The Fallen Idol

A film set inside an embassy building. Phile is the ambassador's son. His parents are abroad, the boy is alone in an enormous house, and he spends the day wandering the corridors. Baines is the butler. He is the boy's only friend; he tells him about years spent in Africa and most of the stories are invented. Mrs Baines is the housekeeper. Hard, unpleasant, and on bad terms with her husband. One day in a tea shop Phile sees something. Baines is sitting with a young woman and tells him she is his niece. The boy notices the lie but learns to keep a secret. Then one night there is an accident. Mrs Baines falls down the stairs and dies. Phile sees part of it. What he sees gives a false impression and he believes the butler killed his wife. From there the film is a story of misunderstanding. The police arrive, questions are asked, and the boy lies to protect his friend. The trouble is that every lie he tells makes it worse. What the narrative is interested in is not murder but point of view: the film is confined almost entirely to what a child sees, and the adult world is always half heard. Staircases and windows are its instruments. The boy is always looking from behind a banister, through a gap, or from above. The source is a story by Graham Greene; the author worked on the screenplay as well. This was the first collaboration between the director and the writer; immediately afterwards they made a far better known film together. Carol Reed was nominated for the Academy Award for directing. Ralph Richardson, Michèle Morgan, Sonia Dresdel and Bobby Henrey are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes classical British cinema and suspense built from a child's viewpoint. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a fast crime story; the film takes its tension only from missing information.