Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

christopher-underwood This begins quietly enough and if Ralph Richardson is effective as the butler, there is no real hint that this is going to rise much above the level of a decent melodrama. Things do pick up, however, and an effective thriller seems to rise out of very little other than meticulous directing, flawless cinematography and fine acting. Bobby Henrey is enormously effective as the young boy although I understand this was more down to the personal efforts of director carol reed and careful editing than any particular acting skills on his part. Nevertheless he is most convincing and as the tension mounts the frustration surrounding his ability to know who to trust works extremely well. As with the 1946 film, Spiral Staircase, a central set of stairs is crucial to the tale with almost all action taking place on or through a door off them. There are one or two outside exclusions to the London streets and one particularly effective and evocative one towards the end when the boy runs out into the stunningly lit night streets. Absorbing, involving with a most exciting last act.

dougdoepke Was there ever a more civilized treatment of infidelity than this British suspenser. Ralph Richardson's butler Baines is the very last word in polished civility and stiff upper lip no matter how extreme the provocation. Yet he's so unfailingly kind and considerate to the boy Phillipe that he's among the most admirable of transgressors. The bond between the lonely son of the French ambassador and the hen-pecked English butler is memorably touching and the emotional heart of the film.Director Carol Reed has basically a single set to work with. But it's a great one with the sweeping staircase, high domed ceiling, and checkerboard tiles, all keeping the eye entertained at the same time the sinister events unfold. Those events are driven by poor Sonia Dresdel who has the thankless role of the cruel wife and housekeeper Mrs. Baines that she plays to the hilt. You just know from the start that Phillipe's pet garter snake, MacGregor, is doomed in her bleak household. In fact, the screenplay has loaded the deck by making her such an unsympathetic figure. Who can blame Baines for his covert rendezvous with the lovely Julie (Michelle Morgan) when his shrewish wife remains in the empty embassy waiting to pounce.What really distinguishes the movie is its skill at viewing adult actions through the eyes of the child. Thus, instead of a conventional two-shot close-up of Baines and Julie in intimate conversation, Reed gives us a three-shot from the perspective of Phillipe as he watches them. We may know what's up with them, but we also share the boy's puzzlement over a world he has yet to grow into. We share that perspective throughout, which is not only an unusual one, but visually reinforces the touching bond between the child of the elite and the highly polished commoner. It also turns the emotional climax (not the dramatic) into a memorably revealing one-- a rite of passage, as it were.Anyway, in my little book, the movie qualifies as a genuine classic, placing Carol Reed in the same Pantheon as contemporary British masters Hitchcock and Michael Powell. Once you see it, you don't forget it.

Robert J. Maxwell Outstanding film of love, suspense, jealousy, rage, guilt, justice, and the uncomprehending nature of pre-pubescent boys.And what a cast. Ralph Richardson is the butler in the French embassy in London. The Ambassador's family takes off for a brief vacation, leaving the mansion to Richardson and his wife, and leaving them in custody of their young boy, Bobby Henrey. This must give Richardson a great deal of pleasure.Also giving Richardson a great deal of pleasure is his ongoing affair with the foxy featured blond Michelle Morgan, the embassy's typist. After all, Richardson isn't getting along with his wife for reasons that the script perhaps makes a little too obvious. She's practically bipolar.Richardson and Henrey get along very well though. The butler spins out long yarns involving lions in Africa and killing a Mau Mau leader in self defense. But then Richardson lies to him all the time, partly to entertain the child and partly to conceal from him the affair with Morgan, who, he tells the kid, is his "niece." Henrey, however, lacking the skill at deception that an adult would have, spills the beans to Richardson's wife, who goes berserk, whacks the kid around, has a violent confrontation with her husband, and, while trying to peek into the bedroom, slips from an overhead ledge in the manse and breaks her well-deserved neck.The authorities are called in. At first, they assume the body at the foot of the stairs is the result of an accident. But Richardson comes out with a couple of lies, trying to keep his girl friend out of it. And Henrey lies too, thinking he's helping his idol, except that every time he lies, he gets Richardson into more trouble, until the police are ready to take Richardson down to the precinct and charge him with murder.I first saw this many years ago and wasn't very impressed. The springboard for the story is pretty banal -- married man has an affair and tries to hide it from his wife. But I'm far more impressed now that I know more about what's up. I suppose that's a way of saying the movie is designed for an adult audience.Carol Reed directed with panache. There is hardly a static scene. When the cops are interrogating someone, the Chief Inspector -- Dennis O'Dea with the face of an IRS auditor -- and Richardson stand facing one another, but O'Dea's minions are wandering around in the background, listening carefully, glancing at Richardson, fiddling with some props. The photography by Georges Merinal is memorable, especially when Henrey is running around the dark and cobblestoned streets in his pajamas.There are moments of humor too. The French ambassador's secretary, Karel Stepanek, shows up and one of the detectives, proud of his command of a foreign language, keeps inserting French phrases into the conversation, in a terrible accent. Finally, he says to Stepanek in French that he's sorry for causing him all this trouble, and Stepanek glances at him with annoyance and says in English, "You would trouble me much less if you spoke English." And when Richardson, Morgan, and Henrey visit the zoo, the two lovers are deep in a quiet conversation, which the kid interrupts with, "Oh, look at the monkeys! Look at the monkeys! What are they doing?" Richardson looks at the monkeys -- which the viewer doesn't have a chance to do -- and uncomfortably hustles them away.It's enjoyable and suspenseful and is a kind of primer on how we can sometimes be led astray by our best intentions.

ackstasis 'The Fallen Idol (1948)' was adapted, with a few changes, by Graham Greene from his novella "The Basement Room." Greene himself supported most of these alterations, including a plot reworking that saw young Phillipe condemning the innocent Baines through well-meaning if misguided lies, as opposed to the novella, in which a guilty Baines is betrayed by Phillipe's inability to keep secrets. One change of which the author did not approve was that of the title. I must differ with Greene on that point; I find "The Fallen Idol" to rather beautifully suggest the erosion of Phillipe's childish trust in the father-like Baines. The general theme of a man condemned by another's love was explored in a subsequent Carol Reed drama, 'The Man Between (1953),' in which James Mason is trailed to the West German border by an adoring child.'The Fallen Idol' was the first of three collaborations between Greene and Reed (the other two being 'Our Man in Havana (1958)' and the legendary 'The Third Man (1949)'). Here, many of the pair's trademarks are apparent. Certainly, Reed's favoured camera tilt makes several appearances, though rarely as eccentric as those in 'The Third Man.' For a moment, the film's ending looked to be treading in similar waters to the American noir 'They Won't Believe Me (1947),' and I had chills at the prospect of Baines committing suicide moments before his exoneration. That the ending doesn't follow through on this threat didn't feel at all like a forced happy ending; I genuinely felt relieved at Baines' survival.The performances in the film are mostly impressive, particularly Ralph Richardson, who gradually reveals the flaws in his character, and Sonia Dresdel, as the nasty Mrs Baines who arguably gets what she deserves. French actress Michèle Morgan reminded me of Ingrid Bergman, and perhaps it's no surprise that she had previously starred opposite Bogart, Rains, Greenstreet and Lorre in 'Passage to Marseilles (1944).' Bobby Henrey, by all accounts a very difficult child actor to work with, does a good job of appearing a well- meaning nuisance, but the final scene, with his consistent and perplexing "please sir, please sir, please sir" whining was like fingernails down a blackboard.