The Fallen Idol

Author Graham Greene’s first collaboration with director Carol Reed was an Oscar-nominated adaptation of one of his short stories, The Basement Room. Philippe (Bobby Henrey), the young son of the French Ambassador in London, idolises butler Baines (Ralph Richardson), but loathes the abrasive, embittered Mrs. Baines (Sonia Dresdel). After inadvertently discovering Baines’s infidelity, he believes that the butler has murdered his wife.

Greene’s original tale of childhood trauma is transformed by the addition of humour as well as suspense, but characteristic themes remain (childhood as a foreign country, adult corruption undermined by lethal innocence) as the boy tries to navigate his way through a world of secrets and lies only to succeed in incriminating someone he is trying to protect.