MovieChat Forums > 10 Rillington Place (1971) Discussion > Now I remember why John Hurt is my favor...

Now I remember why John Hurt is my favorite actor (spoilers)


I watched this on Turner Classic Movies last night, and while John Hurt's performance is good, I didn't think it was anything particularly outstanding for the first half of the film. Then, no sooner than I reminded myself that he is my favorite actor and wondered if I had come across a sub-par film, there was the scene in which the police inform Timothy Evans that they've found the body of his baby girl. Without giving too much more away, the police ask him a particular question, and John Hurt's facial expression, his one-word response, and his tone of voice . . . it's just the emotional pinnacle of this movie, absolutely pitch-perfect.

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SPOILERS BELOW.



He was perfectly cast as Timothy Evans wasn't he? What a beautiful performance. And I know that scene very well. I felt so sorry for Evans at that moment, because his reaction when he found out his child was also dead could have proven to anyone that he was innocent of killing her - but none of them were even looking at him at the time.




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I'm not clear on why he signed the confession immediately after...did he think he was going mad?

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Either:
a) to Evans' way of thinking, his own stupidity in trusting Christie had inadvertently caused the death of his child, so he signed the confession.
Or
b) as Eddowes suggests, Evans actually did it.

I'd say it's 95% certain that the answer is (a)

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He was absolutely devastating. The man is a genius.

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Hurt was so good in this it was amazing. Even the scenes where he's "storyfying" in the pub, or fighting with Beryl, all are brilliant and tragic because the character is clearly so vulnerable to somebody calculating like Christie.

When he's asked in court why Christie would want to kill his wife, he clearly hasn't even thought about that. It's devastating to see, considering that his wife, his daughter and he himself will all die because of that innocent lack of intelligence.

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strangely enough, he has the same expression in the one picture of him on Google images as John Hurt wore throughout the second half of the movie, suggesting profound bafflement at the world in general.


Welcome to Costco, I love you...

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I thought his performance throughout the film was outstanding.


"I'll book you. I'll book you on something. I'll find something in the book to book you on."

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There is a scene in the movie that has stayed with me for all these years, and, yes, John Hurt is a favorite of mine, too. I don't believe that it was just before the hanging, but it could have been when he was arrested and taken away, that he says "I still say was Christie at done it. I still say ws Christie what done it . . . ." The poor man. I think that in the movie about Pierpoint, Evan's hanging is shown, and so is the hanging of the woman who shot her boyfriend in "Dance With A Stranger". I haven't watched it in a long time -- most of my friends won't watch it; they say it's too scary. Still remember the final scene, when the policeman confronts Christie. Marvelous work by two marvelous actors.

Yodi

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