The Road Builder

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Aldo G This is a very well directed creepy flick. Paradoxically, the film's star and writer were not happy with the results, but based on their comments I think it had more to do with the creepy elements of there story. Recommended. Oh, and the Bernard Hermann score has some nice moments. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/26/24 Full Review Audience Member The Bernard Herrmann score is what makes this movie. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Frances H Interesting but familiar story--a young man is made mentally ill and violent because of a woman who demeaned his sexual performance at a young age He meets a woman abused by her adopted mother who never had a chance to come a fulfilled woman and is now in midlife crisis. He knows he is doing horrible things, but can't stop. It's a sad story for everyone (particularly the victims), but for these broken people as well. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/20 Full Review Audience Member Strange movie, but normal from that era. I think it tries too hard to be "artsy-fartsy". Some interesting actors, but they are lost in a director that thought he was making art. instead of an interesting movie. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member The Night Digger (Alastair Reid, 1971) These days, Alastair Reid's entry in who's-who-in-film is pretty much set in stone; he directed Traffik, the 1989 TV miniseries remade into a heavy-handed, almost entirely unwatchable movie by Steven Soderbergh eleven years later (and then remade yet again into another TV miniseries!). Thankfully, no one has thought to remake The Night Digger, the kind of just-this-side-of-cheesy mystery where all the stars were in alignment when someone worked it up: Reid directing, a script by Roald Dahl (Tales of the Unexpected) from a novel by Joy Cowley, one of New Zealand's most successful writers. And my god, what a cast. Patricia Neal, of course, who was married to Dahl at the time and worked on all his projects. Peter Sallis. Graham Crowden. Pamela Brown. Jean Anderson. Yootha Joyce. And I'm just scraping the tip of the iceberg. The plot is a simple one: Maura Prince (Neal) is a not-so-young-anymore woman who has devoted her life to taking care of her invalid mother (Cleopatra's Pamela Brown in one of her last roles). Her life is shaken up when a young stranger (Excalibur's Nicholas Clay) arrives and starts to woo her. Question is, is he the Night Digger, the serial killer who's been preying on lovely young things around the countryside? It's very low-key, and not very fast-paced, which pretty much guaranteed that it wasn't going to make a huge splash at the box office. But you put this caliber of cast together with the connections on the other end of the camera and you're bound to get something wonderful. Such is the case here. There is atmosphere galore, and the acting is about as you'd expect (which is to say if you're not a fan of Britcoms from the seventies, you might not find it as wonderful as I do). There's a plot twist at the end (which I understand is not in the original novel) that could have been done without, but it does fit and isn't completely out of the blue. Not easy to find these days, but definitely worth tracking down. Patricial Neal's performance is reason enough to watch this; everything else is a bonus. *** 1/2 Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member Grand Guignol tale penned by Roald Dahl and starring Patricia Neal, Prominantly featuring Hammer's favourite location Oakley Court. Confusing and rushed ending. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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