Based on the true story of the notorious 1940′s serial killer John Christie including location filming at the real Rillington Place just before it’s demolition in 1970.
The quiet & unassuming Christie is portrayed by Richard Attenborough with John Hurt as the unfortunate Timothy Evans who wrongly hanged for one of Christie’s murders.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this film is that it is very unremarkable. It avoids sensationalising any of the murders or the people and events involved – in fact reading through the historical documents of the case gives glimpses into a far more disturbing sequence of events than the film’s plotline has time to thoroughly expand upon.
The whole experience of watching this movie feels rather remote and disengaged, the mood along with the lighting and colours is muted throughout. From the opening scenes of an early Christie murder to the final state sponsored murder by hanging the viewer is always left to develop their own reaction, there is very little hand-holding to guide us to a “correct” emotional response — the events are real life and are simply shown as such.
The main interest of the film is of course this genuine reality; that these rather drab and dreary people were caught up in such events needs little embellishment to fascinate. The murders were committed by the quiet man at number ten and it was a simple husband & father who suffered the irreversible miscarriage of justice at which the public’s extreme dissatisfaction helped reforms to abolish the death penalty in the UK.
Buy the DVD from Amazon:
10 Rillington Place (Special Edition) [1970] [DVD]
Timothy Evans was convicted and hanged March 1950 for the murder of his daughter. Sixteen years later he received a posthumous pardon but with doubt remaining over his involvement in his wife’s death (common practice at the time was to only pursue a single case conviction, Timothy Evans was never tried for the murder of his wife).
John Reginald Christie was hanged (by the same executioner who hung Evans) in July 1953 for the murder of his wife, this was the only conviction pursued but he is considered guilty of murdering at least six women, with bodies having been found buried in his garden and hidden in his kitchen.
