The Fallen Idol Film Still

The Fallen Idol

Carol Reed

United Kingdom

1948

95 minutes

Black and White

1.33:1

English

357

Synopsis

The Fallen Idol was the first of three masterpieces to result from the legendary meeting of director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene, who together would also create The Third Man and Our Man in Havana. Elegantly balancing suspense and farce, this tale of the fraught relationship between a boy and the beloved butler he suspects of murder is a delightfully macabre thriller of the first order and a visually and verbally dazzling knockout.

Cast

BainesRalph Richardson
JulieMichèle Morgan
Mrs. BainesSonia Dresdel
PhillipeBobby Henrey
Inspector CroweDenis O'Dea
Detective AmesJack Hawkins
Detective HartBernard Lee

Credits

DirectorCarol Reed
ScreenplayGraham Greene
ProducerCarol Reed
CinematographyGeorges Perinal
EditingOswald Hafenrichter
Art directorVincent Korda and James Sawyer
MusicWilliam Alwyn

Disc Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • A Sense of Carol Reed, a 2006 documentary featuring interviews with director Carol Reed’s friends and collaborators Illustrated Reed filmography
  • Original press book
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A book featuring new essays by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien, author David Lodge, and Reed biographer Nicholas Wapshott

From the Current

GREENE’S CRITICAL MOMENT

Sep 3, 2009

Around these parts, Graham Greene is best known as the brilliant British novelist who also wrote the screenplays for Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol and The Third Man. But even before he made film history with those unforgettable classics, he was writing about the state of contemporary . . .

The Fallen Idol:
Through a Child’s Eye, Darkly

by Geoffrey O’Brien Nov 6, 2006

The circumstances of our first encounters with movies are often as memorable as the movies themselves. Sometimes the juxtaposition of movie and circumstance seems . . .

The Fallen Idol

by Howard A. Rodman Dec 22, 1992

At first blush, The Fallen Idol might seem to be an ambered treasure, duly noted in the guidebooks as “worth a special visit.” It has, after all, a script by noted littérateur Graham Greene; it plays upon the classic themes of trust, innocence, betrayal, truth; its story is one . . .

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Available Editions

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$18.96

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ESSENTIAL ART HOUSE:50 YEARS OF JANUS FILMS(50-DVD box set)  Essential Art House DVD Add to Cart

Essential Art House DVD

50 Discs

SRP: $850.00

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$650.00