The Fallen Idol (1948)
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100% of critics liked it
(26 reviews) -
87% of users liked it
(1,923 ratings)
Adapted from the Graham Greene story The Basement Room, director Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol is told almost completely from a child's eye view-but it isn't a children's story. Young Bobby Henrey idolizes household butler Ralph Richardson. Therefore, when it seems as though… More Adapted from the Graham Greene story The Basement Room, director Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol is told almost completely from a child's eye view-but it isn't a children's story. Young Bobby Henrey idolizes household butler Ralph Richardson. Therefore, when it seems as though Richardson might be implicated in a murder, Bobby does his best to throw the police off the track. The boy succeeds only in casting even more suspicion upon Richardson. As the story progresses, Henrey's hero worship is eroded by Richardson's shifty behavior, and even more so when the boy discovers that the butler's boasts of previous heroism are just so much hot air. The ending of the film differs radically from Greene's story. While it would seem that director Reed was merely paying homage to the "happy ending" philosophy (hardly likely, given the doleful climaxes of such films as Odd Man Out and The Third Man), the director had very solid reasons for altering the story: he was more fascinated by the concept of the boy's imagination nearly sending his idol to the gallows, rather than having the butler entrapped by facts. And though the ending is happy for the boy, the butler's fate is much more nebulous. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Directed By
- Carol Reed
- Written By
- Lesley Storm, William Templeton, Graham Greene (I)
- Genres
- Classics, Drama, Mystery & Suspense
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Nov 15, 1949 Limited
- Studio
- Rialto
Critic Reviews
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Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Masterful 1948 suspense thriller.
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Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
As a portrait of the sometime destructiveness of innocence and as a sharp fresco of post-war Britain, this movie is a little masterpiece, an idol that has never fallen.
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Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
It's a masterful and unsentimental child's-eye view of the cold, hard adult world.
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Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An indelible portrait of childhood's confusions, disillusionments and inevitable lost innocence.
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Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
Remains one of those classics that makes you thankful you haven't seen them all.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
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Cast
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Ralph Richardson
as Baines
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Michèle Morgan
as Julie
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Bobby Henrey
as Felipe, Phillipe
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Sonia Dresdel
as Mrs. Baines
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Jack Hawkins
as Detective Ames
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Denis O'Dea
as Inspector Crowe
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Dora Bryan
as Rose
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Walter Fitzgerald
as Dr. Fenton
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Karel Stepanek
as First Secretary
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Joan Young
as Mrs. Barrow
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Dandy Nichols
as Mrs. Patterson
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Bernard Lee
as Detective Hart
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Hay Petrie
as Clockwinder
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James Hayter
as Perry
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John Ruddock
as Dr. Wilson
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Torin Thatcher
as Policeman "A"
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Nora Gordon
as Waitress
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Gerard Heinz
as Ambassador
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Geoffrey Keen
as Detective Davis
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George Woodbridge
as Police Sergeant
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James Swan
as Policeman
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Ethel Coleridge
as Housekeeper
