Night Must Fall

To start with a little off-topic note: in 2003, Tim Burton made the film "Big Fish" which stars Ewan McGregor as a younger version of Albert Finney. When you actually see "Night Must Fall", which was shot around the time when Finney was in his late 30's, it becomes obvious how good this casting choice was! From multiple camera angles, McGregor really looks a lot like the young Finney and the facial expressions are almost exact. "Night Must Fall" itself is a truly interesting and involving thriller and I wonder why on earth it's so underrated! This is a remake of a 1930's thriller that stars Finney as a dangerous, yet very charismatic psychopath who systematically works his way up in a high-society family as a pageboy. After a while, the elderly lady and her daughter grow really fond of him but his mind and intentions are still disturbed. The film has a terrific opening sequence (the frightening image of Danny getting rid of his murder victim) and an extremely suspenseful finale! Everything in between is a bit too talky and – at times – somewhat dull, but you keep watching since Finney's performance is so outstanding. Especially the scenes in which he relives his vile crimes up in his room (forcefully holding the hat-box that contains grim trophies) are very tense and unsettling. Reisz' directing is well-handled but it merely is Freddie Francis' imaginative photography that makes this film so dreamy and beautiful. Francis unquestionably was Britain's best cinematographer of that time and he also directed a couple of entertaining horror films ("Trog", "The Creeping Flesh", "Tales that Witness Madness…")

To each his own taste, but I have to disagree with the other review of this movie. I love Albert Finney's performance as a psychopath who has the gift of perceiving the innermost needs of those he meets and then molding his own personality to take advantage of those needs. (I don't know anyone from Wales, nor do I know what a stereotypical "mad Welshman" is.) He and Mona Washbourne play off each other superbly. I do agree with the other review's assessment of the cinematography, and especially love the lighting. To see Finney in TOM JONES (previous) or TWO FOR THE ROAD (following), although he is young, his face does have character and expression lines - he is human. The lighting in this movie smooths his face to make it seem devoid of affect; you feel that his reactions to the people and the world around him spring not from human emotion but from insanity. If you're an Albert Finney fan I definitely recommend viewing this movie and making your own judgment.

You can tell that Danny (Albery Finney) ain't quite right by the erratic way he rides his scooter. And the fact that we see him chopping up and disposing of a body in the opening scene.

Having charmed his way into the knickers of maid Dora Parkoe (Sheila Hancock), knocking her up, Danny worms his way into the household of Dora's employer, elderly Mrs. Bramson (Mona Washbourne). At first, the old lady's daughter Olivia (Susan Hampshire) dislikes Danny, but the young man's rizz eventually wins her over. But what does Danny keep in the hat box in his room?

Predating real-life serial killer Ted Bundy's activities by a decade, Night Must Fall is a fascinating study of a psychopath who, on the surface, is a charismatic individual, but who is, in reality, a deeply disturbed whack job. While Danny works his magic on Mrs. Bramsom and Olivia, the police are dragging the nearby lake for a missing woman, eventually finding her body, minus the head. And although we never see the missing noggin, it's made pretty obvious where it is (with scenes reminiscent of the infamous box incident recounted by Jeffery Dahmer's father).

Despite adopting a rather annoying 'boyo' Welsh accent for the role, Finney is excellent as the manipulative psychopath, lending his character a much-needed sense of realness (as one might expect from an actor who found fame in the kitchen-sink drama genre). We get glimpses into Danny's past, giving us an insight into what has made him so flaky, both his mother and father dying when he was very young; this also goes some way to explaining the rather perverse mother/son relationship he develops with Mrs. Bransom, which leads to the film's shocking climax.

Well acted, grim, and surprisingly brutal at times, Night Must Fall is a compelling study of a dangerous individual, and, although I didn't quite buy into the ending, in which Danny realises that the game is up and is reduced to a gibbering wreck, I still recommend the film to fans of gritty psycho-thrillers.

Just watched this film on TCM. Quite enjoyable and not as bad as I'd heard from reviews I'd read over the years. My only problem was that I was expecting to understand more about Finney's character by the end of the film (ie: what lead to his psychotic behaviour, what had gone wrong in his childhood...that kind of thing), but never got any deep insight at all. Which for me made him rather a 1 dimensional screen psycho - and therefore the film was not as interesting as it should have been. And the end of the movie was a ..."so what?" affair.

Did I miss something?

Or was I expecting a movie with more depth than it actually had?

I've heard about this British gem, and I was stoked to see that it was on TCM (UK) the other night. Albert Finney is superb as Danny, well the entire cast is very strong. I'd heard about it from the Freddie Francis link (he was Director of Photography)and I wasn't disappointed, it just has his unique stamp all over it.

For most of the film, the audience is waiting for something to happen as the tension is kept to a maximum throughout the film. The final payoff is superb and shows just why Finney is one of Britains best actors. I thought it was a lot like that other British twisted family oddity 'Girly' (US title) but with fewer sexual undertones.

It's a shame Night Must Fall isn't more well known as it's a true gem of 60's British cinema.