Review – 10 Rillington Place

Did the English ever have a murder that couldn’t accurately be described as “dreary”? John Christie’s crimes certainly don’t deviate from the rule. Richard Attenborough plays the notorious serial killer, backed up by John Hurt as Timothy Evans, the hapless, slow-on-the-uptake lodger who ended up unjustly convicted and hanged for two of Christie’s murders. Though some of his other crimes make brief appearances in the story, the anti-capital-punishment message of the picture puts the focus on the deaths of Evans’s wife and infant daughter. The movie was shot in the house next door to the actual address not long before the whole block was leveled, which lends a creepy sense of authenticity. Mildly amusing