10 Rillington Place (1971)

Director:

Richard Fleischer

Writers:

Ludovic Kennedy (book)
Clive Exton (writer)

Release Date:

5 March 1971 (West Germany)

Genre:

Biography | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The true story of John Christie - the serial killer.

Plot:

After subletting his upstairs London flat to a mentally deficient young man named Timothy Evans and his pregnant wife Beryl...

Plot Keywords:

1940s | Rape | Abortion | Hanging | Address As Title

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Richard Attenborough	...	John Reginald Christie
Judy Geeson	...	Beryl Evans
John Hurt	...	Timothy John Evans
Pat Heywood	...	Mrs. Ethel Christie
Isobel Black	...	Alice
Miss Riley	...	Baby Geraldine
Phyllis MacMahon	...	Muriel Eady
Ray Barron	...	Workman Willis
Douglas Blackwell	...	Workman Jones
Gabrielle Daye	...	Mrs. Lynch
Jimmy Gardner	...	Mr. Lynch
Edward Evans	...	Det. Inspector
Tenniel Evans	...	Detective Sergeant
David Jackson	...	Constable
George Lee	...	Constable

Also Known As:

10 Rillington place (Canada: French title) [fr]
Dom przy ulicy Rilington 10 (Poland) [pl]
El estrangulador de Rillington Place (Spain) [es]
John Christie, der Frauenwürger von London (West Germany) [de]
Kvæleren fra Rillington Place (Denmark) [da]
L'assassino di Rillington Place n. 10 (Italy) [it]
O strangalistis tis odou Rillington (Greece) [el]
Rillingtonin kuristaja (Finland) [fi]
Stryparen på Rillington Place (Sweden) [sv]

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | Canada:18+ (Ontario) | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 (1988) | Finland:K-18 (1971) | West Germany:18 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (original rating) | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:X (original rating) | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

6 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London, England, UK

Company:

Filmways Pictures

Trivia:

Filmed in the real Rillington Place, which had changed its name to Ruston Close after the notorious killings. Filming took place both in no. 10 Rillington Place itself as well as no.6. The street was demolished at the end of 1970 and the area was later redeveloped, with completion in 1977, as Bartle Road and St Andrew's Square.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Christie is explaining the procedure he's about to perform on Beryl, he says that natural gas contains carbon monoxide, then quotes its formula as CO2 (which is actually carbon dioxide). The correct formula for carbon monoxide is CO. However, the point appears to be to show him for the half-educated conman he is. It's just Christie's character creating an air of "expertise".

Quotes:

Beryl Evans: I'm ever so nervous Mr Christie
John Reginald Christie: There's no need to be, no need at all. Do you have undergarments on?
Beryl Evans: Yes.
John Reginald Christie: Well just slip them off will you.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Psychoville: (#1.5)" (2009)

A film which shows why the death penalty will never return to the UK.

10 Rillington Place is more than a classic film. It is frequently referred to whenever the call for the death penalty is made in Britain. The notorious miscarriage of justice i.e the hanging of Timothy Evans, an immature half-wit, for the murder of his wife and child when it is almost universally accepted that they perished at the hands of John "Reg" Christie, is one which will always haunt the British legal system. When Christie was found guilty and hanged as a serial killer of women, the body of Evans was exhumed and reburied in consecrated ground but this did nothing to hide the embarrassment of those who supported the death penalty.

The film itself is a dark and brooding masterpiece which depicts life in post-war London perfectly. The grim, dirty, rain-washed Rillington Place in Notting Hill was a seedy side-street which housed the poor but largely respectable families which had survived the blitz. John Christie had moved down from the North to find work in the capital but ill-health and a penchant for petty crime prevented him from being successful.

Richard Attenborough plays the downtrodden but curiously arrogant Christie to perfection. His voice almost a whisper as he lauds it over London's underclasses. In fact Christie was not a landlord, as many believe, he was merely a tenant who fancied himself to be a landlord and acted accordingly. He also dreamed of being a doctor, with devastating consequences. His treatment of the poor, subnormal Evans (John Hurt) and his beautiful but foolish young wife, Beryl, (Judy Geeson) was centred around their desire for an abortion - illegal in the UK until the late 1960s.

John Hurt is very good as the hapless Evans although his Welsh accent needed refining. His look of wide eyed horror and disbelief is a sight to behold. Geeson pouts and whinges and looks gorgeous: the kind of wife any man would desire and yet the kind destined to irritate intensely.

The key to appreciating 10 Rillington Place is to have some idea of its setting in British history. To wander in clueless will result in disappointment. There is no gore or x-rated content of any kind and its slow pace will infuriate many. Yet, as a snapshot of an England now gone and a reminder of the folly of capital punishment it is a timeless classic worthy of many viewings.