The Fallen Idol has yet to be given the kind of loving treatment on DVD afforded to other Carol Reed masterpieces but it came between arguably Reed's two top films and has considerable merit in its own right.

Historical Background: After abandoning his notion of taking up chicken farming, Carol Reed (1906-1976) turned to his life's work in the theater and in cinema. He joined Sybil Thorndyke's troupe in 1924, performing some minor roles on stage during the next three years. His career-shaping opportunity came in 1927, when he was hired by mystery writer Edgar Wallace to help adapt his novels for the stage. Reed then served as stage manager in the resultant productions as well as taking a part, each time, as an actor. From there, Reed moved on, in the early thirties, to work as an assistant director or assistant producer for various films. He got his first opportunity as a director in 1935.

Initially, Reed had to settle for small budget projects, but still managed to create some worthwhile films, including The Stars Look Down (1939) and Night Train to Munich (1940). During World War II, Reed served in the British Army's film unit, making, among other lesser documentaries, A Way Ahead (1944) and an Oscar-winner, True Glory (1945). Today, Reed's legacy as a director rests most especially on the films he directed between 1947 and 1955. The present film, The Fallen Idol (1948), came in the middle of a trio of films that are considered his finest. Odd Man Out, the first of the three, was Reed's breakout film. The Third Man (1949), the last of the trio, is Reed's most famous film. Some of Reed's other top films included Outcast of the Islands (1951), The Man Between (1953), A Kid for Two Farthings (1955), Trapeze (1956), Our Man in Havana (1959), and Oliver! (1968), for which he won Oscars for both Best Director and Best Picture.

The Story: A young blond-haired lad of about eight years of age, Phillipe (Bobby Henrey), is left for a weekend in the care of the cruel housekeeper, Mrs. Baines (Sonia Dresdel), and her pleasant husband, Mr. Baines (Ralph Richardson), who is also the family's butler. Phillipe is the son of an Ambassador and lives at an Embassy in London. Phillipe's joys in life include a pet garter snake. He idolizes Baines and the pair has a very nice relationship. Mrs. Baines, by contrast, is frequently cross and always very strict. Phillipe is sent to his room after mouthing off at Mrs. Baines during dinner. When he spots Baines going out for a walk, Phillipe sneaks out through a window and follows him.

Baines has gone to meet Julie, a secretary who works at the embassy and with whom Baines has been having an affair for several years. When Phillipe catches up with Baines, the butler and his mistress are in the midst of an emotional tête à tête, sorting out the future of their relationship. Julie is contemplating breaking it off and going away. Baines recognizes the likely futility of seeking his freedom from Mrs. Baines, but both are heartbroken about their impending separation. When Phillipe shows up, Baines introduces Julie as his "niece" and the two adults attempt to continue their conversation surreptitiously by turning it into a third person conversation, as though they were discussing one of Julie's friends and that friend's boyfriend problem. As they return to the embassy, Baines asks Phillipe to treat the meeting with Julie as a secret and not tell Mrs. Baines.

Phillipe is more than pleased to do so, given his devotion to Baines and contempt for Mrs. Baines, but he slips up and the wily Mrs. Baines easily wheedles the truth of the situation out of the boy, other than the identity of the "niece." Baines had earlier revealed to Mrs. Baines that he wanted to end their relationship, so Mrs. Baines now realizes that there's another woman involved in the equation. Mrs. Baines is a spiteful sort of woman anyway and decides to set up a trap that will enable her to identify and confront her rival. She will pretend to go away for a few days while secretly spying on her husband to see who shows up. She, too, asks Phillipe to keep her plan a secret between the two of them.

The next day, Baines, Julie, and Phillipe spend an afternoon at the zoo. Phillipe has to settle mainly for the company of the zoo animals since Baines and Julie are once again preoccupied with emotionally draining conversation. They return to the embassy for dinner together, believing Mrs. Baines to be far away. A telegram left under the door saying that Mrs. Baines will be away for another two days further adds to Baines and Julie's sense of security. After dinner, Baines, Julie, and Phillipe play a spirited game of hide-and-seek, with Phillipe doing the hiding and the adults the seeking. Baines creates a bit of atmosphere for the game by flipping the lights on and off. All the while, Phillipe is also secretly in dread that Mrs. Baines will show up at any minute.

The inevitable confrontation finally occurs between Baines and his wife. Julie is out of sight, undressed in bed, but Phillipe, who is supposed to be in bed, observes the altercation from his various spying sites, from behind the banister or out on the fire escape. Mrs. Baines tries to reach the bedroom where Julie is hiding to attack her and Baines tries to restrain her. As they wrestle, Mrs. Baines teeters precariously near the top of the long staircase. Baines, however, pulls her safely from the top of the stairs and momentarily retreats toward the bedroom, where Julie is still hiding. Mrs. Baines, still intent on getting at her rival, circles around to a ledge overlooking the bottom of the stairs, planning to climb out through a window to reach the bedroom indirectly. She slips and plummets vertically to the base of the stairs, not down the staircase itself. Only we viewers observe her fall. Baines was out of eye contact with Mrs. Baines and Phillipe was on the run between viewing locations. Phillipe arrives at another window just soon enough to see Mrs. Baines lying unconscious at the base of the stairwell. Since his last recollection was of Baines and Mrs. Baines teetering at the top of the stairs, Phillipe imagines that she must have been killed by his idol, Baines.

Phillipe runs in terror from the embassy and heads out onto the streets. It's well into the night and a boy wearing only his pajamas, alone on the streets of London, is quickly noticed by a policeman. The last thing that Phillipe wanted to see was a policeman, but he's finally coaxed into going with the policeman to the station for a cup of tea. At the station, a prostitute is being booked, but when Phillipe is brought in, the officers shift their attention to the frightened boy. The policemen even try to enlist the help of the prostitute in gaining Phillipe's confidence, but her street vernacular ("Hey sonny, do ya wanta come home with me?") proves humorously inappropriate in dealing with an upper class little boy. Soon, the report comes into the station of a serious accident at one of the embassies and the police quickly realize that it is also where Phillipe lives. The prostitute adds, tellingly, "Oh, you're from the embassy. I know your father."

Although Baines is innocent in his wife's fall (which ultimately proves fatal), he wants to protect Julie from involvement in a scandal and the lies he tells for that reason begin to cast suspicion on him. Phillipe, who erroneously believes that Baines likely killed Mrs. Baines, is also determined to lie to the police, thinking to protect his idol. His lies also prove more incriminating than helpful. The police figure out that Baines and Julie were having an affair and that Baines and his wife had an altercation at the top of the stairs. They also determine that Mrs. Baines could not have landed where she did had she simply slipped and fallen down the stairs on her own accord. Julie, recognizing that the lies are simply making the situation worse, demands that Phillipe stop lying and speak only the truth. In the meantime, the police investigators have discovered an upset flower pot on the ledge from where Mrs. Baines actually fell and her footprint in the dirt. Based on this evidence, they conclude that she fell from the ledge and that Baines is, in fact, innocent. Phillipe, however, recalls that it was he who had overturned the flowerpot earlier in the day and Mrs. Baines had stepped in the dirt while retrieving him from the ledge. Recalling Julie's demand that he only speak the truth, Phillipe attempts to inform the police that it was he who had turned over the flowerpot, but, luckily, they've stopped listening to him, concluding that he has a propensity for prevarication. Thus, when Phillipe finally tells the truth he is disregarded, but had his "truth" been given credence by the police, it would have invalidated the "evidence" by which the police had exonerated Baines. Baines would have then been charged for a crime of which he was, in fact, innocent. Thus, the truth in relation to the crime prevailed only because the truth in relation to the evidence was rejected. The film's final shot is priceless, showing Phillipe's reaction as his mother returns home.

This film has sometimes been characterized as a "thriller" but there's really never any doubt for the viewer about whether or not a crime was committed. We are shown what actually happened and know the truth before the police, the child, or even Baines. Baines knows he's innocent, of course, but not how his wife fell. We are the only ones who are privy to the truth, while the others must struggle to ascertain it. The mystery, then, in this film is not whether Baines is or is not guilty but whether the police will come to the correct conclusion and whether Phillipe will help or hinder that process, either by telling the truth or lying. In that sense, the structure of the film is reminiscent of the horror film device in which viewers know where the monster is lurking before the characters do.

Themes: Truth is an elusive concept. It's not as cut-and-dry as the terms honesty and lying would suggest. First of all, there's the issue of point of view. The "Truth" from one person's perspective may not be the "Truth" from another person's vantage point. Second, there's an issue that Baines raises early in the film, which is "lies" that are actually simply "story telling." We all have imaginations and engage in playacting, at times. When a little boy in a costume states emphatically, "I am a pirate king," we don't accuse the boy of lying. Baines was in the habit of telling Phillipe fanciful stories about his imaginary heroics in Africa. Then, third, there are technical lies told out of generosity to convey an underlying truth, in preference to superficial truth, such as when a decrepit old man tells his equally decrepit old wife how lovely she looks tonight. It's a statement that conveys an emotional truth rather than a literal one.

Poor Phillipe found the adult world terribly perplexing and overwhelming. He was confused by the circumspect conversation between Baines and Julie and confused about what parts of Baines's storytelling were true and which parts imaginary. He was further confused when asked to keep secrets – to withhold truth – which is really just a variation of the idea of "lying." Phillipe proved rather inept at keeping secrets as well as at lying convincingly. Finally, he even proved inept at telling the truth. It would be tempting to conclude that Phillipe was simply out of his depth dealing with the adult world, but recall that the lies planted by Baines and Julie were also easily uprooted.

Production Values: The film's story was based on a novella, The Basement Room, written by Graham Greene. Some of the details of the original story were modified for the film version. Reed's next film, The Third Man, possibly his finest, was also adapted from a work by Greene, so, in that sense at least, The Fallen Idol served as a tune-up for an even greater film. The story is relatively simple and unlayered but is told with an intelligence and economy that is Hitchcockian in design. The dialog is nicely crafted and the pace of the film, though slow at the beginning, builds relentlessly to the climax. There are some exceptionally clever tension builders such as a bit involving a paper airplane and another in which a clock-winder shows up at a most inopportune time. My favorite scene was the spooky hide-and-seek segment. The film's exploration of the issue of point-of-view is one of its highlights and even rivals Kurosawa's great film Rashômon in that respect. There's a creditable authenticity in the film's script and especially its handling of the key relationship, between Baines and Phillipe, and the child's perspective on the unfolding events. For example, the "chemistry" between Baines and Julie is downplayed because their relationship is being seen from the asexual point of view of a prepubescent lad. Guy Hamilton, the assistant director for this film, later directed several of the best James Bond films, including Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

All the script lacks, in relation to the more substantial Reed films that preceded and followed it, is emotional impact. The Fallen Idol is a highly satisfying intellectual exercise but never fully engages the viewer's emotions. The tangled plot is the center of attention for the film, while character empathy takes a bit of a backseat.

This is a nicely shot black-and-white film, but thus far not available on DVD, much less in a digital restoration. I've become a bit spoiled after watching a number of old films spruced up by Criterion and other restoration outfits, so my tolerance for ordinary VHS versions of old films is actually declining. This one is in not too bad shape, but could still use a digital scrubbing. The musical score by William Alwyn is pleasing and not overdone.

The performances in this film are top rate. Ralph Richardson, as Baines, holds the film together. Richardson's impressive resume includes appearances in films over about a fifty year span, including Things to Come (1936), The Citadel (1938), The Four Feathers (1939), Anna Karenina (1947), The Heiress (1949), Richard III (1955), Our Man in Havana (1959), Long Day's Journey into Night (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), Khartoum (1955), The Bed Sitting Room (1969), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Watership Down (1978), Dragonslayer (1981), Time Bandits (1981) and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984).

Most of the best performances by boys in film that I can recall are those involving youngsters living in poverty, on the street, or in gangs (e.g. Pixote, Los Olvidados, and City of God) but there's also that fine performance by Georges Du Fresne in Ma Vie en Rose. The part of Phillipe in The Fallen Idol was one of the first substantial parts for a child in a film and Bobby Henrey does a commendable job with it. I think it's also to the credit of Carol Reed that he extracted such a natural performance from the young actor. I don't rank it with the best young female performances ever, such as Brigette Fossey in Forbidden Games or Ana Torrent in Spirit of the Beehive and Cria!, but that might be some bias operating on my part. Henrey is very good in a very challenging part.

Among the other actors, I'd single out Sonia Dresdel as disturbingly malicious in the part of Mrs. Baines. She would have given me nightmares as a kid. Bernard Lee, who plays one of the detectives here, was also in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and played "M" in several of the Bond films. Michèle Morgan was pretty good as Julie.

Bottom-Line: You'll find this film good fun if you like the Hitchcock kind of film fare. It's a bit staid compared to Reed's best, such as Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949), but that's a standard that few films could match. There's also the lack of a high-quality DVD version of this film to be considered. Still, even the VHS version is a highly worthwhile experience. The running time for the film is 94 minutes.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older