10 Rillington Place (Special Edition) [1970] [DVD]

Based on Ludovic Kennedy's invetigative book, this is the true and horrifying story of mass-murderer John Christie, chillingly played by Richard Attenborough. When Timothy Evans (John Hurt) and his wife (Judy Geeson) move into Christie's tiny flat, they do not know that he has already killed several young women, their bodies buried in the back garden of the house. When Christie offers to help Beryl Evans have an abortion, neither she nor her husband know that it is just the latest plan Christie has hatched to lure yet another woman to her death. Killing her and her young baby, Christie manages to pin the blame on Evans, who is soon afterwards hanged. Years go by and more deaths, and it is only when he moves away from the scene of his crimes, the death-house at 10 Rillington Place in London, that fate transpires to put a stop to his crimes, and the wrongful hanging of Evans is exposed.

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Cast/Crew Interview(s), Commentary, Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: This is the story of the ordinary man next door who is not what he appears to be. Richard Attenborough portrays that archetypal character in this adaptation of Ludovic Kennedy's book Ten Rillington Place, the true story of landlord John Reginald Christie, a serial killer. In real life, the Christie murders led to the abolition of the death penalty in Britain after executioners hanged an innocent man, Timothy Evans, for one of the murders. This production focuses on events surrounding that landmark case. Director Richard Fleischer filmed the motion picture in the drab London neighborhood where Christie killed his victims and disposed of them in a garden, under the floorboards of his flat, and in a kitchen alcove. Attenborough plays Christie as he was: quiet, meek, seemingly innocuous. Balding, with inscrutable eyes staring out of spectacles, Attenborough's Christie hints subtly that a twisted mind is at work beneath a veneer of ordinariness. However, the gullible tenants upstairs -- Evans (John Hurt) and his pregnant wife, Beryl (Judy Geeson), who have financial problems and a whining infant -- do not see through Christie when he offers to abort Beryl's unborn baby, claiming he has the medical know-how. After they accept his offer, Christie ra-pes and kills Beryl, then frames Evans for the murder. Unlike Tora! Tora! Tora!, director Fleisher's blockbuster film the year before, 10 Rillington Place is a small production of limited scope and action. But it does have three things in common with the previous film: meticulous attention to historical details, excellent acting by the entire cast, and a gradual buil...10 Rillington Place ( Ten Rillington Place )