User reviews

Roald Dahl has always been a good story-teller, and this movie, for which he wrote the screenplay, is no exception. It's a macabre love story with a somewhat unexpected ending. Very good acting and story-telling. I recommend this film for all Roald Dahl fans. 7/10.

The difficult mother-daughter dynamic in "The Night Digger" instantly put me in mind of "Grey Gardens." We have Patricia Neal as the caretaker for her elderly mother, Pamela Brown, living live together in a dilapidated mansion. Brown is superficially friendly but often caustic, intolerant and manipulative, seizing on her daughter's guilt and self-doubt to keep her at home.

Neal has become increasingly regretful of the years she's spent tending to her mother's needs, as she thinks back on lost loves and missed career opportunities. The scenes between Neal and Barker are meaty enough to make up their own film, and Neal delivers a real master class in film acting. She's utterly believable in her every word and mannerism.

Like "Grey Gardens", the pair take in a young handyman to fix up their property. Despite Neal's initial hesitation, she grows increasingly fond of and attracted to the young man. Unfortunately for her, he turns out to be a *deeply* troubled individual, and the movie takes a macabre and progressively disturbing turn. Ultimately, this movie left me utterly heartbroken, despite occasional relief provided by screenwriter Roald Dahl's famously perverse humor.

"The Night Digger" is one of one of those boundary pushing, perverse psychodramas that the late 60s and early 70s provided us in ample supply. Although imperfect, this sits nicely alongside the likes of landmarks like "Reflections in a Golden Eye" and "Secret Ceremony."

I have seen this film last week on TV. I am glad that the there are English subtitles so that I can clearly enjoy the dialogue. Only it is pity that the English subtitles from TCM are kind of closed captions that cannot be taken for recording.

Different than the comment of another Dutch viewer from 2006, I find this film a rather nice good movie. The maker has put quite some different (thrilling, creeping, emotional, romantic) components to the movie, but not into deep touch by purpose. If one is specially looking for or fond of a particular type of movie from one of these components, one may not feel satisfied enough. However I am glad that the maker had made it in this way that the movie content becomes "rich" in a special way. It makes the film as a whole quiet thrilling, creeping, emotional and even bit romantic too. It is not boring at all, I enjoy every moment of the movie. Making a film to a particular type/direction of course is a heavy job but to combine different type of components in a fine way is not easy too.

The film is quite moving that I have only realized at the end that it is already a film of 110 minutes. It is not boring at all, I have enjoyed every moment of the movie. Yes, this is not a film made for award nomination, but both the director and the leading actors have done a pretty good job. If you watch the film carefully you will realize that the film is quite fine made. From their fine work, you can see and feel the style of the early 70's British films. It is a small budget production, but still leaves some compelling moonshine. I simply like this movie.

The ending indeed is quite a critical way. I have never read the novel. I don't know whether the end is the same as the movie. I wonder if the director has extended and refined the ending for about 10 minutes more, will the ending be then a bit better than a shortcut? On the other hand, I have the feeling that it seems that the director has deliberately made the ending in this stunning way that it now leaves us crossing feelings and questions that makes the movie still time to time staying on our mind.

It may not be a top A-film, but it is a little gem which absolutely is worthing to see.

I give it 7.75 out of 10.

Middle-aged spinster Maura (Patricia Neal), the adopted daughter of wealthy widow Edith Prince (Pamela Brown), isn't too happy when her mother appoints drifter Billy Jarvis (Nicholas Clay) as their handyman. However, as the days pass, and Billy sets about fixing up the house and clearing the garden, Maura begins to form an attachment to Billy. What she doesn't know is that the young man is actually a serial killer, who abducts and murders women, burying their bodies in building sites.

Both a tragic love story and a psycho-sexual thriller (in flashbacks, it is shown that Billy was sexually molested as a child and has problems being intimate with women), The Night Digger is, for the most part, a mood piece, the film set predominantly in and around the rundown Prince house, with Billy's murderous nature remaining undisclosed for the first 45 minutes or so. Director Alastair Reid fleshes out his characters and builds an unsettling atmosphere (there are bizarre conversations about sex-ops, and Maura's relationship with her mother is awkward), and the pace can only be described as 'slow-burn', all of which makes the first moment we see Billy in psycho mode all the more disturbing: creeping into a nursery teacher's bedroom, he takes off all of his clothes, unfurls a large leather strap and places it around the sleeping woman, who wakes to find herself bound to her bed and faced with the naked intruder. It's a bizarre, unexpectedly twisted moment that doesn't end well for the teacher.

Reports of the teacher's disappearance are in the following day's news, and it is revealed that she is the seventh woman to fall prey to 'the night digger' in the past three months, previous victims being from the very same towns and cities that Billy said he worked at prior to arriving at the Prince property. Victim number eight is Edith's young district nurse (played by Brigit Forsyth of The Likely Lads fame), who Billy kills while Maura is visiting her mother in hospital following a heart attack. When Maura returns home ('home' being regular Hammer horror location Oakley Court), Billy tries to confess to Maura, but is unable to go through with it. The cogs in Maura's mind are set turning, nevertheless.

When Edith suddenly announces that she wants Billy to leave, Maura tells her 'mother' that she has had enough and is packing her bags as well. Maura gets herself a nasty hair-do, empties her bank account, tells Billy that she loves him, and suggests that they buy a cottage in a remote part of Scotland, away from other people; it would seem as though she knows his secret, and is trying to help by removing temptation from his path. Things aren't that simple, though, and it's not long before Billy is eyeing up a pretty Scottish lass as victim number nine.

With a director unafraid to tackle bold subjects (Reid also gave us Baby Love, the UK's answer to Lolita), a great leading lady, a script by none other than Roald Dahl (Neal's husband at the time), and music by Bernard Herrmann (the score will sound very familiar in places), The Night Digger already has quite the pedigree, but it also benefits from solid turns from a decent supporting cast (Graham Crowden, as salacious neighbour Mr Bolton, is a hoot, and there are brief but fun roles for familiar UK TV faces Yootha Joyce and Peter Sallis), brooding tension, and a memorably downbeat ending that doesn't spell everything out for the viewer but which makes them assess what they have seen and draw their own conclusion.

In a isolated mansion outside of London, spinster Maura Prince (Patricia Neal) cares for her blind adoptive mother Mrs. Edith Prince (Pamela Brown). Dashing handyman Billy Jarvis (Nicholas Clay) shows up looking for work. Maura is frustrated that Edith has given her room to him and initially feels uncomfortable with his demeanor. There is a lady killer on the loose.

It's a fascinating juxtaposition between the stuffy English mentality and the glee about the demented violence. That old guy describing the series of missing women is hilarious. Patricia Neal is great. Billy is a disturbing character and getting naked only makes it even better. All that is missing is his brutal murders. The movie is cutting away from the kills. It's the era of its time. This is fascinating.

Another one of those great forgotten movies of the 1970s. I caught this on late night TV about 20 years ago and have never forgotten it.

It was about a young man named Billy (Nicholas Clay) helping out Maura Prince (Patricia Neal) and her elderly mother (Pamela Brown) in their crumbling old house in England. Neal starts to fall for him (despite their age difference)...but she's not aware of what he does when he goes out alone every night...

Spooky little horror film. When I first saw it it was edited for TV so there were some unexplained pieces (like a bit about something that happened to him as a child which explains what he does as an adult) and, I assumed the violence was gone. I was finally able to see the entire uncut film and loved it! It wasn't a blood and guts horror movie--it's an excellent psychological horror. In fact the two violent acts in it aren't even shown! It concentrates on Billy and Maura and their feelings and thoughts. Clay and Neal are such great actors that just their expressions tell you what they're feeling. The growing romance between them was touching and believable. Also there's an excellent score and the ending was a stunner! This film has an R rating for some dialogue and a lengthy nude sequence with Clay. Well worth catching just for Clay and Neal.

This movie is available on DVD through the made to order system with the Warner Brothers Archive Collection. It's complete and the transfer is pristine. Well worth getting. It might disturb you but you'll never forget it. Avoid the cut version on TCM.

The Road Builder is sadly not very well known, and that's a shame because this psychological thriller is a real gem and would certainly benefit from being more widely seen. The film is based on a book by Joy Cowley, although there were apparently some changes made to the story (I don't know what since I've not read the book). One of the more surprising things about this film is the fact that the screenplay was written by popular children's author Roald Dahl, although clearly he did also have a taste for the macabre if Tales of the Unexpected as well as his children's book 'The Witches' are anything to go by. The film is a strange love story at heart and we focus on a house inhabited by an old spinster and her middle aged daughter Maura. Their lives are changed one day when a young stranger on a motorbike turns up and they agree to let him stay. The young man becomes a popular figure in the house rather quickly, especially with Maura. However, there's something strange about him as evidenced by his sudden bursts of depression, apparently owing to the tragic death of his parents.

Most of the plot takes place in a grandiose mansion and it makes for a really good location for the movie - it's very isolated and is nice to look at. The atmosphere is very good throughout and this excellently compliments the plot which is thoroughly dark and largely unpleasant. The plot doesn't move particularly quickly, but it's always interesting thanks to the way that the characters are built up progressively and director Alastair Reid focuses on their relationship with one another. The acting is very good and the film stars Roald Dahl's then wife Patricia Neal in the lead role. She gets on well with the other two main players, Pamela Brown and Nicholas Clay and these actors help to ensure that the film works well. There's not a great deal of shocking moments, but the way that the unpleasant happenings are handled works very well as it's nasty yet completely believable. It all boils down to a very good ending and The Road Builder is certainly a film with a 'sting in the tail'. Overall, I really hope this gets a decent release soon because it's a great thriller and well worth seeing!

Stars Oscar winning Patricia Neal and Nick Clay. Maura Prince (Neal) and her domineering mother hire handyman Jarvis (Clay), but he turns out to be MUCH more than they bargained for. Produced by the british office of MGM. It's so violent, that it received an X rating in its home country, but only got an "R" in the U.S. very adult subject matter... not for the young'uns. Clearly, there's already conflict between Maura and her mother, and having a man in the house only amplifies the stress between mother and daughter. when local girls start disappearing, everyone is scared, and not sure what to do. Directed by Brit Alastair Reid... didn't do anything too magnanimous; mostly television shows. Sadly, Clay died quite young of cancer. Story by Joy Cowley, who had several of her works made into films. its pretty good. a bit dated, at this point.

I feel this could of been so much better if only a little more mystery or something was added. It was missing that sense of danger or dread that is needed to create that emotional excitement you get from a horror. This is a story about an elderly blind woman (Pamala Brown) who has a live-in helper gal (Patricia Neal) whom she adopted when she was just a girl. She decides to hire another live-in helper, this time a handyman to work the garden. Unbeknownst to them Billy's a serial killer. I didn't like the actor Nicolas Clay who played Billy. A serial killer should come across as scary, mentally ill, mean, or abnormally nice - something off -but he didn't show anything characteristics like that. Nothing even sinister when he attacks. Bad actor. Another problem is that all the women he kills are strangers. We don't know them so there's no attachment, no feeling of loss. This is a 70's film & the murders aren't shown. There's no violence or blood & Nicholas isn't scary, he's a dud. You could care less about them. I felt more emotion from the blind woman's ill treatment of her step daughter than I did from anything Billy does. I see the potential of this movie & am so mad it seems like it could of easily been upped a notch to raise more anxiety or up the fear in the murder scenes or to get more emotional investment in the characters. The best scenes were those with actress Patricia Neal. She was by far the star.

Road Builder/Night Digger owns more than a little of its story line to the movie "Night Must Fall" which as been filmed twice. Roald Dahl adapted the screenplay from the novel Nest from a Fallen Tree for his wife Patricia Neal to star in and she gives her usual fine performance in spinster role. Clay is believable as believable as Billy Jarvis the handsome, charming, but odd ball handyman who works his way into the household. Pamela Brown is well cast as Neal's blind, bitter and bullying mother. Hard to follow because of some sloppy editing and some pedestrian directing by normally reliable Alastair Reed, the movie is one of those could have been a real chiller but it misses the mark with too many slow scenes. It does not maintain an air of suspense and there is very little tension as the story unfolds and leads to a disappointing ending.Bernard Herrmann's score is unmemorable and doesn't add much to the proceedings.. Worth watching for Neal and Brown's performance but be prepared to be let down by the ending

Many people will say that this film was a botch up job of Joy Cowley's novel, but they would be wrong.

While I have to admit that the type of filming they used in the 70's is not among my favourite, it worked well for this film because it gave you insight into how each character saw things.

Patricia Niel was perfect as the spinster who was stuck caring for her blind and horrid adoptive mother, and who slowly but surely becomes sexually aware of the young drifter, played by Nicholas Clay.

Some parts of the film are vaguely confusing, but one comes to grasp them after rolling the idea around in ones mind for a while.

This film was very well done for an era that produced some awful movies that completely butchered famous books, and used skin instead of actual acting to portray a film.

The Night Digger aka Road Runner is a very watchable film, that sneaks up on you rather than attacks you head on like some psychological thrillers do.

The only above-the-line acting credit belongs to Patricia Neal, wife of this film's screenwriter, Roald Dahl. Neal is the foster daughter of a tyrant, "Mother," (Pamela Brown) and lives very much under her thumb. When a handsome young man (Nicholas Clay) appears, to assume the duties of a live-in gardener/handyman, she's required to surrender her room. His true vocation is revealed, accompanied by some fine suspense music from Bernard Herrmann. Although he provided uplift to many mediocre movies, as well as great ones, it was not enough to nudge this above the B level. Released three months after "The Night Visitor," it sped into an early grave.

'The Night Digger' is a resolutely creepy, faintly sordid, unusually perverse, hugely atmospheric 70s British chiller, and yet, for reasons obscure, it still remains a surprisingly little-seen shocker! Alastair Reid's tantalizingly weird psychodrama colourfully centres upon the altogether wicked travails of a youthful, initially personable handy man Billy Jarvis (Nicholas Clay). Outwardly a kindly, diligent, softly spoken young chap, yet once finished with his roof repairs, the duplicitous pretty boy Billy evilly exposes himself to be a craven sex killer! The sinisterly scheming protagonist Jarvis is brought to vivid life with a darkly compelling performance by the enigmatic, distractingly handsome actor Nicholas Clay.

The able director Alastair Reid effectively utilizes mordant splashes of Joe Orton-esque humour, and dynamic Hollywood icon Patricia Neal is on fascinating form as downtrodden spinster Maura Prince. With fellow powerhouse Thespian Pamela Brown's no less muscular performance being little short of miraculous, fearlessly playing Patricia Neal's blind, abusive, over-zealous, wholly oppressive matriarch to the very hilt! I greatly enjoyed this off-beat melodrama almost as much as 'Our Mother's House', which shares a similarly eccentric undertone. And it would be entirely remiss of me if I didn't draw attention to the very fine score by maestro Bernard Herrmann. The exceedingly worthy cast also includes many British luminaries from the stage and screen: Yootha Joyce, Jean Anderson, Graham Crowden, and beloved national treasure Peter Sallis. Alastair Reid's earthy, eerily eccentric 'The Night Digger' aka 'The Road Builder'(1971) is an unfairly forgotten fright flick that is well worth digging out! Horror fans might also care to note that the entertaining text is by the legendary scrivener Roald Dahl.

The movie has some messy storytelling and most of the elements in the movie don't really work out.

This movie certainly isn't a terribly interesting to watch. It's a bit of a psychological thriller but it isn't scary, tense or compelling enough to call it a good one. It has a good concept but the end result is pretty disappointing.

Main reason why the movie is a bit of a failed one is because of the weak storytelling. Most of the elements in the movie feel very muddled, especially the ending and at times it takes ages before something really interesting to happen in the movie. It isn't exactly a dull movie though, it's more like an uninteresting one, even though the story itself really isn't a bad one.

The characters are portrayed nicely in the story but to be frank, they were to boring and distant to feel for. Patricia Neal, who also had a stroke in real life, prior to this movie, is a good leading lady and also good was Nicholas Clay in his very first movie appearance. He does provide the movie with some good moments but it all simply is not enough to make the movie interesting and recommendable enough.

From a movie with Patricia Neal, Roald Dahl and Bernard Herrmann involved, some more fireworks was to be expected.

4/10

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As others have said, this movie was written by British poet/author Roald Dahl as a vehicle for his wife, American actress Patricia Neal. (I thought of it recently after seeing a similar American movie "Happy Mother's Day, Love George" that featured Neal and the couple's real-life daughter Tess Dahl). The basic story is pretty good. Neal plays a lonely spinster whose domineering mother rents a room to a traveling road worker (Nicholas Clay), and Neal's character finds herself drawn to the handsome, younger man, unaware that he might be a serial killer who has buried a string of female victims along the road he is building. . .

This definitely works as a vehicle for Neal, who is probably most famous for the Paul Newman movie "Hud" (even though her character in that was supposed to have been African-American, but such a thing would have simply been too incendiary in the early 1960's). She is very good in this. Unfortunately, she doesn't get a lot of help. Nicholas Clay would later play Lancelot in "Excalibur" and appear with an all-star cast in Agatha Christie's "Evil Under the Sun", but he was just too inexperienced here. For whatever reason, there was a plethora of handsome but psychotic young men in British movies at this time, and this role might have been better played by another "handsome young psycho" actor like Shane Bryant or Hywell Bennett (although neither of them might have been very convincing as a roughneck construction worker). If it have been made a decade or so earlier though, it would have been a PERFECT role for a young Oliver Reed.

The directing is also a little flat generally, but the first murder (following a motorcycle ride) is pretty inspired. The Bernard Hermann score is not one of his best, but it does add SOMETHING to the proceedings. This isn't great, but it certainly deserves to be more widely seen.

If you know me you know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Patty Neal and all that she has done. But of all her fine films, this role of hers wins out over all the rest. If you'd asked me a few years ago I would not have thought so, but I watched this film again recently, and while her acting may be a bit different and some would say subdued in this picture, for lack of a better term, I think that it just shows that she really gave it her all in this role. A truly remarkable performance and one for the ages. Thank you, Patrician Neal.

Patricia Neal always brings two attributes to her film performances: honesty and integrity--both of which work wonders for this derivative, somewhat moldy tale of a spinster, living under the thumb of her half-blind adoptive mother, who blossoms in love and independence with a 20-year-old handyman in rural England. The film, sort of a character study-cum-suspense melodrama, isn't an attractive showcase for Neal, yet she gives the scenario a hearty touch and her unmistakable stamp of dry wit. Neal's then-husband Roald Dahl adapted his screenplay from Joy Cowley's novel "Nest in a Falling Tree", pushing some of the kinkier aspects of the plot a bit far for a blue-haired thriller. Nevertheless, a visually perceptive and intriguing little movie that almost stays the course until the final act, which comes completely apart. Released under two different titles (also "The Road Builder"), though barely seen by anybody until the advent of cable movie channels. ** from ****