddly boorish, woman-encumbered hero as he prowls about a kind of Soho-on-Sea – strip clubs as a change of scene from stables.

The picture also gets itself into quite a plot tangle about just what its villains are supposed to be doing  ...The unit went to some trouble to stage their own Grand National, with a field of chasing veterans, and a camera at one point strapped to a jockey's chest; a pity that the cut-in close shots and choppy editing spoil the effect.