THE FALLEN IDOL (UK, 1948). Wednesday, 25th February 2009THE FALLEN IDOL
UK, 1948. Directed by Carol Reed from a screenplay by
Graham Greene based on his story ‘The Basement Room’.
Photography (black and white): Georges Périnal.
Music: William Alwyn. Certificate: “PG”. Length: 94 minutes.
Leading Players: BOBBY HENREY (Felipe), SIR RALPH
RICHARDSON (Baines), MICHELE MORGAN (Julie),
SONIA DRESDEL (Mrs. Baines), DENIS O’DEA (Det. Inspector
Crowe), DORA BRYAN (Rose), JACK HAWKINS (Detective Lake),
BERNARD LEE (Detective Hart), GEOFFREY KEEN (Detective
Davis), WALTER FITZGERALD (Dr. Fenton), DANDY NICHOLS
(Mrs. Patterson), JAMES HAYTER (Perry).
This is one of three screen collaborations between the director Carol Reed and the noted novelist and one-time film critic Graham Greene. These days their last collaboration – Our Man in Havana (1959) – undervalued as it was when it first appeared has gained something of the recognition that it deserves and is often screened on television. As for its predecessor, well everyone knows The Third Man (1949): immediately recognised as an outstanding work, it has never lost its popularity and is even more likely to appear on television. However, despite being greeted with rave reviews and pleasing audiences immensely, the first of the Reed-Greene pictures, 1948’s The Fallen Idol, has by comparison rather disappeared from view. That explains why the playwright David Hare has described it as “a great, overlooked masterpiece of British cinema” and we are delighted to screen it in a new print.
Whereas The Third Man was specifically written for the screen despite subsequently being published in book form as a novella, The Fallen Idol derived from a story that Greene had published in 1935 under the title The Basement Room. Together he and Reed worked on an adaptation that would incorporate appropriate changes to suit a film version and avoid the thirties setting of the original since a period piece was not wanted. Despite the huge success of The Third Man it was actually this earlier film that Greene himself preferred of the two, but the happy nature of the collaboration that produced both of these works was confirmed when, writing in 1950, Greene commented in these terms: “Of one thing about both these films I have complete certainty: that their success is due to Carol Reed, the only director I know with that particular warmth of human sympathy, the extraordinary feeling for the right face for the right part, the exactitude of cutting, and not least important the power of sympathising with an author’s worries and an ability to guide him.”
When The Fallen Idol first appeared there was much praise for Bobby Henrey, the child actor who plays the central role. Returning to the film on its re-issue, it was possible to fear that the astonishing quality of so many performances by child players in more recent years would put him in the shade. But in point of fact the acting by Henrey who was eight at the time remains absolutely extraordinary since he seems to play the role from the inside. Indeed, one starts to speculate as to whether or not some aspects of the situation of the boy in the film, Felipe, echoed elements in his own life (his mother, Mrs. Robert Henrey, was a well-known authoress of the period). While the quality of the central performance remains undiminished, what has inevitably changed is that we now see The Fallen Idol as a fascinating reminder of the past. A mere glance at the cast list produces fond memories of names in post-war British cinema, some of whom – Jack Hawkins, for example – were at the time taking small roles but were about to gain prominence. However, the nostalgia is not just for the actors but for what Georges Périnal’s very fine black and white photography captures of the setting. The story is largely set in a London embassy – Bobby Henrey’s role is that of the son of the ambassador – and while many scenes take place within the building there are also sequences outside – in the streets, in a tea-room – that vividly convey our capital city as it was in the late 1940s. Even so, it’s the use of the embassy interiors – the sense of space, the way in which doors and windows are shown by the camera – that finds Reed’s direction at its most personal and characteristic.
The only scene in The Fallen Idol which dates badly is the opening which now seems forced. What follows, however, remains a highly original and gripping tale which is all the more effective for being told from the viewpoint of the child, Felipe, whose inability to understand the adult world around him is a key element in the way that the plot develops. We encounter Felipe at a time when his parents leave him in the care of the embassy’s butler, Baines (Sir Ralph Richardson). This is no hardship for Felipe because he hero-worships the butler and is too young to realise that the tales of his experiences in Africa with which he regales the child are entirely fictional. The only down-side to being put more than ever into the company of Baines is the fact that the butler’s wife (Sonia Dresdel) is a dragon of a woman who is keen to order the boy about. It’s typical that she lacks all sensitivity regarding Felipe’s feelings for a pet grass-snake which he carries around and which revolts her.
The situation that is quite beyond Felipe’s understanding is the nature of Baines’s relationship with a much nicer and younger woman whom he introduces to the boy as his niece, Julie. This role is played by the French actress Michèle Morgan who proved quite at ease acting in English. For us in the audience the question that soon arises is whether or not Mrs. Baines is aware of what is going on, but before long an unforeseen incident brings the police into the story. What follows is an ironic portrayal of Felipe’s actions thereafter. His dilemma is that he is caught between his desire to shield Baines even if telling lies is involved and the fact that he has been brought up always to tell the truth.
Richardson who was sometimes a mannered actor is at his best here, Morgan fits her role admirably and one can only admire the way in which Dresdel in her highly unsympathetic role avoids the danger of overplaying it. There are lighter interludes in the piece – not least a scene in a police station featuring Dora Bryan as a prostitute – but for the most part this is a wholly engrossing drama superbly directed by Carol Reed. It authentically recreates a child’s world and then makes you deeply concerned over events moving in directions that Felipe never intended and which could prove devastating. It’s a compelling, finely wrought film and it’s good to have it back.
Selected Filmography (Titles underlined shown by the EFS):
Midshipman Easy (1934); Bank Holiday (1938); The Stars Look Down (1939); Kipps (1941); The Young Mr. Pitt (1942); The Way Ahead (1944); Odd Man Out (1946); The Fallen Idol (1948); The Third Man (1949); Trapeze (1956); Our Man In Havana (1959); Oliver! (1968); Follow Me (1972).
“*****” Charlotte O’Sullivan, Evening Standard (2006).
“Admirable. Greene cited it as the picture based on his own work that gave him most satisfaction” – Philip French, The Observer (2006).
“Perfect. Young Bobby Henrey is outstanding. The jokes are ahead of their time, the tragedy is timeless. Richardson gives a precisely calibrated master-class in emotional repression. Reed captures childhood in all its innocence, loneliness, fear and wonder.”
– Sukhdev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph (2006).
Programme Note by Mansel Stimpson.
