10 Rillington Place **** (1971, Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt) – Classic Movie Review 4643

Director Richard Fleischer’s absorbing 1971 British anti-capital punishment film 10 Rillington Place re-creates the infamous real-life Forties John Christie murder case in London. Richard Attenborough’s chilling portrayal of the serial killer John Christie deservedly gathered excellent reviews.

Indeed, there are superb performances by Attenborough as the creepily mild-mannered serial killer Christie and John Hurt as the illiterate dupe Timothy Evans, with very good ones from Judy Geeson as his poor wife Beryl and Pat Heywood as Christie’s wife Ethel Christie.

It is 1949 and Evans, his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson) and Baby Geraldine (Miss Riley) unfortunately take up residence in 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, in London, where their neighbour is the oddball middle-aged Dr Christie, who lives with his wife Ethel in the ground-floor flat. His next intended target is Beryl Evans, who going to have another baby.

The American film-maker Fleischer directs thoughtfully, with deep concern for the story and its ramifications, and with fine attention to the characters, as well as to period and local detail, and with atmospheric use of locations, including Rillington Place itself, the Electric Cinema in Portobello Road, Putney Bridge where Christie is apprehended, Merthyr Vale Station where Evans gets off the train to visit his family. The interiors are shot at Shepperton Studios.

Clive Exton’s excellent screenplay is based on Ludovic Kennedy’s campaigning book, the dialogue based on official documents whenever possible to do justice to the true story.

Also in the cast are Pat Heywood, Isobel Black, André Morell, Robert Hardy, Phyllis MacMahon, Ray Barron, Douglas Blackwell, Gabrielle Daye, Jimmy Gardner, Edward Evans, Tenniel Evans, David Jackson, George Lee, Richard Coleman, Geoffrey Chater, Basil Dignam, Edwin Brown, Norma Shebbeare, Sam Kydd, Rudolph Walker, Tmmy Ansah, Reg Lye, Margaret Boyd, Jack Carr, Norman Henry, Edward Burnham, Tony Thawnton and Edward Woodward.

Fleischer also directs Compulsion (1959) and The Boston Strangler (1968), in similar vein about real-life killers.

Apparently there is no building now on the site of 10 Rillington Place. There are houses either side but the site is a communal grassy area as it must have been thought no one would want to live there. Apparently the street was re-named Ruston Mews and been renamed again in further redevelopment.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4643

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Richard Attenborough as John Christie, Judy Geeson as Beryl Evans and John Hurt as Timothy Evans.