Classic Horrors Club

10 Rillington Place (1971) is another film I never watched because of the VHS cover box. I couldn’t tell what it was, really… it seemed like more of a a drama or a stuffy British film with people of whom, at the time, I’d never heard. I was interested only in movies that were clearly scary. Little did I know, watching it now, what a horrific movie it would be.

Actor/director/producer Richard Attenborough stays on the front side of the camera playing real-life serial killer, John Christie. Ludovic Kennedy, author of the book on which this was based, “Ten Rillington Place,” called it:

The horrifying and incredible true story of John Reginald Halliday Christie, the necrophile who strangled, and then made love to seven women. This is the case that rocked England and the entire civilized world.

In the opening scene, it’s “London 1944.” As an air raid siren ends, a woman rings the doorbell at #10, the home of John Christie and his wife, Ethel (Pat Heywood.) She’s away at her sister’s, but he’s promised this woman a treatment for her bronchitis. “Breath deeply to take in all the vapors,” he says as he holds a makeshift mask over her face. She panics. He perseveres. Removing his jacket, he strangles her, then digs a grave in the garden from which a foot is already extending out of the ground.

Now that we’ve seen Christie’s modus operandi, young couple Timothy Evans (John Hurt), his wife, Beryl (Judy Geeson), rent the flat upstairs and move in with their baby. We suspect Beryl will meed a similar end, especially when she and her husband learn that she’s pregnant and, claiming he has medical experience, Christie offers a way to “take care of it” for her. What commences is not quite two hours of consistent suspense and an underlying sense of dread.

I don’t hear much about 10 Rillington Place, but it’s a must-see for fans of the real crime movies, television shows, and podcasts that are so popular these days. It’s unsettling to see the young Attenborough with less hair than he’d have 22 years later as Hammond in Jurassic Park. He’s quite good, just as effective as he was directing one of my favorites, Magic (1978.) While he won the Oscar for Best Director of Gandhi (1982), he wasn’t recognized for this.

However, let’s talk about John Hurt. He didn’t win, but was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. He was a decade into his career, and not quite a decade from the height of his career, when he appeared in 10 Rillington Place. He gives a touching performance as a simple man who can’t read or write, and has just enough of a temper that he can logically take the wrap for Christie’s crimes. He’s perhaps the biggest victim of the story, ending in the same state as the murder victims, but in a more despicable way.

I, of course, recommend you watch it, but I also suggest you don’t read any accounts of Christie beforehand. I didn’t know the story or the outcome and the movie had a lasting impact on me. Shocking, sad, unbelievable… the screenplay by Clive Exton delivers the blows while the direction by Richard Fleischer (check his credits!) presents them in a matter of fact, yet exciting way. If you’ve seen a true crime thriller that you really like, this was likely its template.