John Christie, the strangler of London
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | John Christie, the strangler of London |
| Original title | 10 Rillington Place |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1971 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Fleischer |
| script | Clive Exton |
| production |
Leslie Linder Martin Ransohoff |
| music | John Dankworth |
| camera | Denys N. Coop |
| cut | Ernest Walter |
| occupation | |
| |
John Christie, the strangler of London (Original title: 10 Rillington Place ) is a British crime film by Richard Fleischer from 1971. The plot is based on the true crime of the woman murderer John Christie and Timothy Evans, who was wrongly executed for one of his acts . The script was based on Ludovic Kennedy's nonfiction book Ten Rillington Place from 1961.
action
John Christie lived with his wife Ethel in a terraced apartment at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, London during World War II .
The war veteran occasionally lures young women into his house with various excuses. Compared to Muriel Eady, who has bronchitis, he claims to have medical knowledge and to treat her with an inhalation device. With it he drugged the young woman, whom he then raped and strangled. He buries the body in the garden of the house.
After the end of the war, he plans to rent the upper floor of the house. The young truck driver Timothy Evans eventually moves into the apartment with his wife Beryl and baby Geraldine. Christie is immediately interested in the young and attractive woman. However, his advances are often interrupted by Beryl's girlfriend Alice. After Beryl Evans is pregnant again, the young couple quarrel. Financially they cannot afford a second child. After an argument, Beryl explains the situation to her neighbor Christie, who agrees to help her with the abortion. He advises the couple that the procedure is complicated and there is also a risk that Beryl will die. But since the couple sees no other way out, they consent.
Christie sends his wife out of the house on a pretext the next day. He is preparing his inhalation device again. However, Beryl is not immediately drugged and struggles. Christie strangles her with a rope and then rapes her. When Tim returns, he tells him that his wife did not survive the operation. He convinces the simple-minded Tim to leave London to avoid a murder charge. Neighbors and friends had observed arguments between Tim and Beryl several times in the past. He promises Evans to look after little Geraldine and find foster parents for her. However, as soon as Tim leaves the house, Christie strangles little Geraldine too.
Meanwhile, Tim plagues his guilty conscience and so he surrenders to the police. He claims Beryl died of an overdose of pills while attempting an abortion. He hid her body alone in the sewers at Rillington Place. However, the police become suspicious when three agents find it difficult to open the sewer cover and find no body. His neighbor, Christie, tells police that Evans is choleric and has often argued with his wife. Shortly afterwards, the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine are found in the shed of the house, both of whom were obviously strangled. Faced with the murder allegation, Evans now explains that Christie must have killed Beryl and his daughter. Eventually Evans is charged with the murder of his daughter and sentenced to death. On March 9, 1950, he was executed by England's executioner Albert Pierrepoint .
Christie's wife Ethel had doubts about her husband in court. She wants to leave him, whereupon Christie guesses the reason for her distrust and kills his wife. Without it, however, he is deprived of his last source of income and can no longer afford the apartment. After Christie moved out of the apartment, the next tenant discovered female corpses in an alcove behind the kitchen unit. During their investigations, the police found other women's bodies in the walls of the kitchen, under the floor of the living room and in the garden of the house. Christie is arrested soon after and found guilty in the following process. On July 15, 1953, he was also hanged by Albert Pierrepoint.
criticism
"As a character study of a drive criminal and as a plea against the death penalty, it is largely convincing, but rather superficial in the treatment of medical and social issues."
Awards
John Hurt was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 1972 British Academy Film Awards for his role as Timothy Evans , but lost to Edward Fox for his role in The Mediator .
Other films
As early as 1969, ZDF filmed the story of the woman killer with the television play Gnade für Timothy Evans . In the film, in which Friedrich Georg Beckhaus played the role of John Christie, the court hearings were re-enacted, as well as the events surrounding the offenses in flashbacks. The framework plot was the rehabilitation of the innocent hanged Timothy Evans (played by Josef Fröhlich ). The documentary play, broadcast on August 20, 1969, was directed by Korbinian Köberle .
Web links
- John Christie, the wife Strangler London in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- John Christie, the wife Strangler London at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Overview of differences between film and criminal case (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Christie, the strangler of London. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .