Post by wmcclain on Mar 26, 2022 20:40:34 GMT
The Fallen Idol (1948), directed by Carol Reed.
Carol Reed was on fire in the late 1940s. Between Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949) he made this smaller, more intimate suspense film in an unusual domestic setting.
Young Philippe lives in the French (?) embassy in London. His mother has been away for months and his father the ambassador isn't around much. The boy adores butler Ralph Richardson who is always funny and friendly and has a big supply of tall tale adventures from his supposed travels in exotic lands.
The butler's sorrow is his wife, the housekeeper, who is a shrew. That and he's fallen in love with a young woman who is one of the embassy clerks, now planning on leaving him and going back home.
Philippe sees many things without understanding them. When the housekeeper dies in a fall, he mistakenly believes his hero has murdered her. He'll say anything to protect him but his lies inadvertently draw the noose tighter...
Notes:
Music by William Alwyn: Odd Man Out (1947), A Night to Remember (1958).
Photographed by Georges Périnal: Things to Come (1936), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), No Highway in the Sky (1951), Bonjour Tristesse (1958).
Guy Hamilton is credited as assistant director, later a director in his own right, including four Bond films. "Carol Reed was the biggest influence on me and on everything that I did"
My thumbnails are from a region B Blu-ray from Studio Canal/BFI. No sign of a North American Blu-ray and the Criterion DVD is out of print.
Carol Reed was on fire in the late 1940s. Between Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949) he made this smaller, more intimate suspense film in an unusual domestic setting.
Young Philippe lives in the French (?) embassy in London. His mother has been away for months and his father the ambassador isn't around much. The boy adores butler Ralph Richardson who is always funny and friendly and has a big supply of tall tale adventures from his supposed travels in exotic lands.
The butler's sorrow is his wife, the housekeeper, who is a shrew. That and he's fallen in love with a young woman who is one of the embassy clerks, now planning on leaving him and going back home.
Philippe sees many things without understanding them. When the housekeeper dies in a fall, he mistakenly believes his hero has murdered her. He'll say anything to protect him but his lies inadvertently draw the noose tighter...
Notes:
- The secret meeting of the lovers in the café is parallel to the first scene of Brief Encounter (1945) where they cannot speak openly, trying to say goodbye, or not to.
- In a nice bit of suspense through composition, when the police are firming up the wrong idea we can see the exculpatory window ledge in the background. The audience yells: "Turn around and look! Just go up there and see!"
- In a funny sequence Philippe is taken to a police station where the police are having a familiar conversation with Rose, a streetwalker. They want her to talk to the boy but are upset when she speaks to him as if he were one of her gentlemen, but it is the only way she knows. When discovering he is the son of the ambassador: "Oh, I know your Daddy". Wait, what? Nothing follows.
- The housekeeper complained about chalk marks; later she had her own chalk outline.
- Well-known faces among the police: Denis O'Dea, Jack Hawkins, Torin Thatcher, Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Keen. Policemen were well trusted in film then and it was hard to lie to them.
Music by William Alwyn: Odd Man Out (1947), A Night to Remember (1958).
Photographed by Georges Périnal: Things to Come (1936), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), No Highway in the Sky (1951), Bonjour Tristesse (1958).
Guy Hamilton is credited as assistant director, later a director in his own right, including four Bond films. "Carol Reed was the biggest influence on me and on everything that I did"
My thumbnails are from a region B Blu-ray from Studio Canal/BFI. No sign of a North American Blu-ray and the Criterion DVD is out of print.
