[1] It was adapted by Clive Exton from the 1961 nonfiction book Ten Rillington Place by Ludovic Kennedy (who also acted as technical advisor to the production) and produced by Leslie Linder and Martin Ransohoff.
The film dramatises the case of British serial killer John Christie, who committed many of his crimes in the titular London terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving his neighbour Timothy Evans.
He lures her to his flat at 10 Rillington Place by promising to cure her bronchitis with a "special mixture", then incapacitates her with Town Gas, strangles her with a piece of rope, and (it is implied) has sex with her corpse.
He buries her in his flat block's communal garden, and whilst digging the grave he accidentally uncovers Ruth Fuerst, one of his previous victims.
In 1949, Tim and Beryl Evans move into 10 Rillington Place, west London, with their infant daughter Geraldine.
When confronted by his relatives, Tim pretends Beryl had run away with a rich man and then visits the local police station.
The film ends with an intertitle explaining that Christie was hanged and Tim Evans was posthumously pardoned and reinterred in consecrated ground.
[2] In 1954, the year after Christie's execution, Rillington Place in Notting Hill, west London, was renamed Ruston Close, but number 10 continued to be occupied.
King is reported to have said he was often woken in the night sensing an oppressive, dark energy of a woman in the room; he bought incense in an attempt to cleanse number 10.
[citation needed] Richard Attenborough was offered the lead by Leslie Linder while preparing his film Young Winston.
As Johnny Redway’s ex-partner, he was an agent, and he was also a restaurateur: at the same time he was an impresario, a film producer, a keep-fit fiend, and a man bursting with creative ideas."
[3] Producer Leslie Linder called the movie "an anti capital punishment film" and was not worried by polls that said the majority of British people wanted to bring hanging back.
[4] Richard Fleischer said "The film we are making is basically a very exciting suspense-drama about characters who fascinate and elements that horrify.
Only Richard Attenborough filmed inside no.10 (the scene where London police officers lift the manhole in the street and Christie is seen looking out of the bay window).
Clive Exton's screenplay – based on Ludovic Kennedy's book – is neat and believable ...but Fleischer's direction is rather less discreet.
"[13] Variety's critic wrote: "Richard Fleischer has turned out an authenticated documentary-feature which is an absorbing and disturbing picture.
Praise went to John Hurt for his "remarkably subtle and fascinating performance as the bewildered young man who plays into the hands of both the murderer and the police.
"[14] Vincent Canby of The New York Times described 10 Rillington Place as "a solemn, earnest polemic of a movie, one with very little vulgar suspense ...
"[15] In a 2009 review, J. Hoberman of The Village Voice wrote: "More highly regarded these days than when it was released in 1971, Richard Fleischer's 10 Rillington Place is a grimly efficient treatment of a once-notorious case".