John Christie, der Frauenwürger von London (1971)

John Christie, der Frauenwürger von London: Directed by Richard Fleischer. With Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt, Pat Heywood. Based on the real-life case of the British serial killer John Christie, and what happened to his neighbors Tim and Beryl Evans.

“Three years after u0026quot;the Boston strangleru0026quot; ,Richard Fleischer brilliantly succeeds in transferring to the screen a horrible true story.The two movies do not look like each other though.u0026quot;Boston strangleru0026quot; was spectacular,making the best use of the split screen Iu0026#39;ve ever seen.u0026quot;10 RPu0026quot; is an austere bleak work ,all the more disturbing than its style is bald.Richard Attenborough(an extraordinary performance,on a par with Peter Lorreu0026#39;su0026quot;Mu0026quot;) portrays one of those serial killers in the first half of last century.Two good examples :Landru ,whose character Charlie Chaplin used in u0026quot;Monsieur Verdoux u0026quot; and Claude Chabrol in his eponymous movie,or u0026quot;Doctor Petiotu0026quot; who was doing on a small scale (killing Jews to despoil them) what the Nazis were doing on a large one. Christie ,Landru and Petiot are close relatives.They seem harmless,mediocre little men .Not the serial killer we meet in todayu0026#39;s thrillers.And Christie is given the adequate treatment by his director:the poor house,the crummy flats ,the pubs ,the no-future of an uneducated generation (Fleischer lays stress on the fact that Tim cannot read and write ).This illiteracy is partly responsible for Timu0026#39;s unfair revolting fate.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFleischeru0026#39;s style is plain;the trial scenes,when any director would have his actors overact is a lesson a lot of the current artists should pay attention to.The hanging could not be spookier.One cannot help but think that the last lines about Tim on the screen are a bit ironical.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMatching Attenboroughu0026#39;s awesome portrayal,is John Hurtu0026#39;s remarkable Tim:definitely not Gregory Peck as his wife thinks,macho but pitiful,a not very handsome whining lad who cannot hold a candle to his maleficent owner.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYou should see u0026quot;the Boston strangleru0026quot; and u0026quot;10 Rillington placeu0026quot; one after the other”