Even though Carol Reed had his biggest Hollywood success with 1968’s Oliver! For which he won the Best Director Academy Award, one could suggest the industry was just catching up - rather late as is their want - and retroactively honoring him for his work in The Fallen Idol (for which he had also received a directing nomination). But before this turns into a complaint about the inefficiency of film awards, let’s just establish that while Oliver! is a fine film, it’s nowhere as near in its greatness and scope (despite being a larger production) as the deceivingly simple Idol.
Both films deal with the worldviews of children, and while Philippe (Bobby Henrey) from Idol isn’t an orphan in the literal sense, he’s still rather Dickensian in how he’s neglected by his diplomat parents who go on business trips leaving him behind in their London home with the help. The cherubic Phil is left to his own devices and spends his time wandering the empty rooms of the house with his pet snake in his pocket. He has come to adore Baines (Ralph Richardson) the friendly butler who tells him stories of his adventures in Africa and how once he had to murder a man in “self defense”. As worldly as Phil’s parents are, it’s evident that the little boy has been denied a sense of anything outside the walls of their residence.
Baines’ wife (Sonia Dresdel) also works in the household, and is every inch the bad cop to her husband’s good cop. Reed sees her as a severe almost Mrs. Danvers-like figure who comes out of the dark to catch Phil at his worst. Baines has fallen in love with a younger woman (Michele Morgan) and as he plans to leave his wife, the worst happen and she dies in a freak accident that leaves Phil convinced Baines murdered her. What follows is a claustrophobic investigation film in which the little boy must come to terms with the importance of lies, as he seeks to protect the man he profoundly respects.
Reed directed the film working with a script by Graham Greene who adapted his own short story (the year after Idol was released the two would prove to be an infallible team by working together on The Third Man) and they crafted a deceivingly simple thriller that captures a very specific time in history, as the post-war years forced younger generations to deal with the fact that a new morality had been created “suddenly”. For all they knew children might have been riding the train next to men who had killed dozens of people in combat, or who had followed rules that in regular society would be completely unacceptable. The Fallen Idol (the title itself a delicious play on words) is a film about adults deciding on when is too soon for children to grow up. The pristine restoration being shown at Film Forum from May 27-June 2 is unmissable.
