Fallen Idol, The (1948)
Director: Carol Reed
Honors:
The world is such a different place from a child’s point of
view. Naïve and unfiltered, am innocent child has the ability to perceive a
world where he/she can adore something to a fault. It is this point of view
that Carol Reed focuses the perspective in his 1948 production The Fallen Idol. For a mature audience it
is a tale of relationships between adults complicated by polishing up the negative
to children wrapped in a small crime drama. It makes for an interesting watch
that has distinct uniqueness to its plot and storytelling, resulting in one of
the finer pictures in British cinema.
The Fallen Idol is
British drama about a butler under suspicion of killing his wife told from the
perspective of a young boy whom he helps care for. Philippe (Bobby Henry) is
the young son of a French diplomat located in London who idolizes his best
friend, Baines (Ralph Richardson), the embassy’s butler who regales the boy
with false tales of his far off adventures. His admiration is of Baines is
equaled by his dislike of Mrs. Baines (Sonia Dresden), the stern housekeeper at
the embassy. Braines’ loveless marriage has led to an affair with a much
younger woman, Julie (Michèle Morgan), who when witnessed spending time together
with Baines by Philippe is introduced to the young boy as Baines’ niece. Mrs.
Baines’ suspicion about her husband boils over in a augment witnessed by
Philippe, culminating with an accidental fall of Mrs. Baines to her death. What
follows is a police investigation where Baines attempts desperately to keep the
embarrassment of his and Julie’s affair from being revealed. Fearful that his
best friend will be convicted of murder, Philippe clumsily attempts to protect Baines
through his own lies that only deepening Baines’ case with the police. The
revolution of Baines lying about his affair to the police point to his
incrimination before evidence reveals the truth of the accident, exonerating
Baines of any wrong doing. This conclusion may be a happy outcome for the innocent
boy, but a complicated closing for Baines.
In its simplest form this picture is the tale of mistaken
facts about accidental death surrounding the tale of a failing marriage and its
paralleling affair. What makes the film and its story genius is its perspective
from an innocent child’s point of view. Carol Reed constructs a marvelous film about
the complications of relationships viewed by a naïve character whose inability
to understand the complicated mature situation attempts to help his good friend
by telling untruths in hope to deliver and innocent story only to further
complicate murder allegations presented.
As an audience we are torn by character of Baines as being a
endearing friend, but guilty of an extramarital affiar. His wife’s death is a
mix reaction of remorse and relief, but its result nearly incriminates him for
something was an accident. This film is Baines’ story. Depicted by the
performance of Ralph Richardson, the character is deeply flawed, a character we
are rooting for, but also see as digging himself into a hole that will not end
well no matter the outcome. For the veteran British actor, Richardson provides
the wonderful mix of geniality with being Philippe’s best friend, but
complicates with white lies to mask his infidelity that would muddles his
marriage. His performance would win the actor great critical acclaim and future
work in Hollywood.
The most complicated part of the picture is what makes the
film so great, putting the story through the prism of a young boy’s point of
view. For Carol Reed he fulfills the vision by capturing many aspects of the
feature from lower camera angles, with sound not quite as crystal clear as the Baines
attempts to keep secrets from the child, and by casting the most innocent of
child actors, new to acting Bobby Henry.
For Carol Reed the casting of Henry was a form of
inspiration, as well as a great headache. After seeing a photograph of Henry on
the cover of a book about French refugees Reed was determined to cast the young
French boy on his appearance alone. Pleased by Henry’s screen test with the
young lad’s French accent and innocent demeanor, Henry was hired even though he
had no acting experience. On set Henry was difficult to work with, he lacked the
ability to focus, or have any attention span, making him nearly impossible to
work with alongside other actors. With Reed’s endless patience he solved his
need of performance from Henry by usually shooting the boy separate, mostly in
reactionary shots. Cast or crew members off screen would do all they could to
amuse the young boy to keep him looking the correct direction or deliver the
needed reactions by making amusing faces, showing him interesting objects, or
even magic tricks, as long as it kept Henry still and looking the right way.
Henry was not an actor and Reed did all he could to get the performance he envisioned
to assemble his vision for this character. All this work made the experience of
movie making enjoyable for the young boy, but difficult for Reed and his crew.
Telling the story from the perspective of a child allowed
for a great deal of creativity for Carol Reed and his cinematographer. His
shots were usually from a lower angle to bring the audience’s mindset to the point
of view of where we look up to the adults Philippe interacts with. Great depth
was used in the vast sets and London location shooting to create the immensity
of the world surrounding a boy feeling lost in the world. This perspective of
how interactions with a child are analyzed within the picture allowed for opportunities
to deliver humor as well. One such example is observed with Philippe’s interactions
at the police station where intimidation keeps the boy from talking to the
policemen, but he finds himself opening up to the first nice lady he sees who
happens to be a prostitute brought into the station. For this brief scene her use
of phrases to communicate with the young child takes on entirely different meaning
from how her words would be understood if she was not talking to a child,
making for a clever scene artistically buried within the overall story of the
picture.
After a production that extended its original production
window by several months The Fallen Idol
would premiere in late September 1948 to very positive reviews. British critics
honored the film as one of the finest features of the year, earning the BAFTA
award for Best British Picture. The
Fallen Idol gained much praise internationally as well, included as a
praised entrant at the famed Venice International Film Festival. Across the
ocean film admirers would honor the picture’s great production with an Academy
Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, a Gold Globe nomination for Best
Foreign Film, named one of the top 10 films of the year by the National Board
of Review, and nods from the New York Film Critics Circle, making it one the
highest praised foreign films of 1948 in America.
As a result of The
Fallen Idol’s success Carol Reed
would go on to produce one of his most celebrated projects in the 1949 British/American
collaboration The Third Man, starring
cinematic legend Orson Welles. Reed’s ability to make young Bobby Henry appear
to deliver a remarkable performance through his coaching and editing led
critics to praise the child star for his acting ability. Many believed he would
be the next great young actor and producer Alexander Korda signed him to a four
picture contract. Henry’s eventual follow up picture The Wonder Kid (1952) was a failure at the box office and Henry
would leave the business to continue school, never to act again.
The Fallen Idol is
a wonderful picture with a subtle, but gripping story that works well beyond
its years. Carol Reed’s simple, yet deep control of his frame and excellent
coxing of great performances from his actors manifests his mastery of
filmmaking, resulting in a movie very watchable decades beyond its time. It’s
drama, suspense, and excellent depiction of the story’s point of view from a
naïve child deserves great praise. He never plays down to his characters or to
the audience as a presents a complicated plot about complicated relationships
and marital affairs. For an audience to see and understand the story from the
view of both an adult and a child is wonderful and brings different layers of
emotion to its storytelling in a motion picture that will continue to be one of
the finer films of British cinema.
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