10 Rillington Place

10 Rillington Place (Richard Fleischer, 1971) There is a phrase "the banality of evil," which was most prominently used in the title of a book about Adolph Eichmann, describing him as not being particularly emblematic of an evil person who done evil things. He was, actually, a bit clerkish, ordinary, despite having rubber-stamped orders that led to the deaths of millions. How could someone so milquetoast, so weak be responsible for the most heinous of atrocities. Perhaps it was that very quality of insubstantiality that might have contributed—there was no will to resist, no consciousness of conscience that made it easy for him to carry out the unthinkable.

"The banality of evil" might well be the sub-title of 10 Rillington Place, the 1971 true-crime film of Richard Fleischer (who also made Compulsion and The Boston Strangler) depicting the murders perpetrated by John Christie at the titular address where he was a landlord, sub-letting his apartment to potential victims, depriving them of their lives and presumably, their damage deposit.

Christie was very ordinary, and his crimes were brutal and base. He would lure women, whether prostitutes or acquaintances to his flat, claiming that he could aid them with some ailment or other with his "special mixtures," which merely some balsam they would inhale from a jar with a tube running out of it. Christie would then introduce coal gas from the flat's heating system, and it being carbon monoxide, would knock the women unconscious. He'd then have sex with them and strangle them with his neck-tie, disposing of the body somewhere on the premises, in the flower bed, in an outdoor wash-house, in an alcove of the apartment,  and, in his wife's case, under the floorboards of their apartment.

Horrible, unspeakable and perverse crimes. But, where Christie sank to new levels of the deplorable was the destruction of the Evans family (played in the film by John Hurt and Judy Geeson) Tim and Beryl Evans moved into 10 Rillington Place in 1948. Beryl gave birth to their daughter Geraldine later that year and, while Evans tried to maintain work, the couple tried to make ends meet at 10 Rillington. The story goes that Beryl became pregnant with their second child and was considering an abortion. Christie offered assistance, murdering Beryl and her daughter using the same carbon monoxide poisoning and telling Evans that Beryl died in the attempt. Telling the bereft husband that he would be an accessory after the fact, Christie persuaded Evans to "lay low" with relatives while he handled things.

Eventually, Evans went to the police, incriminating Christie. The police did an investigation—completely missing the bodies that Christie had hidden in the place—and forced a confession out of the unstable Evans. He was arrested and convicted of the murders, one of the star prosecution witnesses against him being John Christie. Evans was hanged for the murders in 1950.

A rational murderer. having come so close to the gallows, might have left bad enough alone, but Christie was not rational despite appearances. He would murder four other women before moving out of the apartment, sub-letting it illegally. It was only when the smell of the corpses began disturbing the tenants that any further investigation was made. The bodies were discovered and soon after, Christie was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, ignoring the evidence of eight other women he had killed. The jury deliberated only 85 minutes before finding him guilty. He was hanged in 1953, the same year as his arrest. 

Fleischer's film is perceptively short on histrionics, or of anything resembling feelings. It was filmed at the actual locations—exteriors were filmed outside 10 Rllington, but the interiors were filmed at 7 Rillington, as it was occupied...amazingly. The film benefits from the scrupulousness to the cinema verite. Richard Attenborough plays Christie, and does so as a bit of a cypher, enigmatic and pathetic; he was a very capable actor who could vacillate between psycho and cuddly. He had started his career playing the socio-pathic criminal Pinkie Brown in Graham Greene's Brighton Rock, and Attenborough took the role because he thought the story was a damning indictment of capital punishment, due to the railroading of Evans. Some might have gotten that message, but those who did see it in theaters were probably attracted to the salaciousness of the marketing (designed like a tabloid front page), rather than any higher purpose.  

10 Rillington in the film (top)

Photo of children playing outside the murder scene.