The Fallen Idol

The Fallen Idol (1948) is a British psychological thriller you can watch online on iFILM — directed by Carol Reed, with Ralph Richardson and Michèle Morgan, from a screenplay Graham Greene adapted from his own short story. Eight-year-old Phillipe lives largely alone in the London embassy where his father serves as ambassador. The one person he truly loves is Baines, the household butler — steady, kind, a secret keeper.

When Baines's unhappy wife dies in a fall, Phillipe becomes the only witness. Desperate to protect the man he idolises, he tells the police what he thinks will help — and every well-meaning lie makes things worse. Reed frames it entirely from the child's eye level: we see what Phillipe sees, know only what he knows, and share his helpless certainty that he's about to destroy the one adult he trusts.

The film earned Academy Award nominations for Reed's direction and Greene's screenplay — two crafts working in lockstep. Richardson brings a quiet, clenched dread to Baines that a child can't decode, and that gap between what the boy believes and what the adults understand is where the film does all its damage. Stream The Fallen Idol (1948) online on iFILM.