Natt i skräck

A psychopath moves into a house in the country. With him he brings a box containing a severed head. Three women live in the house next door. Night Must Fall depicts the complicated pattern of sexually coloured attractions that links these four people. Karel Reisz' film is a remake of the original thriller from 1937 with the same name. It is above all a great performance by Albert Finney as the psychopath Dany. He interprets the role with great explosive energy. The killing becomes a kind of game of extremes - masochism and sadism, the lust for chasing and being chased, to dominate and be dominated - with the murder as the climax. Mona Washbourne plays the woman who becomes the sex-murderer's surrogate mother, and she plays not-too-innocent games with her protégé. Soon the mental strain begins to show. The Critics:'' ... since it has Albert Finney carrying an old lady's head around in a hatbox, it seemed irresponsible not to include it.'' (The Coen Brothers 1995) ''One by one the veils are lifted to expose his inner soul until the last violent finale: murder as sexual climax.'' (Dagens Nyheter 1965) ''The direction is constantly understated and slowly but surely Reisz puts all the bits together until we reach the messy conclusion.'' (Aftonbladet 1965) ''Finney's performance as the charming, arrogant, boyish, vain and remorseless killer ... justifies redoing the film.'' (Time 1964)