10 Rillington Place
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DVD Review
Ratings And Purchasing Information
Review
Movie:
Who would have thought that the naïve and yet likeable John Hammond of Jurassic Park fame would be a creepy serial killer? No, nor me, but in 1971 he did just that; playing the part of British serial killer John Reginald Halliday Christie in Richard Fleischer’s 10 Rillington Place.
John Christie (Richard Attenborough)is a landlord, along with his wife Ethel (Pat Heywood)at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill. Christie looks like a quiet and unassuming character, with a balding head, glasses and soft voice. But he holds a terrible secret, and that is that Christie is a murderer, a fact that is established as soon as the movie starts.
After the initial crime we leap forward a few years to when Timothy Evans (John Hurt), his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson) and their permanently unhappy baby Geraldine are looking to rent the upstairs flat. Christie eyes Beryl with a perverted glint in his eye and lays the groundwork to gain her trust. Christie of course has other things in mind and weaves his web of lies that will spell tragedy for all involved.
Made in 1971 many people may pass this film by, They may see it as too old, or not “scary” enough, especially with the current climate of gratuitous gore that seems to dominate these days. But 10 Rillington Place shows how well films can be made without having to resort to those kinds of tricks. Instead of hacking and slashing our way through 111 minutes of movie we have a very tense, disturbing film; Which is filmed in a clever manner.
For example the flat that the Evans rent, although small and looking more than a little grotty, it does actually look quite bright, whereas Christie’s rooms always look claustrophobic, dark and grubby which nicely sets the scene and the mood of how we feel about the man. There is also a nice camera sequence that stood out when on the ground floor where it seemed as if a hand held camera was following a character through the narrow hallway, this stood out for me as I would have thought that cameras were large clunky affairs at that time and that the scene would have been a little difficult to film within the confines of the house, I think it is worthy of mentioning as it stood out as a decent piece of camerawork. It is little nuances like this that show that forethought have gone into making the film.
The four main actors play their roles exceptionally well; Attenborough (Christie) is superb, oozing creepiness and trustworthiness at the same time which speaks buckets for his skill as an actor. He is not a physical man so his menace is portrayed superbly through his tone of voice. In the bonus features he states that although it was a wonderful part to play for a character actor, he actually felt unclean and was glad when filming was over.
John Hurt is another great British actor. He plays Timothy Evans the illiterate husband of Beryl. His range of acting is superb, during the times when he is arguing with Beryl and her Friend Alice you really feel that a full blown row is in progress. When in the courtroom his expression of a man who just is confused and struggling to understand what is going on is so believable, he gives an excellent performance and one that as of equal if not slightly better than that of Attenborough’s.
Pat Heywood plays Ethel, Christie’s wife. In all honesty she does not have a massive part to play in the film, she crops up now and then through the first two thirds of the film and appears a little more in the last third but it is never a role that is at the fore, Ethel was unaware of her husbands necrophilia fetish and is often away when the crimes occur.
Beryl (Judy Geeson) is the trusting wife of Timothy and she is the reason that the plot moves forward, it is she that trusts Christie after his “little chat”, it is she that approaches him with her “secret” and so the film is really geared around her once her family are in the flat, however due to Attenborough’s portrayal of the serial killer, and Hurts fantastic performance she is relegated to third place. Her acting is good throughout though, or example there is a scene where she looks extremely nervous and hesitant in both her speech and body language, and you really feel for the character at that time. It is completely realistic.
All the actors were superbly directed by Richard Fleischer, although with the quality of actors that he had he certainly had made his life easier, other works of his include Tora! Tora! Tora!, Fantastic Voyage and 20,000 leagues under the sea, He also made a film about the Boston Strangler but I have not had the opportunity to watch that.
As a side note, in the interview Richard Attenborough states that they filmed in the actual No 10 Rillington Place which was demolished the day after they stopped filming, IMDB however contradicts this by saying that they filmed in No 6. IMDB does not reveal the source of their information whereas Richard was a main character in the film so I tend to make him right. That must have been so surreal filming a movie about a serial killer in the very house that he did the murders. That itself is almost as creepy and frightening as the murders themselves.Bonus Material:
Special introduction to the DVD from Sir Richard Attenborough: A short introduction from the man himself and his thoughts on the movie how it ranks within his career
Audio commentary from John Hurt: John hurt talks not only about the film but about other memories that crop up whilst he was making the film.
Exclusive interview with Sir Richard Attenborough: He talks about various aspects of acting and the film itself. There are some really interesting titbits of information here although on occasion things do drag on a bit.
Fact files: Chronology of the murders and the lives of the main players in the film.
Vintage lobby cards: Stills of cinema lobby cards at the time of release.
Filmographies: A list of movies that they have been in
Overall:
A superb, disturbing movie that relies on superior acting and mood rather than on more modern hack and slash techniques. If you like crime/murder films and you have not seen this then it must go on your wish list, currently is available for £5.99 on play.
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