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The Road Builder (1971)

Director: Alastair Reid

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2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Brown rules the roost in her rambling old mansion, gossiping with cronies about the vicar's (entirely imaginary) sex-change operation and visiting casual cruelties on her aging adopted daughter (Neal). Her other mistake is to hire personable itinerant Clay to look after the garden, when someone called the Travelling Maniac is on the loose. Starting as an analogue of Night Must Fall, Dahl's script segues fascinatingly into areas explored contemporaneously in Chabrol's Le Boucher. The contributions of Thomson, Pratt and Herrmann are exemplary, but Reid is the sort of plodding director something of this sort absolutely doesn't need. From the novel Nest in a Falling Tree by Joy Cowley.

Author: BBa 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

  • Mrs.O said...
    Posted on Oct 06 2009 19:39 I enjoyed this movie. It was suspensful and Billy was kinda creepy cute..If that is a term. The plot is great..
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  • JR said...
    Posted on Sep 30 2009 00:13 I enjoyed this film very much. The cast is excellent and the plot is thick with intrigue, mystery, and innuendo. A superior murder mystery as could only be filmed in Britain - where the buildings are old, the owners are eccentric, the weather grey, and though everyone is polite it seems that few have anyone elses' best interests at heart.
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Cast & crew

Director: Alastair Reid

Producer: Alan D Courtney, Norman S Powell

Cast: Patricia Neal, Nicholas Clay, Pamela Brown, Jean Anderson, Graham Crowden, Brigit Forsyth full cast

Duration: 102 mins


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