THE FALLEN IDOL II – Ralph Richardson, Michèle Morgan

Ralph Richardson in The Fallen Idol

THE FALLEN IDOL Review: Part I
Things are cleared up before the end, after a number of plot contrivances — not the least of which is the mediocre police investigation. Compounding matters, The Fallen Idol offers subpar acting (Henrey and Morgan phone in their performances), stereotyped characters (e.g., the cops and a Cockney prostitute), and some bad cinematography by Georges Périnal. Again, it’s not that the images are in themselves bad; it’s just that they are inaptly applied to the situations in which the characters find themselves. For instance, angles are skewed in an attempt to add tension to banal scenes, an approach made worse by William Alwyn’s melodramatic musical score, which stands in stark contrast [...]

by Dan Schneider | January 10, 2008   
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THE FALLEN IDOL d: Carol Reed

The Fallen Idol (1948)
Direction: Carol Reed
Screenplay: Graham Greene, from his short story "The Basement Room"; additional dialogue by Lesley Storm and William Templeton
Cast: Ralph Richardson, Bobby Henrey, Michèle Morgan, Sonia Dresdel, Denis O’Dea, Jack Hawkins, Walter Fitzgerald
 

Michèle Morgan, Ralph Richardson in The Fallen Idol
 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
The 1948 drama The Fallen Idol is the third film I’ve seen by British filmmaker Carol Reed. I’d previously watched the dreadful Oscar-winning musical Oliver! (1968) and the stolid Charlton Heston biopic of Michelangelo, The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). True, I’ve also seen The Third Man, the 1949 thriller attributed to Reed, though I’ve always hedged upon taking the stance that it was Reed’s film alone and not an Orson Welles [...]

by Dan Schneider | January 10, 2008   
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