The Night Digger

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.

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.

Patricia Neal+Bernard Herrmann + Neal's husband Dahl.Plus Pamela Brown and Nicholas Clay.It does make a decent film,it does not make the classic thriller we could have expected .

Neala nd her mother ("you could have got married when you were YOUNG" said Clay to an infuriated Neal).A spinster who lives with her over possessive mother ,Neal's character recalls Nell's past in Shirley Jackson's "the haunting" (masterfully transferred to the screen by Robert Wise,then butchered some years ago).A good thing in the last minutes :the director does not show ,he lets us imagine what terrible thing happened .Today such a quality has become rare.

But if you have read Dahl's wonderful short stories ,you may be disappointed by his script,including pointless characters such as the minister and his wife who want to become a woman and a man respectively. Besides the two women's story and Nicholas Clay's do not hang very well.

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!

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."