Film #32 of Project 40

”Some lies are just kindness.”

What would an Alfred Hitchcock film featuring a kid as its protagonist look like? Probably like this. Carol Reed takes a complex story of lies, betrayals and secrets and narrates its through the eyes of an innocent child who believes everything that he is told and everything that he sees. The Fallen Idol has a brilliant concept and Carol Reed unleashes the potential of Graham Greene’s story with the help of his talented actors and gives us something that is thought-provoking and entertaining at the same time. This is basically the story of a child who witnesses the moral deformities of adults’ world and decides to play the same game.…

93/100

Childhood innocence is a mysterious time in everyone's life that can't be fully explained. There's a simultaneous sense of trust and suspicion that goes along with everyone, and our actions determine which of the two factors ultimately comes out on top. Phillipe, the protagonist of Carol Reed's twisted mystery The Fallen Idol, only wants to help out. He believes his best friend and adventuring butler Baines has committed the unthinkable: murder. Naturally, he has an emotional attachment to Baines, and will do anything to prevent him from being taken from him. In a true "boy who cried wolf" fashion, he attempts to lure the police's beliefs away from murder suspicion to a simple accident of his own doing. But…

Part of my 5 Directors x 5 Unseen Films (13) challenge.

Oh yes, this was fun! It was director Carol Reed's first collaboration with scriptwriter Graham Greene, who also penned the short story upon which it was based, "The Basement Room" (1936). The duo would team up a year later to create "The Third Man" (1949) and then again a decade later for "Our Man in Havana."

This story is set in London at a foreign embassy, where seven-year-old Phillipe (Bobby Henrey) lives with his father the Ambassador (Gerard Heinz). We soon learn that the boy's mother has been away for quite some time, but is expected to return soon. In the meantime, embassy staff look after his well being,…

The Fallen Idol is the first of three films considered masterpieces to result from the legendary meeting of director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene. The two also colloborated on The Third Man and Our Man in Havana. This is the first of the three films that I've seen, and I must say I'm quite impressed. It's an elegant balance of suspense and farce that I thoroughly enjoyed.

This is the tale of a fraught relationship between a boy named Phillipe (Bobby Henrey) and the beloved butler Mr. Baines (Ralph Richardson), whom he suspects may have commited murder.

I think the most noticeable quality of The Fallen Idol is the writing. The dialogue is excellent throughout, and it's delivered well…

I think this went into my top3 films with the view point of children.
Henrey is pretty great as the ambassador's son, he even pulls of an accent. Impressive. The final scene might rub some people the wrong way, but hey, kids are annoying from time to time, that's just the way it is. I think he handled it well, especially that final line.
Having kids look up to you, or even glorify you, can be a tough burden to bear. Most grown-ups aren't perfect to begin with, and if you then find yourself in a situation where you find you're having to lie, well then it will unravel. Fast.

The Fallen Idol was a bit different than I had…