10 RILLINGTON PLACE (1971, UK, 111m, 15) ****
Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
dist. Columbia Pictures; pr co. Columbia Pictures / Filmways / Genesis Productions Ltd.; d. Richard Fleischer; w. Clive Exton (based on the book by Ludovic Kennedy); pr. Leslie Linder, Martin Ransohoff; ph. Denys N. Coop (Eastmancolor | 1.66:1); m. John Dankworth; ed. Ernest Walter; ad. Maurice Carter.
cast: Richard Attenborough (Christie), Judy Geeson (Beryl Evans), John Hurt (Timothy Evans), Pat Heywood (Ethel Christie), Isobel Black (Alice), Miss Riley (Baby Geraldine), Phyllis MacMahon (Muriel Eady), Ray Barron (Workman Willis), Douglas Blackwell (Workman Jones), Gabrielle Daye (Mrs. Lynch), Jimmy Gardner (Mr. Lynch), Edward Evans (Det. Inspector), Tenniel Evans (Det. Sergeant), David Jackson (Constable), Jack Carr (Constable), George Lee (Constable), Richard Coleman (Constable), André Morell (Judge Lewis), Robert Hardy (Malcolm Morris), Geoffrey Chater (Christmas Humphreys).
Richard Fleischer presents an unsettlingly authentic account of real-life serial killer John Christie. A seemingly model citizen living in mid-20th century London, Christie (Attenborough) masquerades as a doctor and convinces guileless women that he can cure whatever might ail them, and when they follow him to his home, he chokes them to death and buries them in a makeshift graveyard. When Christie cons a pregnant bride (Geeson), he wonders if he might have found a scapegoat in her husband (Hurt). The film features top-class performances from Attenborough, chilling as the quiet-spoken killer and Hurt, utterly convincing as the duped uneducated Evans. Fleischer’s direction focuses on Christie’s methods and is shot in a non-artsy way with a minimalist score from Dankworth, giving the actors room to breathe. The real Rillington Place was used for filming, further adding to the film’s uneasy ambience.
