Strange And Perverse

'The Night Digger' (aka 'The Road Builder') is an effective, atmospheric thriller in which a young man (Nicholas Clay) blags his way into a falling apart mansion in Windsor and forms relationships with the occupants, a downtrodden, middle aged spinster (Patricia Neal) and her blind, manipulative adoptive mother (Pamela Brown).

The young man is very handy around the house and garden but, as a school kid, he was traumatised by being unable to perform when sexually assaulted by some voracious, elderly gypsy ladies (yes, really), so now he's a sex case who uses a long leather strap to get his kicks, before killing and dumping the bodies of his female victims in the foundations of a motorway.   

With music by Bernard Hermann, 'The Night Digger' is actually rather good in a slightly slow way. Nice cast (including the ever barking Graham Crowden), and a fair few dark twists and turns courtesy of scriptwriter Roald Dahl (Neal's husband) make this an interesting tale of the (mostly) unexpected.