“It remains unsurpassed!”
– Anthony
Lane, The New Yorker
“You won’t find anything else half as entertaining!”
– Stuart
Klawans, The Nation
“DON’T MISS! [An] exquisitely plotted
murder mystery!”
– Time Out New York
“One of the most brilliant
demonstrations of point of view filmmaking…
reminds
us of the glories of the black-and-white cinema at its peak.”
– Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer
“A superior psychological drama [to The Third
Man]… Fiftysomething
years back, The New York Times called it 'a major delight of the
season' – as could be said of this revival… As the
eponymous idol, Richardson is quietly splendid. His buttoned-up
butler is an amiable fabulist, roguish yet decent, understated but
passionate. The yearning with which he regards the radiant Morgan
fuels the movie.”
– J. Hoberman, The Village Voice |
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(1948) With father the ambassador and mother both away, eight-year-old
Phil’s
only companions for the weekend in his cavernous London embassy residence
will be his beloved pet snake; his idol, Baines the butler (Ralph Richardson);
and his dreaded nemesis, the snake-hating housekeeper, Mrs. Baines.
And when Phil trails Baines to a tea room tryst with embassy staffer
Julie (Michèle Morgan) — Baines claims she’s his “niece” — he
becomes the solemn bearer of a Secret. But when an idyllic afternoon
at the zoo is topped by a nighttime tragedy, and those soft-spoken police
arrive to ask all those polite questions, Phil enters a world of lies
that unintentionally implicate his idol in murder.
Written by Graham Greene from his short story “The Basement Room” (it
was the writer’s personal favorite of all his adaptations), THE
FALLEN IDOL marked Greene’s first collaboration with director
Reed. Pivotal to the screen adaptation was the casting: Ralph Richardson,
in an award-winning role, evokes affection, anguish, guilt and fear without
ever ’s sultry lover in Marcel Carné’s Port
of Shadows) brought glamour and vulnerability to the role of Julie;
while the French-born, London-reared Henrey perfectly conveys the earnest,
compulsively chatty, attention-demanding behavior of a typical child.
The impeccable casting extends to even the smallest parts, from detectives
Jack Hawkins (later Brit superstar and Lawrence of Arabia’s General
Allenby) and Bernard Lee (James Bond’s original “M” and
Third Man sewer bullet-recipient) to famed comedienne Dora Bryan
as the tart who can’t comfort Phil without resorting to her usual
come-ons.
Working with legendary French cinematographer Georges Périnal, “Reed
presents the agonizingly tense drama of secrecy, lies and betrayals with
tremendous effect through his use of the huge desolate spaces of the
embassy, especially its vast curving staircase on which so much of the
action unfolds” (Phillip Horne, writing recently in London’s
Daily Telegraph).
Oscar-nominated for direction and screenplay, winner of Best Director
awards from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of
Review and the Best Screenplay prize at the Venice Film Festival, and
named the best British film of its year by the British Film Academy, FALLEN IDOL has
in recent years gotten lost as the middle child of Reed’s greatest period (between Odd Man Out and Third Man)
-- it has long been out of print on video and never on DVD. Seen again,
it clearly ranks among the director’s greatest works, effortlessly combining a sensitive
child’s-eye-view of the world with a poignant love story -- and
suspense that rivals Hitchcock.
A RIALTO PICTURES RELEASE
1:20, 3:15, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30
- Geoffrey O'Brien discusses THE FALLEN IDOL on WFMU:
Listen (RealAudio) | Listen (MP3 (128K))
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