After full knackering days at a covid-stalked school and when all the household chores are done at night and the Missus and me collapse on our settees, the Missus has sought solace on Tv with Bake-Off and Who do You Think You Are and I've surfed You Tube for films for an hour's chill before falling in the pit.
Trouble is I'm struggling to watch entire films at the mo. Being able to fast forward on You Tube means I can cheekily skip huge chunks, which is no real way to watch movies but there you go. I'm doing it.
I've surfed films, where available online, that I've wanted to see for a while including The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, The Godsend, Embryo, The Lost Weekend and Night Must Fall, which Ill talk a bit about.
Night Must Fall is an unusual film. I remember seeing it in the early Seventies, when I was about 11. I must have seen it on one of the three TV channels we enjoyed back then and it must have been on late at night.
Night Must Fall was made in 1964 and is about an axe murderer.
I knew that the axeman was played by Albert Finney but I'd completely forgotten his fake welsh accent, which he hams up a bit too much really, although the overacting adds to the impression that the character is steadily going insane. The movie is a study of growing insanity and Finney's character Danny ultimately goes completely mad.
The film's setting is a large rambling mansion in 'Wales', where axe-happy Danny ingratiates himself with the old lady of the house, whilst secretly bedding her daughter and her maid. He plays funny mischievous games with the old lady, pushing her wheelchair round the dark corridors and hiding behind corners. This fun inevitably turns sour when Danny goes nuts, staring too long at the heads he's collected in his hat box and finding a bill-hook in the shed. The grim noir atmosphere comes literally to 'a head' as Danny takes one final swing.
Night Must Fall isn't a horror film as such but it is a sort of one. Its demented air reminds me of Hitchcock's Psycho and Finney's crazed ranting is really unsettling to watch. IMdb and Wiki have little to say about this flick, which is unjust I would say as it deserves a bit more credit. I don't recall seeing it on TV since the Seventies either.
A few years back I was chuffed to find a paperback film-tie in for the movie and added it to my large 'horror' novel collection, which one day I'll enjoy cataloguing in my dotage.
Have you seen Night Must Fall and do you collect film tie-ins readers?
