Night Must Fall (1964 film)

Night Must Fall is a 1964 remake of the 1937 film of the same name, which was in turn based on the 1935 play by Emlyn Williams. It was directed by Karel Reisz from a script by Clive Exton and starred Albert Finney, Mona Washbourne, and Susan Hampshire, but was not as successful as the original film. The film was entered into the 14th Berlin International Film Festival.[1]

Night Must Fall
Directed byKarel Reisz
Written by
Based onNight Must Fall
1935 play
by Emlyn Williams
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyFreddie Francis
Edited by
Music byRon Grainer
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • 18 March 1964 (1964-03-18)
Running time
101 minutes (US)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

In the woods of a Welsh suburb, a man commits an axe murder and disposes of his female victim's body and the axe in a lake. The man, later shown to be a hotel bellboy named Danny, is summoned to the home of Mrs. Bramson, a wealthy widow, whose maid, Dora, is pregnant by him.

Having charmed Mrs. Bramson, he is soon living in her house and pretends to be her son, while redecorating a room and assuming butler duties. He also woos Olivia, Mrs. Bramson's daughter. Alone in his room, he favours a hatbox, which contains the heads of his victims.

Meanwhile, the police uncover the headless body and the axe in the lake, which is bordering the property. They question Danny about the victim, who he states frequented the hotel as a prostitute. Dora discovers Danny and Olivia's relationship and rejects both of them. He begins to play odd games with Mrs. Bramson, and Olivia flees the house out of fear.

Frustrated because Mrs. Bramson grows weary of a game of chase, Danny hacks her to death. Olivia returns, sees the carnage, and summons the police. She finds Danny bathing and informs him that the police are soon to arrive. He huddles in the bathroom, withdrawn in his madness.

Cast

Production

Freddie Francis argued "I think it was a good film, it wasn't a very good version of Night Must Fall but as a film, and I always told Karel if they'd called it anything other than Night Must Fall it would have been successful. But if you say this is be Night Must Fall everybody remembers Night Must Fall, the head in the hat box and blah blah blah. and this had none of that element in it. It was too much a study of this Strange boy, which was fine but not when people are waiting for the hatbox bit."[2]

References
  1. "IMDB.com: Awards for Night Must Fall". imdb.com. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  2. "Interview with Freddie Francis". British Entertainment History Project. 1993–1994.


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