The Frame

Before author Graham Greene and director Carol Reed teamed up for the magnificent The Third Man, they did this smaller, but still quite good, suspense film. The “idol” of the title is butler Ralph Richardson, who works for an ambassador’s family in London; the idolizer is the ambassador’s little son. Bates is the boy’s only real friend and protector from Mrs. Bates, who runs an extremely strict household. Bates would also like to get out from under Mrs. Bates’ thumb, especially since he’s fallen in love with another woman. The interesting thing about the film is that the bulk of the story is very adult, dealing with adultery, divorce, and eventually perhaps murder, but it’s told almost entirely from the boy’s perspective. He doesn’t really understand everything that’s going on (much of which he overhears in fragments through cracked doors and one-sided telephone calls), which places the audience in a position to see what is a fairly conventional story from a fresh perspective.
Well Above Average