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The Fallen Idol
Lies, lies, lies, yeah
1948
Review: March 18, 2006
Director: Carol Reed
Starring: Ralph Richardson, Michèle Morgan, Sonia Dresdel, Bobby Henrey
Would be nice, but not necessary.
THE SETUP:
There’s a mystery afoot when a young boy is left for the weekend in the care of a butler and a housekeeper.
DISCUSSION:
This is Carol Reed’s movie just prior to The Third Man, and, like that movie, is written by Graham Greene. Apparently it sort of got lost in the adulation afforded Third Man, and was showing for two weeks at Film Forum here in New York, so me and my friend hauled off to see it.
Phil is the son of the French ambassador in London. In the first scene, his father leaves for the weekend in order to find his mother, who has disappeared. This leaves him in the care of the kindly Mister Baines, a butler played by the wonderful Ralph Richardson, and his wife, a housekeeper played by Sonia Dresdel. Phil has a very affectionate relationship with Mr. Baines, but hates the mean and harsh Mrs. Baines. And he’s not the only one.
There’s a lot of hugger-mugger about a pet snake he keeps in a hole in the wall, and during this time the film very ingeniously sets up the architecture of the house, including the perilous nook above the grand staircase. It is a pleasure to watch as even at this point it is clear that one is in the hands of a talented director who uses framing and camera angles to deliver a great deal of exposition about the setting and relationships on hand.
Phil sees Mr. Baines leaving, and sneaks out after him. He finds him in a café with a woman who we know if Baines’ mistress, but who Phil is told is his niece. This leads to one of many cleverly-written scenes, in this case because Phil believes that the two are talking about a couple they know, when in fact they are trying to have an emotional conversation about their own faltering love affair. On the way home, Baines asks Phil to keep their meeting a secret, which leads to a great deal of thematic material about the different kinds of secrets, and the different kinds of lies.
We’re going to talk about the rest of the movie from now on, and there will be spoilers, so if you plan on seeing it I advise you to stop now. But I can tell you that it is very clever, turns into a Hitchcock-esque diabolical situation, includes several wonderful sequences of suspense, and is definitely worth seeing.
SPOILERS > > >
Mrs. Baines soon worms out of Phil that Mr. Baines was seeing someone, and she tells them she is going out the next day, when actually she plans to follow them. When they come back from a day at the zoo [Baines, Phil, and the mistress], we know that Mrs. Baines is in the house, but they don’t. This leads into a wonderfully clever sequence in which they play hide-and-seek. It works brilliantly because when they hear a noise made by Mrs. Baines, they assume it’s the hiding boy, and when the boy sees Mrs. Baines’ feet, he assumes it’s the mistress, and they all interweave throughout the house not knowing there’s an intruder in their midst. Then there’s a creepy scene in which a dangerously distraught Mrs. Baines shows up in Phil’s room [announced by a fallen bobby pin that caused the woman in front of me to leap out of her skin], and she demands the boy’s allegiance.
SPOILERS LEVEL TWO, NOW… HERE’S YOUR LAST CHANCE TO DITCH BEFORE FINDING OUT THE SERIOUS TWIST OF EVENTS > > >
There’s an accident on the previously-shown nook above the staircase, and Mrs. Baines is killed. Phil, who did not see the entire incident, believes that he saw Mr. Baines push her. He runs away and is soon in the hands of the police, leading to a hilarious scene with a prostitute also interred at the police station, including my favorite line, when they ask Phil if he was sleepwalking, and she says “That’s all I was doing.” There is another hilarious surprise that I wouldn't dare ruin for you. My friend and I discussed afterward how the humor here doesn't distract or ruin the overall mysterious tone of the entire movie.
The police show up at the house, Phil in tow, and this is where, for about 20 minutes, things for me got really boring [they did not, however, for my friend or apparently for most people] as we have to sit through Baines lying for a while, knowing he will eventually come clean, and then we have to sit through when he comes clean, and this, and that, and everything that we can see coming from a mile away. One thing that passes uncommented-upon is a the complete ineptness of the police. It takes them years to find a crucial piece of evidence that responsible detectives would have and should have checked out before accusing someone, which is not to mention the banister that someone is carefully dusting for fingerprints before everyone [the police, the detectives] come along and put their hands all over it.
During this time there is tons of subtext being sprayed all over the place, and I don’t kid myself that I caught all or even most of it. It’s also a lot harder when you can’t stop and rewind to hear little lines and things. There’s a lot of stuff about mothers and fathers and marriage, which is referenced in an intriguing final shot, though I didn’t catch enough of what came early on in the movie to really have an interpretation. Then there’s all this stuff about good secrets and bad secrets, and a LOT of stuff about lies, different kinds of lies, and when it is important to tell a lie and when one must tell the truth. This all gets twisted into an extremely tangled web, one aspect of which is that if Phil tells [what he thinks is] the truth, he will put Baines in jail. The movie gets a lot of good suspense about the precariousness of having a young boy hold a crucial piece of information… the whole thing is ingenious.
There’s a great suspense setpiece surrounding a paper airplane, and another minute or so of EXCRUCIATING suspense right at the end, where I truly had my hand to my mouth and was in actual discomfort. Someone on the IMDb said this film really casts in relief how unintelligent movies are today, and walking out of the theater, I had the same reaction. Ultimately I would give this one a B+, but it’s so refreshing just to see a movie that is intelligent, requires that YOU use your intelligence, and is very carefully written and directed. It’s like going out for a good steak after a week of McDonalds.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Yes, it’s very good, well-written and directed, and features wonderful performances.
