Director Richard Fleischer captures the gloomy anonymous terraced houses perfectly - gray and drab, yet always fascinating - "Keeping up Appearances?" - Not! Norman Bates was never like this!

Companions? "Young Poisoner's Handbook"; "The Krays" as well as the excellent "Let Him Have It"


Chilling and sad   January 29, 2002
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I casually started watching this movie while surfing channels late one night. It has haunted me ever since. John Hurt gives a sublimely poignant performance as the daft and credulous tenant, and Richard Attenborough is absolutely terrifying (and nearly unrecognizable) as the innocuous-seeming but murderous landlord. This is a quiet movie that creeps up on you and wraps its cold fingers around your neck.


Heartbreaking   August 4, 2000
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is the story of sad, silly Timothy Evans who lost his wife and child to a serial murderer and was hanged for a crime he never committed. John Hurt portrays this stupid, primitive and yet touching young man, while Richard Attenborough is a sly, evil, frightening Reginald Christie - all the more frightening because this plump, pink, bespectacled man looks so harmless. Only when he is seen throug the eyes of his dying victim the monster is revealed. The dark, stuffy atmosphere of war time London adds to the effect. The film clings closely to the actual case. It left me shaken.


Murder most foul.   May 7, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Richard Attenborough deserved an oscar for his portrayal of mass murderer Christie. The scenes are haunting and made yet more gruesome by the ever present offer of a cup of tea with which Christie sought to put his victims off their guard. The movie is roughly based on the book by Ludovic Kennedy with some shortcutting. For example, Miss Edie was not Christie's first victim and he did not invariably use a gas contraption to make the women unconscious. A couple of more recent books have argued that lodger Timothy Evans knew more about the murder of his wife and baby than he admitted. He is rather sympathetically portrayed in the movie.


One version of history   December 14, 1999
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

A brilliant period piece capturing the seedy side of post-war London and mostly filmed on the real locations shortly before they were torn down. The story is well known, as are the repercussions in law. However, recent research suggests that the truth may not have been quite as protrayed, and the possible guilt of Evans is subject to current informed speculation. However, the film is well worth seeing for the chilling characterisations and as social history. Classic British cinema.