A superior piece of storytelling from director Sir Carol Reed and novelist Graham Greene (whose collaborative efforts were, just a few years later, rewarded with the timeless pre-Cold War classic, The Third Man) as Baines, the butler in a foreign embassy in London, comes under suspicion for the sudden death of his wife.
With Mrs Baines (Sonia Dresdel) falling from the top of the marble stairs inside the embassy following an argument with Ralph Richardson, things do not look so good for Baines. Particularly as he is having an affair with a secretary (Michèle Morgan). But all is witnessed by an impressionable Phillipe (Bobby Henrey), the young son of the Ambassador.
Exploring the nature of betrayal and the loss of innocence, The Fallen Idol is a claustrophobically shot (cinematographer Georges Périnal) narrative within the excesses of the opulent embassy. But it is the relationship between Baines and a preternatural Phillipe who idolises the butler that forms the core of Reed’s psychological thriller.
Nominated for 2 Oscars in 1950 (best director and screenplay).
Rating: 73%
Director: Sir Carol Reed (The Third Man, Odd Man Out)
Writer: Graham Greene (The Third Man, The Quiet American), Lesley Storm (Meet Me Dawn, Great Day), William Templeton (Double Confession, 1984)
Main cast: Ralph Richardson (The Heiress, Greystoke), Sonia Dresdel (Lady Caroline Lamb, The Trials of Oscar Wilde), Bobby Henrey
Cinematographer: Georges Périnal (The Thief of Baghdad, The Four Feathers)
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