Night Must Fall (1964)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Powerful

Memorable, crazy movie

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

A critical failure at the time of its release and considered something of a let-down for its director and star, (it was certainly an odd choice of material), this 1964 film version of Emlyn Williams' play, (it was written in 1935 and filmed two years later with Robert Montgomery), is nowhere near as bad as people say. It's the one about the young psychopath, (a terrific Albert Finney), who worms his way into the affections of elderly invalid Mona Washbourne, (superb), and her initially stand-offish daughter, (an excellent Susan Hampshire). The problem is that in attempting to get to the psychological heart of the piece director Karl Reisz drains it of all suspense and Clive Exton's screenplay, (I haven't seen or read the original play), is a bit on the dull side. But neither is it a disaster and I have never understood why it disappeared so soon after its initial appearance.

A horrible film but very well made. After I had seen it at night I was told not to see it at night. Well, it certainly is a shocker, and the stronger for the old efficient trick that you never see the bloody murders or the rest of the victims; but their presence is the more unavoidable. Albert Finney makes a virtuoso performance, and the film could have for a subtitle 'Anatomy of a psychopath', since that is what the film envisions and with excellence. Susan Hampshire is very convincing as well in her wavering position as getting more and more uncertain about her relationship the more she gets to know him; but the prize goes to Karel Reisz for his direction. It's an extremely weird film that only gets more so in its course, and Reisz more often than not made a sport of challenging the difficult art of border line balancing - his greatest success was "Morgan - a suitable case for treatment", his next film. This film Albert Finney made just after his triumph in "Tom Jones" as something of an opposite. Danny here is as charming as Tom Jones and even more agile about it but definitely goes too far. It's a film well worth seeing, but you never want to see it again.

Night must fall has the dubious distinction of being not only an underrated horror film but also one of those brilliant films which has found scarce admiration in the realm of British cinema.However,these glaring shortcomings would not make much difference for those film aficionados who would like to explore new facets of horror cinema with a difference.British actor Albert Finney and director Karel Reisz have made a great horror film which works primarily on Albert Finney's mannerisms.This is a film which holds our attention as its suspense elements are merged with our comic occurrences thereby creating a kind of happiness during distress atmosphere.The psychological depth of Karel Reisz's feminine characters is so immense that it reveals their weaknesses as well as their fascination for a person who would stop at nothing in order to harm them.This is something which helps us comprehend that all characters are part of a wide spectrum of a character study which would be beneficial for society as a whole.

The remake of the 1937 film was slaughtered both by critics and audience at the time it premiered and there was mainly one reason for it:the crazed fans of Albert Finney were absolutely shocked,as he daringly chose the role of the psychotic ''killer with the angelic face'', following his all-time favorite roles of ''Saturday night and Sunday morning''and, particularly, ''Tom Jones''.As many historians mention, the ''MGM wives'' who were few of the first to see the film, turned violently against the gifted director, Karel Reisz, shouting ''what have you done to that beautiful boy?''!But this is not a serious reason to dismiss an, overall, very good film, which, however, has some serious flaws.The use of music is exaggerated and some times irritating and, only in the first part of the film, Finney doesn't quite know how to tackle with his disturbed character. But the photography is great, Mona Washbourne gives a superb performance and Karel Reisz does a great job, not only updating the old text and bringing it within the ''realism'' of the British Free Cinema movement, but also with his masterful camera movements and his use of editing and abruptly cutting to different scenes, he creates an imposing psychological thriller, where what you don't see is more disturbing than what you do. Being one of the greatest actors EVER, Finney soon finds a convincing attitude for his character and the last part of the film is absolutely brilliant as a whole.It should be re-examined and re-appreciated, that's why it has to come out on VHS and DVD a.s.a.p.! 7.5/10