Creepy, hugely atmospheric and surprisingly little-known British pot boiler concerning the wicked travails of a rather personable, youthful handy man; a soft spoken soul who once finished with his diligent roof repairs reveals himself to be a demented sex killer (Brilliantly played by a handsome and enigmatic Nicholas Clay). The director makes especially effective use of dark splashes of humor, and Hollywood icon Patricia Neal is an absolute delight. Pamela Brown's muscular performance is little short of stupendous; playing Patricia Neal's blind, abusive, over- zealous, wholly oppressive matriarch to the hilt! (I enjoyed this ballsy melodrama almost as much as 'The Fiend' with which it shares a similarly grim narrative, albeit with far less black humor) It would be entirely remiss of me in not mentioning the fine music of maestro Bernard Herrman. (As a prurient aside I never quite realized that Bridgit Forsyth had such a killer rack, if you will excuse the appalling pun)

As others have said, this movie was written by British poet/author Roald Dahl as a vehicle for his wife, American actress Patricia Neal. (I thought of it recently after seeing a similar American movie "Happy Mother's Day, Love George" that featured Neal and the couple's real-life daughter Tess Dahl). The basic story is pretty good. Neal plays a lonely spinster whose domineering mother rents a room to a traveling road worker (Nicholas Clay), and Neal's character finds herself drawn to the handsome, younger man, unaware that he might be a serial killer who has buried a string of female victims along the road he is building. . .This definitely works as a vehicle for Neal, who is probably most famous for the Paul Newman movie "Hud" (even though her character in that was supposed to have been African-American, but such a thing would have simply been too incendiary in the early 1960's). She is very good in this. Unfortunately, she doesn't get a lot of help. Nicholas Clay would later play Lancelot in "Excalibur" and appear with an all-star cast in Agatha Christie's "Evil Under the Sun", but he was just too inexperienced here. For whatever reason, there was a plethora of handsome but psychotic young men in British movies at this time, and this role might have been better played by another "handsome young psycho" actor like Shane Bryant or Hywell Bennett (although neither of them might have been very convincing as a roughneck construction worker). If it have been made a decade or so earlier though, it would have been a PERFECT role for a young Oliver Reed.The directing is also a little flat generally, but the first murder (following a motorcycle ride) is pretty inspired. The Bernard Hermann score is not one of his best, but it does add SOMETHING to the proceedings. This isn't great, but it certainly deserves to be more widely seen.

The film apparently went under two titles: "The Night Digger" and "The Road Builder." I caught this film on Turner Classic Movies recently. I have always been a big Patricia Neal fan. The film was released in 1971, a tough time for actors like Neal from the "golden age of Hollywood." The times were changing fast, and film was going right with them. Middle-aged actors like Neal often had trouble finding film work, as producers and studios were catering to much younger audiences. Anyway, the story revolves around Maura (Patricia Neal) a spinster whose life revolves taking care of her domineering blind mother Edith (Pamela Brown)in a decaying England mansion. Enter a handsome handyman named Billy (Nicholas Clay) to turn their world upside down. Billy is quite a disturbed young man with a small problem: murdering women! We are given only small clues as to what turned him into such a maniac, seen in somewhat confusing flashbacks. Maura falls for Billy, despite the obvious age difference. We learn she probably eventually catches on to what he is doing, although she never really says so. The performances are good in this film. I loved Neal especially, she portrays the dowdy Maura with her usual intelligence and natural abilities. Pamela Brown as the overbearing mother is also effective. As to the young actor Nicholas Clay, he is wonderfully creepy as the the seriously disturbed murderer. The big problems with the film are the script and the obvious lack of a budget to make this film more credible. The script was written by Roald Dahl, Patricia Neal's husband of that time. Apparently the back story is Neal did not really want to do the film, but Dahl wrote it for her. The story has some confusing gaps, and the last 15 minutes or so of the film is just downright ridiculous and tough to believe. This is a case of good actors stuck in a mediocre film that could have been a more worthy one.

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.