THE NIGHT DIGGER

Patricia Neal and Nicholas Clay

THE NIGHT DIGGER (1971). Director: Alastair Reid. Screenplay by Roald Dahl, from the novel "Nest in a Falling Tree" by Joy Cowley.  

Maura Prince (Patricia Neal of The Hasty Heart) lives with her blind and difficult adoptive mother, Edith (Pamela Brown of Personal Affair), in a rambling mansion in England. Maura also works with stroke patients part-time at the hospital, and the doctor, Ronnie (Sebastian Breaks), wishes she would work full-time and hire a companion for her mother. Both mother and daughter do wind up with a companion when a young man named Billy (Nicholas Clay of Evil Under the Sun), shows up wanting room and board in exchange for gardening and fixing up the house. Maura is opposed to the idea but the contrary Edith agrees to take him in. As time proceeds Maura comes to care deeply for Billy, but she has no idea of what he's getting up to in the nighttime. It all comes to a head when Edith, after an accident, insists that Billy leave, and Maura comes to a fateful decision. 

Nicholas Clay

The Night Digger is the rare suspense-thriller -- if that's what you can call it -- that presents three-dimensional characters with back stories and idiosyncrasies (of course Billy's character takes it a step farther). The movie eventually turns into a dark and twisted romance between a lonely woman who looks years older than her age, and a young man whose psychological problems are far worse than she could ever imagine. The film is bolstered by three excellent lead performances -- as well as a sharp turn from Jean Anderson as friend and neighbor, Millicent, among others --  and moody cinematography from Alex Thomson. Bernard Herrmann's score is a bit problematic, as apparently the film was cut after completion and some of the score was inadvertently jettisoned. What we're left with sounds like snippets from previous Herrmann movies. A bit of politically-incorrect humor -- by today's standards -- has to do with one character suggesting that the minister's wife (Yootha Joyce), who has more on the ball than he does, should have been born a man, leading to Edith wrongly assuming that she and her husband are both going to have sex-change operations. Roald Dahl and Neal were still married when this film was made.

Verdict: Unusual dark if strangely poetic psychological study with great performances. ***.   

EVIL UNDER THE SUN

Peter Ustinov and Maggie Smith

EVIL UNDER THE SUN (1982). Director: Guy Hamilton.

"Even in the old days she would throw her legs up higher than anyone -- and wider." Daphne referring to Arlena.

At a resort run by former showgirl Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith), one of the guests is a former colleague and now star, Arlena Marshall (Diana Rigg of The Avengers). Although married, Arlena is fooling around with Patrick Redfern (Nicholas Clay), who is also married, to the plain-Jane Christine (Jane Birkin of Seven Deaths in the Cats Eye). When Arlena is strangled in an isolated cove, the suspects also include her wannabee biographer Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall), and the producing team of Myra and Odell Gardener (Sylvia Miles and James Mason). Then there's Arlena's husband, Kenneth (Denis Quilley) and his obnoxious young daughter, Linda (Emily Hone). It is up to the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) to find out who the true murderer is. Evil Under the Sun is another over-produced, not quite "all-star" Agatha Christie adaptation, with a script by Anthony Shaffer that makes some changes but doesn't do too much damage to the novel. Overlong, the movie is very slow-paced and often dull, although some of the actors, especially Maggie Smith [Downton Abbey] and James Mason, do their best to keep things interesting with their performances. Mason and Sylvia Miles certainly make a very odd pair, and Miles is vivid if typically vulgar. McDowall does his usual middle-aged fop act. Ustinov is not the perfect Poirot, but he is amusing at times, and indeed the movie often plays like a parody. The picture only really picks up in the final quarter when Poirot assembles the suspects and reveals the clever solution, which (as usual) works better on the printed page than spelled out in wide screen and TechniColor. Still, it sends the audience out possibly fooled into thinking they've seen a better movie than they actually have. The film has absolutely none of the suspense of the novel, and you probably won't even care who killed Arlena. Rigg is excellent as the victim, and Clay and Birkin also make their mark as her lover and his discarded spouse. Smith's character refers to McDowall's with a stupid comment about "cherchez la fruit." The score consists of adaptations of the songs of Cole Porter. Since Porter's bouncy music is hardly appropriate for an alleged movie of suspense and intrigue, it almost kills the movie, lovely tunes notwithstanding, right there. Ustinov also played Poirot in Dead Man's Folly, which was a better Christie adaptation than this.

Verdict: Read Christie's book instead for a much more entertaining experience. **1/2.