Rating: 3.5/5
Hooptober X | 33/34 | Bonus 2/3
10 Rillington Place, London, 1944
John Christie (Richard Attenborough) lures Muriel Eddy (Phyllis MacMahon) to his flat. He convinces her he has an inhalent to cure her bronchitis. He instead forces her to inhale coal gas, strangling her and having sex with her body before burying her in the yard.
Four years later, Christie and his wife, Ethel (Patricia Heywood), rent out a flat in the building. Tim Evans (John Hurt), his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson), and his infant daughter Geraldine rent it.
Christie looks for opportunities to isolate Beryl. He learns Beryl is pregnant, and that Tim is functionally illiterate. Christie uses that to convince Tim and Beryl that he is a doctor. Beryl wants an abortion, and Christie offers to give it to her, warning Tim (but not Beryl) that she may die from the procedure.
He kills Beryl and tricks Tim into believing she died during surgery, making Tim think he played a part in her death.
Tim has a violent temper. His yelling is loud enough to notify neighbors. Christie convinces Tim to run away and pretend he’s on vacation with Beryl. Christie claims to know a family that can care for the baby. Once Tim leaves, Christie murders Geraldine. He tells his wife that Tim did it in one of his rages.
Tim hides out with his aunt and uncle, but he can’t handle the guilt, so he goes to the police to confess. He tries to keep Christie out of his story, making up something about a bottle of stuff that was supposed to abort the baby. This starts the downward spiral that allows Christie to frame Tim for the murder. The court finds Tim guilty and sentences him to execution by hanging.
I’ve never seen Attenborough play such a dark character. Attenborough accepted the role because England considered bringing back the death penalty. He hoped the movie would remind people of the consequences. The jury believed Christie more than Evans because of his lower-class background and false testimony to protect Christie.
John Hurt is heartbreaking. He’s convincing as a confused man way in over his head. Tim Evans was not an innocent person, nor was he the murderer he was made out to be.
This does a tremendous job of making me feel icky. It errs on the side of not depicting the full details of the murders. This keeps the film from feeling too exploitative. It also does a tremendous job of not trying to pad out the characters — we don’t know why Christie did what he did. Also, it isn’t essential for the anti-capital punishment message that the movie aspires towards.