10 Rillington Place (Richard Fleischer, 1971)

For its form/content dislocations, 10 Rillington Place reminds me of I Spit on Your Gave (Meir Zarchi, 1978). Both films treat exploitative subject matter with a stateliness more common in art cinema. A lesser director might cheapen the already tawdry true story of Timothy Evans (John Hurt, powerful), a British man wrongly accused and hanged for killing his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson, heartbreaking) and infant daughter Geraldine (Miss Riley [!]), and John Christie (Richard Attenborough, an absolutely fantastic, creepily close-miked performance), the serial killer responsible for those (and other) murders. But Fleischer takes it as an opportunity to deliberate on the working class milieu, making it clear that Evans' precarious economic situation forces him into a false confession and seals his doom. Much of the film is taken up with Beryl's decision to have an abortion since they cannot afford another child. Unlike so many serial killer films, 10 Rillington Place points to worlds outside the immediate thrill of blood and gore. 

Grade: A-minus