The Night Digger

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.

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-*-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 ****

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.

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.

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.

A fairly engrossing thriller directed by Alastair Reid with a script by Roald Dahl. Patricia Neal lives in a decaying mansion with her blind mother (Pamela Brown). One day a young man shows up intent on working for the ladies as a handyman. He's that and a whole lot more, as Neal slowly realizes. The movie builds its suspense at a very deliberate pace, but it's very worthwhile. Neal is electrifying as a middle-aged wreck who realizes too late that she's given up the best years of her life to her domineering mother. The always interesting Brown is every inch Neal's equal in a rare starring role. They both have A LOT of baggage. Nicholas Clay is the title character and he comes across like a young version of Alan Bates, surly and not too well spoken. Dahl's script is deceptively witty, full of a bunch of off-beat touches. Bernard Hermann's score is suitably creepy. THE NIGHT DIGGER (aka THE ROAD BUILDER) is a real treat.

Patricia Neal is a fine actress; but her accident (she nearly lost her life in a serious accident) generally ruined her career. I have now seen two of her films as a romantic lead that are completely unbelievable. This film and Hud have a great deal in common; both had a handsome lead star (Paul Newman) and this poor fellow who are supposed to be in love with Neal. I am so sorry, but Neal's romantic lead days were over the day she was involved in that accident. No one in their right mind believed for a second that Paul Newman was smitten with Neal in Hud; nor would anyone reasonably believe that a young, good-looking man would fall for a woman old enough to be his mother. This is just a pure female fantasy; nothing wrong with that, of course, but a fantasy, nevertheless. A film and role have to be believable; this one and the role she had in Hud were not. What a shame. There were so many worthier roles she could have tackled. Like the role of the blind woman, who did an excellent job.