The Fallen Idol (1948)

The Fallen Idol
Directed by Carol Reed
Written by Graham Greene from a story by Greene
1948/UK
London Film Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Phillipe: We’ve got to think of lies and tell them all the time. And then they won’t find out the truth.[/box]

It is folly to ask a child to keep secrets. I really love this movie and Ralph Richardson’s performance in it.

Phillipe (Bobby Henrey) is the son of the Ambassador of an unnamed foreign country (evidentally France) and lives in his London residence.  As the film opens, the father is off to fetch Phillipe’s mother home from the hospital where she has been recovering for the last eight months.  In the absence of his mother, Phillipe has formed a close friendship with the butler Mr. Baines (Ralph Richardson).  Philippe is left in the care of Mr. and Mrs. Baines over the weekend while the Ambassador and all of the staff are away.

Mr. Baines loves to tell the boy fables of his adventures in Africa, take him on walks, and otherwise conspire with him.  Mrs. Bates is another story.  She is a haridan who can do nothing but scold and complain about her charge.  She is especially ruthless about his harmless pet snake McGregor.

Mr. Baines promises to take Phillipe for a walk but Mrs. Baines forbids this.  Phillipe sneaks out of the house and finds Mr. Baines in a tea shop having a tearful conversation with a young woman, Julie (Michele Morgan).  They are having an intense talk about how her “friend” has decided to leave her married lover but Mr. Baines does not think the “friend” should do this.  Mr. Baines allows Philippe to believe that Julie is his niece and asks him to keep the meeting secret from Mrs. Baines who “does not like Julie”.

That same day, Philipe overhears Mr. Baines asking Mrs. Baines for his freedom.  She reacts very badly.  Later on, Philipe lets slip that there was another person in the teashop with him and Baines and blurts out the story, insofar as he understands it.  Mrs. Baines asks Philippe not to tell Baines she knows anything about this.  She tells Baines she is going to visit her aunt for the weekend and departs.

Baines and Julie spend the next day together.  They take Philippe to the zoo and after a picnic dinner play “hide and seek in the dark”.  But the truly scary Mrs. Baines is hiding in the shadows the whole time. And thus Baines’s secrets come back to haunt him.

This is a classic Graham Greene morality play and brimming with delicious irony.  The little boy is so honest he believes everything he is told.  That, combined with his blind admiration of the butler and the secrets entrusted to him, corrupt him to the point where he becomes an only too willing accomplice in deceit and almost brings about the downfall of all concerned.

Richardson is superb.  He is so believable as a basically kind but flawed human.  I think Reed did a good job with his child actor, who was reportedly so distracted during shooting that his performance had to be pieced together in the editing room.  Highly recommended.

The Fallen Idol was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay.

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