Review #1,124: '10 Rillington Place' (1971)

Director Richard Fleischer had already documented the activities and eventual incarceration of a real-life serial killer in The Boston Strangler (1968), casting a lauded actor against type and bringing out a terrific performance in the process. Strangler is an invigorating psychological thriller, with the murders committed by Tony Curtis' Albert Salvo captured rather ingeniously using split-screen, a visual trick that died out rather quickly. With 10 Rillington Place, Fleischer's approach took a rather darker turn, with the colour palette notably muted, the actors underplaying their parts, and a tone much more akin to horror.

Richard Attenborough was mainly known to audiences for his roles as small-town gangster Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock (1947), the unlucky Big X in The Great Escape (1963) and, much later in his career, the lovable but misguided John Hammond in Jurassic Park (1993). He was usually cast as the nice guy or the voice of reason, and, despite his diminutive stature, he nevertheless had a massive screen presence. This presence is employed to full effect in 10 Rillington Place. As the softly spoken serial killer John Christie, Attenborough turns in one of the best performances of his career. Christie wasn't intimidating or even particularly intelligent, but used his skills of manipulation to lure his victims to their death, and was incredibly lucky to get away with it for so long. The opening scene, set in 1944, sees Christie administrating common household gas cut with a disguising odor to a lady he has promised medicinal treatment to, before strangling her and raping her corpse.

5 years later, and Christie is still living at 10 Rillington Place, a squalid and decaying terraced house in London, with his wife Ethel (Pat Heywood). Married couple Timothy (John Hurt) and Beryl Evans (Judy Geeson) and their infant daughter rent the available flat upstairs, and Christie takes an immediate interest in the young, pretty Beryl. Timothy cannot read or write, and enjoys spending most nights telling outlandish stories in his local pub. When Beryl discovers she is pregnant again without any hope of financially supporting another child, Christie convinces the Evans's to allow him to carry out an abortion, claiming to be a former doctor struck off the register for helping out young girls in the past. The subsequent events lead to one of the most appalling cock-ups in British criminal history, and a very disturbing insight into the mind of a remorseless monster who placed his own sexual desires and gratification above human value.

The aesthetic is pure kitchen-sink, with grimy browns and a grainy image really bringing to life the run-down community that was suffering from the economic downfall experienced by Britain after World War II. The grimy palette matches Christie's complete disregard for human life, making for a truly disturbing atmosphere. Fleischer doesn't seem to be eager to make us sympathise with any of the characters, wisely allowing to let the story to unravel matter-of-factly, but you cannot help but sympathise with Timothy, magnificently played by Hurt, as he fumbles his way through a botched police interrogation and into the courts for a crime he did not commit. If there is a criticism to be had, it would only be that I would have liked more focus on Ethel, a woman who remained silent as she watched her husband lie and commit atrocities, as I'm sure her tale would be as equally fascinating and troubling. Like many households of horrors, 10 Rillington Place has since been knocked down, but Christie's grisly legacy remains one of the most notorious cases of mass-murder in British history.


Directed by: Richard Fleischer
Starring: Richard Attenborough, John Hurt, Judy Geeson, Pat Heywood
Country: UK

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie