Watch Night Must Fall For Free

Too much of everything

I wanted to but couldn't!

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

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.

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.

An aristocratic old lady employs her maid's boyfriend as handyman to her country mansion, though he is determined to seduce the lady's fragile daughter and is himself a psychotic killer.Brave but misguided attempt to turn a 1937 old-dark-house-chiller into a fashionable new-wave style psychological horror. The central performance is unconvincingly hammy, the treatment often heavy-handed, the intention hard to guess, but the pictures artfully composed, the music score suitably sinister, and the lady support striking. An unexpected commercial flop that came rather too soon for both star and director.

This remake of the 1937 film of the same name has one big drawback: a broad performance by Albert Finney as the stereotypical Mad Welshman. Turn the sound down and you'll enjoy a lovely looking film shot by Freddie Francis, who remains one of the great living cameramen (see his work for David Lynch in the magnificent "The Straight Story"). Everything about this film LOOKS great, and there's good acting by Mona Washbourne (as usual) but Finney doesn't know how to turn it off. A pity, considering he was just coming off Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, where he played an equally outrageous character to perfection.