DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Carol Reed
PRODUCTION CO: London Film Productions
SCREENPLAY: Graham Greene, William Templeton, Lesley Storm, based on Greene's story "The Basement Room"
PHOTOGRAPHY: Georges Périnal
EDITOR: Oswald Hafenrichter
MUSIC: William Alwyn
WITH: Ralph Richardson (Baines), Michèle Morgan (Julie), Sonia Dresdel (Mrs Baines), Bobby Henrey (Philippe), Denis O'Dea (Chief Inspector Crowe), Jack Hawkins (Detective Ames), Walter Fitzgerald (Dr Fenton), Dandy Nichols (Mrs Patterson)


FESTIVALS: Venice

REVIEWS

“Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol is a tremendous child's-eye-view thriller, adapted by Graham Greene from his short story… The infant son of a foreign ambassador in London has the run of the lavish official residence while his parents are away for the weekend, and becomes embroiled in a grownup secret concerning the butler Baines, tremendously underplayed by Ralph Richardson.

The movie has Hitchcockian elegance and suspense, particularly in its use of the giant stage-set for the embassy's magnificent lobby area, much gazed at through the banisters by the little boy, banished upstairs at bedtime. Young Bobby Henrey's performance looks a little quaint now, but it is still very likable. Dora Bryan has a hilarious cameo as the streetwalker who encounters the boy when he runs away.”

– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Whanganui    
Monday, 04 March, 7.00pm

Dunedin     
Wednesday, 13 March, 7.30pm

Canterbury
Monday, 25 March, 7.00pm

​​Bigger Picture Ōamaru    
Thursday, 11 April, 7.00pm

​Wellington    
Monday, 13 May, 6.15pm

Nelson    
Wednesday, 29 May, 6.00pm

Queenstown  
Tuesday, 30 July, 8.00pm

​Tauranga  
Wednesday, 04 September, 6.35pm at Luxe Papamoa

Hamilton     
Monday, 11 November, 6.30pm

Palmerston North  
Wednesday, 20 November, 6.00pm​
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