The Night Digger (1971) One of the reasons I began this blog was my unceasing search for obscure, oddball, long, long forgotten films.....(primarily from the 60's and 70's....)
In 8 years worth of posts, I dug up more than a few of them......some of them real gems, some of them...eh...not so much.....some of them hilariously batshit crazy......and sadly, some of them that remain as worthless, dull and no fun at all of watch......
This one belongs in that last category.......
But what a surprising trio to encounter in this film, a neither fish-nor-fowl concoction that never makes up its mind whether it's a thriller or a drama.
A screenplay by Roald Dahl. The lead role done by his then wife Patricia Neal, making a valiant re-entry into films after a debilitating stroke. And music by the supreme (but irascible) maestro genius Bernard Herrmann.
The result......next to nothing. A film that disappears before your eyes while you're still watching it........wondering what in holy hell attracted these people to this whats-it of a movie.
Neal's a sad, lonely spinster, bullied and browbeaten by her imperious all-controlling mother (Pamela Brown), a blind invalid in their crumbling mansion. Then along comes a decidedly creepy young man on motorcycle (Nicholas Clay) whom Brown hires as a handyman, imagining he's a long lost relative.
Creepy as he is, Clay manages to gradually thaw the frosty Neal into romance.......even though he's actually a psycho impotent incel who kills and buries young women.
Bernard Herrmann checks in from time to time, with that familiar Herrmann-esque heaving of symphonic dread. But you sense with your own ears that the footage hardly sparked the composer's imagination. The music never rises above generic Herrmann.
Clay alternately glowers and whines as the boyish killer. Neal sighs wistfully, sheds a few tears, moans about the roads not taken, but looks positively smashing when she breaks free of Brown, runs off with Clay and gives herself a makeover.
The only time writer Dahl comes alive is when he throws in a running gag about Brown mistakenly thinking the town minister and his wife are getting operations to switch genders. Huh? (I got the feeling the only reason Dahl wrote this script was to find a place for that gag.....)
By the time I came to the dull, dumb ending, I knew I'd tossed away 90 precious minutes of life by viewing this. I strongly suggest nobody make the same mistake I did. 1 star (*) , only for Patricia Neal and Herrmann's contributions.
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